Smylie Kaufman’s journey from lost golfer to TV natural
By RON GREEN JR.
JUPITER, FLORIDA | It’s rehearsal night in advance of the inaugural Golf Channel Games at Trump National Golf Club Jupiter, an elaborate and sometimes charmingly chaotic made-for-television skills competition featuring Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler with Smylie Kaufman there to be Smylie Kaufman.
It is a cool and breezy December evening when the elaborate lighting system is being tested, the format is being explained and Kaufman, an integral part of the broadcast team, is playing relay golf with fellow announcers Johnson Wagner, Brad Faxon and Keith Mitchell to give the television crew a sense of what is coming the next night.
The goal is for four players to play a hole as quickly – and in as few strokes – as possible. Mitchell hits the tee shot on the par-4 first hole, the ball disappearing into the night sky before suddenly reappearing just before landing, Johnson scurries over to hit the approach shot, Faxon plays the third shot at the green and Kaufman, his hoodie flapping as he runs, begs the ball to stop rolling as he hustles over to make the par putt, all in under 40 seconds.
They are like kids on the clock in a frenetic Easter egg hunt with similar energy and laughter and Kaufman, by nature, is at the heart of it, high-fiving Faxon when they get the ball in the hole. One night later, Kaufman will be on camera, providing color commentary while shuttling players from spot to spot in a golf cart, spanning the two sides of his professional career.
“I think I knew, like, within the first two or three days, that [broadcasting] is something that I wanted to pursue. I knew that this was like a calling. I just didn’t know how or why, because I felt like I could do it. It was natural,” Kaufman explains that evening, sitting at a small table in the ornate clubhouse, during a break in his prep work.
A decade ago, Kaufman might have been one of the eight players participating in the Golf Channel Games, his golf star ascending after a late-blooming college career at Louisiana State but that was, at least in career terms, a lifetime ago.