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A Pro Golf Event Is Using an AI Commentator for the First Time, and It’s As Dreadful As It Sounds

Andy Nesbitt|
The New Mexico Open is using an AI commentator named Duff Foreman on its broadcast this week.
The New Mexico Open is using an AI commentator named Duff Foreman on its broadcast this week. | @YouTube

The 2026 New Mexico Open is underway at the Turtleback Mountain Golf & Resort in Elephant Butte, N.M. This is normally a tournament that even the most golf sicko in your friend group wouldn’t even know was taking place, but that’s not the case this year.

And no, it’s not due to any of the players who are teeing it up in the 54-hole event that has a $100,000 purse and is open to both professionals and amateurs.

Instead, it’s because of an AI commentator that is a part of the tournament’s broadcast. That’s right, this week Duff Foreman, a persona created for Gopher Hole Productions’ X-treme Golf, is one of three announcers featured on the daily broadcasts that are being streamed on YouTube and a few other online platforms.

So if you are worn out from constantly wondering if AI is going to not only eliminate your job but possibly one day lead to the extinction of the entire human race, you can now take a break from the real world and watch some golf where an AI persona will make you question everything even more.

How awesome and relaxing is that!?

Here’s an introduction to Duff Foreman, who sounds like all the other soulless AI personas you’ve heard before:

You can tell from that video that Duff Foreman means business and he’s ready to tell you everything he knows because he’s AI and he’s smarter than all of us. Or at least that’s how he come across.

So how does that look on the actual broadcast? You might be shocked by this but ... it’s even worse than you could imagine. Poor Notah Begay, a former PGA Tour player who is currently a part of NBC’s golf broadcasts, and Ryan Burr, a veteran golf announcer, are the two humans who have been forced to welcome Duff Foreman with open arms and treat him like a real person.

Here’s a moment from Monday’s broadcast in which Begay asked Duff Foreman for some of his picks this week. If you like awkward silences before being yelled at by an AI-generated guy with a bad Scottish accent then you will love this. If you’re a normal person, your stomach will turn and your concerns about our collective future will only grow.

Look, I’m all for trying new things with golf broadcasts. CBS has made incredible advancements in recent years with new technology and analytical insights and NBC, well, they have struggled a bit to keep up but they have been trying some new things as well.

But this Duff Foreman character is absolutely not it.

What makes this even worse is that Begay and Burr had to sound like they actually enjoyed working with this AI slop machine.

“I really had a great time working with him. I thought he worked very well into the show,” Begay said after the round. “It was very seamless and I’m looking forward to sort of elaborating on his role within our broadcast because I thought he definitely added some value to what we’re doing and it was a lot of fun.”

I guess Begay and I have different definitions of fun because the segments with Duff Foreman that I saw made me want to lay down in the corner and cry until dinner.

The one hope from all of this is that golf producers will realize that nobody who watches golf, or any sport for that matter, wants to see this happen again. Give us real human beings talking on TV about the golf we’re watching and leave these AI dorks the heck out of our lives.

The good news, at least, is I’m not alone in loathing this whole thing.

The world is crazy enough right now as it is. We don’t need any more Duff Foremans yelling at us while we just try to get away from it all.

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Andy Nesbitt
ANDY NESBITT

Andy Nesbitt is the assistant managing editor of audience engagement at Sports Illustrated. He works closely with the Breaking and Trending News team to shape SI’s daily coverage across all sports. A 20-year veteran of the sports media business, he has worked for Fox Sports, For the Win, The Boston Globe and NBC Sports, having joined SI in February 2023. Nesbitt is a golf fanatic who desperately wants to see the Super Bowl played on a Saturday night.

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