CBS analyst was immediately banned for life from the Masters for remark he made on commentary
A former CBA analyst was quickly banned from covering the Masters because of a controversial comment made while commentating.
On Thursday, arguably the biggest event in the golf calendar gets underway as the Masters begins at the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia.
Sky Sports hold the broadcasting rights to the prestigious competition in the UK, while CBS Sports lead the coverage in the USA.
However, the American television network will be without one of their former analysts after he was immediately banned from covering the competition after making a series of controversial comments on commentary.
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Former pro golfer and outspoken pundit Gary McCord became a golf analyst CBS in 1986 and quickly unsettled members of the Augusta National Golf Club by mentioned the 'cheap seats' at the 14th hole.
But it was what he said eight years later that saw the prestigious club hand McCord a ban which has stayed in place for over 30 years.
Explaining what happened while speaking on his Off Their Rockers, McCord said: “You just have to rewrite the cliches.
“Olazabal asked his caddy about what the next shot is. Pin is back right on the last day.
“I said the caddie, his brother, is telling him, ‘Don’t hit it over the green because there’s body bags down there.’ Cliche, it’s a euphemism for, ‘He’s dead.’ That’s it, no big deal."
McCord continued, explaining that before making the controversial comments, he had been reading a magazine that advertised a beauty salon near his hometown in California.
“I put magazines up there with me. All I do is read, I get words, I ingest words into my head. Any word," the analyst said.
“I looked down during a commercial break and I see the Golden Door, Escondido, California, I live there it’s expensive.
“I’m looking at the menu of what the girls get - cucumbers on their eyes, seaweed wraps and bikini waxes.
“As you know at Augusta, the one thing they are definitely afraid of is the speed of the greens.
“Jose hits it over to the left and he’s got to putt over to the right and it’s just faster than hell.
“I said, ‘This putt that Jose’s got here is really, really delicate. Once he gets to the top of that hill, it’s a speed freak all the way down. In fact, I don’t think they mow these greens, I think they bikini wax them.”
The line was initially met with laughter by his co-commentators, and has since become an iconic piece of commentary from The Masters, but Augusta National members were not happy.
Just days after the competition ended, McCord was called into a meeting and shown a handwritten letter sent to the golf club from former Masters champ Tom Watson calling for McCord's “eradication”.
Unfortunately for the pundit, Augusta National obliged, and months later it was officially confirmed that he had been banned from attending the club, meaning he could no longer cover the beloved competition for CBS.
Topics: Golf, CBS Sports
Ben McCrum