Highly-respected SKY Sports Golf analyst Paul McGinley is headed to the Bahamas this week with the possibility of landing the coveted and currently vacant lead analyst role with US TV giant NBC.
The Sunday Irish Independent reports McGinley has accepted an invitation to be the lead TV analyst at this week’s Hero World Challenge, and if the soon-to-be 57-year-old Dubliner should tick all the required boxes he’ll be PGA Tour bound from early next year.
This key role with NBC has been vacant since this year’s Ryder Cup when the giant American network chose only to send a technical crew to Rome and where Paul Azinger had been due to call the action in the Italian capital.
It’s understood NBC and Azinger’s manager had been in discussions over a new contract, however, when the former PGA Championship winner’s manager spoke of an increase, NBC were planning to cut back his salary, and leading to ‘Zinger’s’ manager declining the new offer thus in consultation with Azinger ending his role with NBC.
Azinger had also been exepected behind the desk working at this week’s Tiger Woods hosted event and instead McGinley will fill the role.
McGinley’s no stranger behind the NBC desk having worked well with NBC host Dan Hicks and analyst Curt Byrum.
There’s also McGinley’s popular “Live At” section at the NBC run The Golf Channel where he works alongide Rich Lerner and highly-outspoken Brandel Chamblee, while McGinley’s understood to be very happy to continue in those roles under the Comcast umbrella.
McGinley has been with SKY Sports Golf since June 2013 when the UK-based network announced McGinley would act as a SKY ambassador in the lead-up to his Ryder Cup captaincy at Gleneagles.
Since then, and also as McGinley now plays a very limited ‘inside the ropes’ schedule, his stature has grown so much that the Irishman has established himself as one of the finest and more-respected analysts in golf.
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