Golf
Apologies to Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, but LIV Golf Finally Hired Someone We’d Watch
John Moriello started covering sports in 1982, began digital publishing in 1995, and joined Sports7 in 2020. A graduate of St. John Fisher University, he finds inspiration in the underdogs and the fascinating stories sports can tell (both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat). John expertly covers all aspects of NASCAR. Beginning with his 2014 coverage at Fox Sports of the aftermath of the dirt-race tragedy in which Kevin Ward Jr. died after being struck by a car driven by NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart, John has excelled as a journalist who specializes in the motorsports world. He previously spent more than three decades covering high school sports and worked as a beat writer covering Big East football and basketball, but NASCAR is now where the true expertise falls. John is a member of the New York State Basketball Hall of Fame (2013), the President of the New York State Sportswriters Association, and a two-time Best of Gannett winner for print and online collaborations whose work has appeared on FoxSports.com and MaxPreps.com.
Get to know John Moriello betterUpdated19 Jul 2022
While it remains to be seen whether LIV Golf czar Greg Norman can reel in Cameron Smith, the Great White Shark has landed someone who possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the newly crowned British Open and anyone else who matters in men’s golf.
Star analyst David Feherty is leaving NBC coverage of the PGA Tour to cover LIV Golf action, the New York Post reported.
David Feherty and televised golf have become synonymous
David Feherty, 63, has been broadcasting golf on major networks since the year Tiger Woods started winning major tournaments. He joined CBS in 1997 and moved to NBC in 2016. Additionally, his decade-long Feherty show on Golf Channel began airing in 2011.
The Northern Ireland native’s go-to move, whether covering PGA Tour tournaments from the ground or up in the booth, has been delivering much-needed irreverence to an at-times stuffy and sleep-inducing sport. Television viewers will miss that as Feherty departs for LIV Golf, which has been streaming its first-year tournaments in lieu of a network deal.
NBC will certainly miss that.
“We thank David for his numerous contributions to Golf Channel and NBC Sports’ golf coverage for more than a decade, and we wish him well in the future,” a spokesperson told Golf Digest.
LIV Golf spawns new rumors on a nearly daily basis
The David Feherty hiring, unconfirmed as of Monday night, took some of the attention away from what has become daily drama over which PGA Tour star will be next to jump to LIV Golf.
Feherty traveled across the Atlantic over the weekend to cover the British Open, won by Australian star Cameron Smith. Countryman Greg Norman tweeted his congratulations, and speculation immediately ramped up that Smith could be next on the list of golfers to jump to the upstart tour.
Smith was already trying to shut down the speculation. “I just won the British Open and you’re asking about that?” he told reporters. “I think that’s, pretty, not that good.”
Meanwhile, the New York Post reported LIV Golf is interested in bringing Charles Barkley into its broadcast booth, which would come off as gimmicky. With the witty and knowledgeable Feherty now in the fold, Barkley should reconsider taking a meeting with Norman since Feherty could probably speak more intelligently about the NBA than Barkley could about golf.
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