NBC booth's wheel of misfortune

When will the Peacock settle on its golf broadcast team; Metraux, Ko soar while Korda, Boutier falter in Paris

Kevin Kisner will be back in the NBC booth for FedEx Cup Playoffs (Ben Jared/Getty Images)

Is it fair to ask when the revolving door at NBC Sports golf coverage stops?

There has been one fiasco after another. First, Gary Koch and Roger Maltbie left, or more accurately, got pushed out.

Then Paul Azinger was shown the door because he wanted a slight raise in what he thought was a negotiation, but turned out to be a take-it-or-leave-it offer by NBC management.

So, for 2024, golf viewers have been on the edge of our seats, wondering who will fill the four-person booth, which, by the way, is also enough for the bridge.

Eventually, a message comes down from on high, like white smoke, when the Council of Cardinals names a new Pope, and we get our answer. On Thursday, we learned that Kevin Kisner will join Dan Hicks, Brad Faxon and Terry Gannon for the three weeks of FedEx Cup Playoff coverage.

Just an aside: shouldn’t a guy who wins seven times on the PGA Tour in a given season deserve better than two measly strokes in the finale at East Lake?

I digress.

Let’s get back to the thrilling announcement by NBC about the crew for the playoffs.

Why not bring back Koch and Maltbie? NBC already had to eat crow when they brought them back earlier this year at the Players and U.S. Open when things were not going so well. When they became an overnight sensation at Sawgrass all over again like the Beatles, they returned for an encore performance at Pinehurst.

Some stability would not only be nice, but it would also be a 100 percent enhancement to a broadcast that has fallen woefully behind the coverage at CBS.

The Paris Olympics have been great on the whole by any measure, but why won’t NBC put the same time and effort into their golf broadcast?

Another pending issue is Hicks’ contract runs out this year. Hopefully, the primary voice of NBC golf won’t go the way of Azinger, Koch and Maltbie.

So, for the next three weeks, we will have Kisner back in the booth. Clearly, there must be better solutions than this.

“I think if we find the right person” NBC will hire someone full-time, NBC president Sam Flood told Golf.com in a May interview. “But right now, we think for the audience, they’re benefiting by hearing all this different perspective. And it’s kind of fun every week to figure out who’s going to be on and how it all meshes together. For the rest of this year, we’ve got this going on — but who knows what’s going to happen next year?”

Good question. If Flood doesn’t know, then who the hell does?

Hopefully, 2025 will be better for Peacock Golf because 2024 has been questionable at best.

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Morgane Metraux blazed out in 28 to claim 36-hole lead in Olympics (Tracy Wilcox/PGA Tour/IGF)

Swiss Metraux fast-tracks to Paris lead

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (IGF/DD) — Switzerland’s Morgane Metraux charged out of the gates in the second round on Thursday at Le Golf National, recording an Olympic nine-hole record of 8-under 28 including a pair of eagles and hung on through a bumpy 2-under back nine to seize the lead of the Women’s Olympic Golf Competition.

After starting her day with a birdie at the first, the 27-year-old Metraux — ranked No. 137 in the Rolex Women’s World Ranking — went on a tear, starting with an eagle at the par-5 third and then reeling off three straight birdies on Nos. 4-6. She capped her front nine with her second eagle of the day, dropping a putt from 15 feet, 7 inches to turn in 28 and record the best nine-hole score in either the men’s and women’s Olympic golf competitions to date.

“The difference between yesterday and today at the beginning is just the putts that fell,” said Metraux, whose previous best nine-hole score had been a front-nine 30 that came during the first round of the 2023 Walmart NW Arkansas Championship. “It just brought me confidence going forward and just tried to stay as present as I could and one shot at a time. It went pretty well.”

The momentum slowed on the back with a bogey-birdie-bogey stretch over holes 13 through 15, and she found the water with her second shot while trying to go for the green in two on the par-5 18th to finish with a bogey.

The solo 36-hole women’s leader in previous Olympics in Rio and Tokyo both went on to win the gold medal (Inbee Park, 2016; Nelly Korda, 2020).

Metraux — winner of two Ladies European Tour titles, including the 2024 the Jabra Ladies Open in Evian-les-Bains, France, but only one finish better than T47 in 13 LPGA starts this season — holds a narrow one-stroke lead over China’s Ruoning Yin, who carded the round of the day with a bogey-free, 7-under 65.

Women’s Olympic Golf Competition leaderboard

Two-time Olympic medalist Lydia Ko (72-67) of New Zealand vaulted up the leaderboard and stands third. A gold medal would not only complete her “slam” of winning all three medals, it would qualify her for the LPGA Hall of Fame. She needs one more win to get in.

“It’s really cool that if I did win the gold, I could get in the Hall of Fame, and it would stop all these questions,” Ko said. “I feel like if it’s going to happen, whether it’s in Paris or in Florida or in Scotland, it’s going to happen. And I’m just excited that I have this opportunity.”

World No. 1 and defending gold medalist Nelly Korda charged up the leaderboard as well and reached 6-under bogey free and tied for second before making a quadruple-bogey 7 on the par-16th. Another bogey at 17 before bouncing back with birdie on 18 left her 2-under on the day and overall, T12 and six shots behind Metraux.

“If I can get my whole game together for the next two days, and if I would have done this on the last day or let’s say the third day, then I would be extremely heartbroken,” said Korda over her blowup hole. “But I still have 36 more holes and anything can happen. I’m trying to see the positive in this. You know, Scottie (Scheffler) came back, shot 9-under and he won. So you know, if you’re hitting your shots, then you’re staying present, and I think anything can happen.”

Americans Rose Zhang (2-under, T12) and Lilia Vu (1-under, T14) remain in the red and in the medals hunt at the midway point.

First-round leader and France’s favorite golf daughter Celine Boutier could not replicate her sterling opening 65, suffering a crushing 6-6-6 stretch (double-bogey-double) from Nos. 13-16 to plummet from a share of the lead to T6 with a 4-over 76 that left her 3-under overall and five off the lead.

“Emotionally it was fine,” Boutier said. “Definitely feel like I left a few shots out there. Had a rough patch in the back and didn’t really make as many birdie putts as I did yesterday. So definitely reflected in the score.”

Also posting a notable second round was Slovenia’s Pia Babnik, who carded a 6-under 66 that featured a career-first run of five straight birdies on Nos. 12-16. Babnik, who opened with a 2-over 74 in Round 1, improved 26 spots on the leaderboard and currently sits in a tie for fourth.

Colombia’s Maríajo Uribe, one of four moms in the field, posted her second-straight 70 this week on Thursday to sit tied for fourth. Uribe, 34, plans to retire from professional golf following the Olympics.