Watson, NBC Play Pressure Shots That Golf Doesn’t Need

As the golf world turns:

The very week we learned that a letter from Tom Watson played a role in getting CBS’ Gary McCord bumped off the Masters comes word from NBC that Dick Enberg will replace Jim Lampley in the 18th-hole tower next year.

The announcement was made Thursday in a conference call with reporters, and one of the questions directed at Tommy Roy, NBC’s executive producer of sports and coordinating producer of golf, was whether Watson had approved the change.

Both he and Enberg laughed, but neither commented.

So what’s the deal with Watson?

The letter he sent to CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian and Masters chairman Jackson Stephens complaining about McCord, circulated among fellow golf pros, was printed in the November issue of Golf Digest.

The letter ends: “(McCord) is the Howard Stern of TV golf and you (Chirkinian) should be ashamed, rather than champion his ‘irreverent’ behavior. Get rid of him, now.”

If McCord is the Howard Stern of golf, then Watson has suddenly become the Howard Cosell, an infamous back-stabber.

The really sad part is that Stephens acted on Watson’s letter. He got CBS, over Chirkinian’s protests, to take McCord off next year’s Masters.

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Although Golf World magazine had reported that Enberg might replace Lampley, Enberg said he is as surprised as anyone about his new assignment.

A non-golfer, Enberg said his role will be to personalize and humanize the game and that he will leave the analysis to partner Johnny Miller and others.

The others will include Lampley, who will become one of NBC’s course reporters.

This is the second major demotion this year for Lampley, who was replaced on “NFL Live” by Greg Gumbel.

To appease Lampley, NBC gave him a new contract, which, among other things, makes him the late-night host for the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta.

Roy explained the change by saying, “I look at this as if I were a head coach and wanted to get both players on the field at the same time. This is not a demotion for Jim, it is a change of roles. I wouldn’t try to read too much into this.”

However, there have been rumors that the U.S. Golf Assn., which recently awarded the U.S. Open to NBC, was not happy with Lampley and preferred Enberg.

So this could be a Gary McCord situation all over again, with the rights-holder telling the network what announcers are acceptable.

Said Enberg: “My golfing friends say what irritates them the most is an announcer who talks too much. I’ll certainly try not to do that.”

Lampley isn’t exactly known for succinctness. The USGA might prefer a Pat Summerall type, but it shouldn’t have a say in who announces any of its events, if indeed that was the case here.

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Enberg said the new assignment will mean only that he will have to give up his role as an NBA play-by-play announcer during the regular season. He will be able to keep everything else, and also work NBA playoff games. Gumbel and Tom Hammond will fill the void during the regular season.

Asked if he has ever played golf, Enberg said he tried it in his younger years.

“I didn’t have the temperament for it,” he said. “People who know me would be surprised at how I acted on the golf course. I think I still own the record of 158 feet for longest nine-iron throw at Balboa Golf Course in the San Fernando Valley.”

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Add golf: Because of football, we’re in the middle of a six-week lull of major golf. The last major competition was the Presidents Cup on CBS on Sept. 17-18, and the next will be the Tour Championship on ABC at the end of the month.

But NBC this weekend offers a made-for-TV golf event, the Skills Challenge, which was taped in Phoenix on Monday. It will be on Saturday after BYU-Notre Dame football and on Sunday after the Raiders-Miami Dolphins.

Included in the field is Chi Chi Rodriguez, who turns out to be the star of the event.

It has been quite a week for Rodriguez. On Monday, the Hilton Corp. gave him a lifetime achievement award and Wednesday he was named grand marshal of the Tournament of Roses parade.

TV-Radio Notes

Because ABC last summer locked in USC-Stanford for the West Coast, scheduling it to follow the Penn State-Michigan national telecast, the Prime Network ends up with possibly the Pacific 10’s game of the year--Arizona at Washington State. The two games will be going almost head to head. Arizona-Washington State begins at 3:30 p.m. on Prime Ticket, USC-Stanford at 4 on Channel 7. . . There will be eight live college football telecasts on Saturday and, yes, one Sunday--Texas at Rice on ESPN at 5 p.m. Because the baseball playoffs were supposed to be taking place this weekend, the NFL did not schedule a Sunday night game. That’s why the Cleveland Browns and Houston Oilers played Thursday night on TNT. ESPN, looking to fill the Sunday void, got Texas and Rice to move their game to Sunday. . . . ABC offers some attractive morning games on pay-per-view, highlighted by No. 1 Florida playing host to No. 9 Auburn. That game will also be carried on radio by XTRA, thanks to Malibu-based syndicator Radio Sports Creations.

