NBC Sports continues its preview of podcasts with the release of Beyond The Fairway, a golf series hosted by Doug Smith and Will Lowery. The pair of experienced mini-tours are the ideal spot where golf and popular culture collide while engaging seamlessly in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Ray Allen visitors to social media influencer Tisha Alyn in a serious discussion about existing social issues and problems.
NBC Sports was introduced to the podcast area in 2015 with only a handful of shows. Today, there are approximately 40 podcasts covering all major sports. In addition, the NBC Sports audio channel on SiriusXM was featured on the satellite radio service last month.
Black voices are obviously an underrepresented electorate in golf. As reported in a recent IS STORY, 177 of the PGA of America’s 29,000 golf pros are black and lately there are fewer African-American players on the PGA Tour than there. were in 1976, just fifteen years after the organization withdrew the clause — from its constitution.
“When you communicate about the implementation of diversity and inclusion through NBC, I never thought, in my craziest dreams, that they would communicate about you and me,” says Lowery, who participated in some seasons of the real Golf Channel series Big Break. to be co-amphitrion to Smith, who played golf at school in Florida A
“Look at all the pieces, relevance and old data, and the odds are opposed to two black voices communicating about the game of golf. It’s a dream come true for me to have a platform to communicate about golf on a network that celebrates it and it’s not just words in the air,” Smith said when I met him and Lowery.
“There’s one guy from Kentucky and another from Charlotte who combine to communicate about golf in a way that’s never been heard. Two voices that can provide a lens somewhere else in the game,” Smith adds.
Lowery and Smith have a round-trip friendship regularly reserved for school roommates or close siblings and that’s because they have a long history. They met during an APGA Tour practice circular at Chester Washington Golf Course in Los Angeles a decade ago. and have been united ever since, sharing rooms and rental cars while pursuing their dreams of professional golf.
“Will and I are not fake friends. We went through the trenches and sucked to go play this game on the PGA Tour. We are not just two guys who knew each other. We did it together. We collected our bank accounts and together we went – $ 200 to go out and play golf for money, “says Smith.
In addition to ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, Lowery refers to new York-based syndicated morning show The Breakfast Club, starring DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Angela Yee as a key inspiration for Beyond the Fairway.
“They have this original and original view of certain topics that can actually gain advantages for everyone who listens to them. They are apolitical and controversial, but they also take it home and cause the listener to attach it for the next episode. Lowery says.
When asked whether global golf as a whole has done a fair task given racism and exclusion beyond sport, the host’s responses differ.
“Sometimes I can forgive golf a little more, but I also take care of and pay attention to some of the golf models,” Lowery says. “I think the trend is for a higher position, but I can be pessimistic and say I think we can do more. Where we are, I hope we don’t avoid the momentum and drop the ball,” he added.
While Lowery has taken a more politically correct approach, Smith, who has been involved in conversations about diversity within the industry since 1998, offers a less sweet assessment: “I’m disappointed with golf in general. It’s the other people,” who are able to make the change. I don’t feel like there’s been enough proactivity. All I’ve noticed from my point of view is a reaction,” he says.
“I think it’s a farce that there are so many other people who can present this game that it can literally replace the course of this individual’s long-term career and that this game is so difficult,” Smith added.
Both hosts are perfect storytellers, intelligent and captivating, but it is their contagious frankness and honesty that makes the exhibition so audible and gives its prominent visitors the undeclared freedom to relax, be themselves and tell their truths.
Future visitors expected to appear on Beyond The Fairway this season come with The Hollywood A-listers in Don Cheadle and Cedric the Entertainer, as well as celebrity athletes such as 11-time Pro Bowler Larry Fitzgerald and all-time leader of Toronto Raptors, Kyle Lowry. Beyond The Fairway’s dream would be Barack Obama and they are in talks with the former president’s side so much that corners have crossed.
While the nascent display is lately a strategic advertising deal, NBC Sports’ sales team is on the market and has conversations with several potential sponsors.
“Our dream sponsor would be a company that stores similar concepts about how to carry culture in combination with age groups, sexual orientation groups, other ideals and needs of golf and its diversity,” Smith says.
I tell golf stories for a diverse consumer list that includes everything from onboard magazines to tourist event systems for about twenty years.
I tell golf stories for a diverse list of consumers that includes everything from onboard magazines to tourist event systems for almost twenty years. My firms have landed in Maxim, Atlanta Magazine, Charlotte Magazine, Fatherly. com, Islands. com, Orbitz. com, Esquire. com, The Globe