Jim Nantz is starting his 40th (!) year broadcasting golf at CBS with this bold prediction for the 2025 PGA Tour season

CBS Sports begins its 68th consecutive year broadcasting the PGA Tour this weekend with the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, which, in itself, is an “Eye”-popping figure, to borrow some network terminology. For nearly two-thirds of that run, Jim Nantz has been a mainstay in the network’s golf coverage.

Nantz, 65, will embark on his 40th year calling the sport, straddling the three eras marked by the trio who have serves as CBS’ golf producers—Frank Chirkinian, Lance Barrow and, since 2021, Sellers Shy. Nantz won’t be on site at Torrey Pines, calling the final two rounds Friday and Saturday instead from Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, where on Sunday he’ll offer play-by-play of the AFC Championship Game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills.

It's the fourth time Nantz will pull double duty contributing golf coverage from an NFL playoff site—and the third time in Kansas City—so the challenge is nothing new. But it says something that he remains committed to his golf duties as he prepares for what he called, jokingly, “that little football game on Sunday night.”

Being a former college golfer at the University of Houston, where one of his roommates was eventual Masters champion Fred Couples, Nantz’s fidelity to the sport is unquestioned. “We all feel he's the voice of the sport. He lives and breathes golf,” said David Berson, who succeeded Sean McManus as CBS Sports president in April, during a conference call with Golf Digest on Tuesday. “His 40th season now, and I think no doubt [he’s] the best to ever do it.”

Nantz describes being a part of the CBS golf crew as “one of the great joys of my life.” Speaking from Orlando, Fla., where he also is making an appearance at the PGA Merchandise Show, the multiple Emmy Award winner noted: “You know how I feel about the people I work with, being a part of the tapestry of a time-honored tradition, a standard for excellence that CBS has stood for for generations. I feel like I've connected some of those generations now that I'm at 40 years, going back to Chirkinian and [Pat] Summerall and [Ken] Venturi.

“To have Frank and Lance and Sellers … our organization, if you will, is the Pittsburgh Steelers equivalent of only having three leaders on the sideline. And it's an awesome thing. There's a continuity and a chemistry and a care for one another that is unique, and through all that, there's pride and passion, the desire to go out the next day and do it better than we've ever done it before.”

Nantz has expressed a desire to call 50 Masters for CBS—he’ll also work his 40th this April—but he didn't feel an urge to look beyond the upcoming season. That’s not to suggest anything more than focusing on a year in which CBS will broadcast 19 events, including the Masters and PGA Championship from Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte.

"I'm not in a hurry when you get to be in your 60s. You don't rush your life along and hope for the next thing to hurry up and get here,” he said. “You want to savor the experience that I've got a magnificent week in front of me right now.”

Nantz will be in the booth the next week at Pebble Beach, where he has a home, but he laments not being able to return to venerable Riviera Country Club for the Genesis Invitational, the signature event hosted by Tiger Woods. The PGA Tour has announced that it plans to move the event, set for Feb. 13-16, because of the wildfires in the Los Angeles area. The new location has yet to be decided.

“Our hearts go out to everybody [in the L.A. community] and this is clearly the right decision. There's just no way that you can justify having a golf tournament with all the devastation that's right there in the area of the club itself,” Nantz said. “So, like everyone else, we're anxious to hear the new plan. I know it's going to be special wherever they go and I'm sure there'll be a lot of attention going back to the folks who need to be remembered and thought of as this tournament takes a new home for one year. I’m going to miss it.”

Nantz added a bold prediction, and it wasn’t about the AFC Championship game. TV ratings for PGA Tour telecasts were down in 2024. The voice of CBS golf anticipates a turnaround for the upcoming West Coast swing.

“I will say this … slam dunk of the year: I'm not a ratings crunchers type guy, but golf is going to come out of the West Coast on over the air network television, and it's going to be up guaranteed, OK? You just never know how it rolls out, but so often you get started with name champions. and I think we have rich storylines that are going to take place on this west coast, and we're going to be off and running. We're gonna be galloping.”