Hockey, anyone? For those suffering without NHL hockey and needing a fix, ESPN will televise Game 7 of last season’s Stanley Cup finals between the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks today at 4:30 p.m. . . . Beginning Monday, Prime Ticket will televise all but four of the Kings’ playoff games from two years ago, when they made it to the finals. The four games Prime Ticket won’t carry are four that were televised by ABC. Prime Ticket will use the games to fill in where King or Mighty Duck telecasts had been scheduled. . . . Prime Ticket offers a live baseball telecast Wednesday at 7 p.m.--the Scottsdale Scorpions, featuring Michael Jordan, against the Sun Cities Solar Sox in an Arizona Fall League game.

Ratings game: The NFL is enjoying the benefits of no baseball or hockey. After six weeks, NBC is up 22%, from 9.5 at this point last year to 11.6, and holds an advantage over the NFC for the first time in 15 years. Fox’s average rating for the NFC package is 11.3, the same as CBS had at this point last year. ABC is up from 17.6 to 17.8, its highest rating after six weeks since 1986. TNT’s average rating is up 16% from 7.6 to 8.8. . . . Fox is beating NBC in the battle of the pregame shows. The Fox show is averaging a 4.4, with the second half-hour averaging a 5.1. NBC’s half-hour show is averaging a 3.7. CBS’ “NFL Today” had an average rating of 4.6 after six weeks last year. . . . Last Sunday, the Raider-New England game on Channel 4 got an L.A. rating of 18.7, the Rams-Green Bay on Fox got a 10.8. The early game on NBC, Miami vs. Buffalo, got an 8.9.

Although KMPC has remained ranked 31st among L.A. radio stations despite a change in formats, afternoon drive-time host Tom Leykis faxed along several pages of numbers to point out audience sizes are up. The overall audience is up 26%, and in men 25-54 the increase is up 46%. . . . After an unexplained one-week hiatus, Joe McDonell is back doing his 6-10 p.m. sports-talk show for KMPC. . . . Oops department: XTRA’s Jim Rome, interviewing Charger defensive tackle Shawn Lee Thursday, asked him about coming over from the Arizona Cardinals this year. Said Lee: “That’s (defensive tackle) Reuben Davis; I’m Shawn Lee and I’ve been here three years.” . . . On his KIEV show tonight at 6:15, Irv Kaze will do a special on woman sportswriters. His guests will be Maryann Hudson of The Times, Miki Turner of the Orange County Register and Elizabeth Cosin and Ron Rapoport of the Daily News. Rapoport wrote a book about woman sportswriters entitled “A Kind of Grace.”

Prime Ticket moves: Tom Morris, a 1979 USC graduate, has been promoted to vice president of sales. He replaces Mike Kincaid, who was promoted to head of sales for Liberty Sports, Prime Ticket’s new parent company. Also, Nick Rhodes, Prime Ticket’s executive vice president of business development, earlier left the company to rejoin Roger Werner, former Prime Ticket president, at the newly formed company of Daniels Programming Ventures in Beverly Hills. Executive assistant Nancy Caldwell also went with Werner.

Michele Tafoya, hired by CBS as a reporter and host for CBS’ “Eye on Sports,” comes from KFAN radio in Minneapolis, where she was a Viking sideline reporter. She is from Manhattan Beach and has a master’s degree in business administration from USC. . . . CBS ski commentator Andy Mill, who is also a contributing editor to Men’s Journal magazine, will be inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in Denver today.

Sports Illustrated Television and ABC have renewed their agreement in which SITV supplies segments for “Wide World of Sports.” There will be 23 next year, up from this year’s 14. . . . Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will make a guest appearance on NBC’s “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Monday night. . . . ESPN will televise the fourth and fifth races live from the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita on Saturday. Coverage begins at 2 p.m. . . . ESPN will televise U.S. National Air Championships Saturday at 10:30 p.m. The event was taped Sept. 18 in Reno. Alan Preston and David Price, two racers for the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, finished first and second.