Jim Nantz has one of the most enviable jobs in the world, but even the biggest sports fans had to feel bad for the CBS announcer during Super Bowl LIII. After all, Nantz had to stay focused on that 13-to-3 snoozefest while the rest of us turned to critiquing commercials and stuffing our faces to pass the time before the inevitable Patriots win.
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Of course, Nantz and booth partner Tony Romo did their best to make the game sound exciting, but just a few days later, the tireless broadcaster found plenty to get fired up about while doing play-by-play at Pebble Beach for a charity par 3 contest. The event wasn't on national TV and the crowd was small, but by the sound of Nantz's voice, you would have thought he was calling a Sunday back-nine duel at the Masters between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. Listen to how into it Jim gets after Train lead singer Pat Monahan sticks one close on Pebble's 17th hole:
"Wow! Was that some action!" Nantz says. Actually, it really was. Props to Pat Monahan.
Then it was Alfonso Ribeiro's turn to showoff some serious backspin by calling his shot:
"OH! What a shot! What a call!"
You could picture Nantz offering a similar reaction if Phil sliced one around the pines on No. 15 at Augusta National to set up a tap-in eagle during the final round. And finally, Nantz gets especially amped for Rascal Flatts' Joe Don Rooney nearly making a hole-in-one:
"OH, MY GOODNESS!" We certainly didn't hear much of that when either offense had the ball on Sunday. By the way, sick effort, Rams.
Anyway, Colt Ford wound up winning the contest on the eve of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but Nantz was the clear star. The guy is in peak form and we still have two months until the Masters.
And it's possible he wasn't just juiced up to see some high-quality (celebrity) golf because the Big Game was such a big letdown. After all, he lives within walking distance of Pebble Beach so this is always one of his favorite weeks of the year. Plus, he was honored with a Golf Digest Arnie Award on Tuesday night.
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Nantz has also been known to call the action when people play his backyard replica of Pebble Beach's par-3 7th, and he can make even a tour pro's practice round sound exciting. So while we're inclined to say he should save some of this gusto for Augusta, that's just not Jim's style. He'll have plenty in the tank come April.