Jim Nantz Has a Masters Target in Mind: 51 Broadcasts
More Weekly Read: ‘Old Man’ Collin Morikawa Regrouping | What Will the PGA Tour’s Fall Be in 2023? | Playing Counts in Tweaked Player Impact Program | Fore! Things
When Jim Nantz calls the 2023 Masters from Augusta National, it will mark his 38th consecutive year behind a microphone for CBS Sports. His goal is to get to 51, which means 13 more years and will take him into his late 70s.
Why 51?
“I would like to do it 51 times, as bizarre as that sounds,’’ Nantz said last week on the Dan Patrick Show. “My 51st Masters would be the 100th playing of the Masters. And I’d like to be there to see the end of the first century. That’s just a little goal I have in the back of my head. I’m through 37 now, so 14 to go hopefully."
Jim Nantz, 63, has also called Final Fours and Super Bowls but said the Masters remains closest to his heart.
Gregory Payan/AP
Nantz, 63, recently said that the 2023 Final Four would be his last. He is also the lead announcer on CBS’ NFL coverage.
He worked his first Masters in 1986 at age 26 and manned the coverage from the 16th hole tower, where he beautifully set up the tee shot of Jack Nicklaus—along with analyst Tom Weiskopf.
Nantz once told CBS how nervous he was that day.
“I must confess that I was so nervous my tee where chattering involuntarily,’’ he said. I” was worried that the noise emanating from my clicking molars would be picked up by my open microphone."
All these years later, it remains special to him.
“The Masters, to me, is the thing that is the deepest in my heart,” he said on the Dan Patrick Show. “I’ve never chosen one sport as my favorite event to do but I think everyone knows that the Masters is something I feel a real personal tie to.
“It was the one event that when I was 11 years old I turned to my mom and dad and said, ‘that’s what I’d like to do someday, I’d like to be one of those voices. … I want to do that.’ And I’ve been so fortunate that I’m still living that childhood dream even into my 60s so, it’s been pretty amazing.”