Johnson was penalized two strokes for arriving late for his first-round tee time and explained to reporters that he was given bad information by his caddy. The caddy, Bobby Brown (no, not that one), took responsibility for his mistake. But after the round was over, Brown had some words for Gray about the reporter's attempt to ask Johnson about the penalty while the round was going.
The Golf Channel, perhaps sensing the potential of another dust-up like last year's Jim Gray-Corey Pavin feud, released a statement trying to nip things in the bud:
"Our aim is to provide the best possible golf coverage for our viewers. Anything else is a disservice. In order not to provide further distraction, we've decided to remove Jim from this particular assignment," Golf Channel spokesman Dan Higgins said.No doubt the network wants to avoid the embarrassment of having their reporter get snubbed on national TV, the Chad Curtis famously did Gray during the 1999 World Series. But it also leads you to wonder if Gray realizes how much he's continually torpedoing his own career. He was considered to be nothing but a shill after playing the patsy during LeBron James' "Decision".
Most fans consider sideline reporting jobs to be dubious at best. Much of their in-game reporting centers on checking on injuries and nearly all of that information is given by the teams' PR people.
Golf might be the one sport in which they still have major value. Unlike in the four major sports, there are no media relations reps to give in-round reports on the health of a particular golfer. They also have the ability to get to areas on the course that the announcers in the tower can't see and report on a player's lie, course conditions, slopes, angles, etc.
Fans have long since run out of patience with Gray. With his future at The Golf Channel now in question, you wonder how much longer networks are going to put up with his shenanigans.
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