Nobody is bigger than the Masters.
Not Scottie Scheffler or Tiger Woods. Especially not the guy who was paid to speak about both of them from a little tent off the right side of the 16th green.
But on Sunday afternoon at the 2024 Masters, Verne Lundquist stole the show, or at least enough of it to pique the interest of those watching from home at Augusta National. And what is the cause for that? After over 40 years in the CBS booth, it was his final performance.
As you may be aware, Lundquist is one of this generation’s voices in professional sports, having covered the SEC and Masters for CBS Sports. He has been the voice behind a slew of iconic sports moments, including Tiger Woods’ most famous Masters moment: the 16th-hole chip-in in 2005, which resulted in Woods’ Nike-logoed ball dripping over the side of the hole and Verne uttering the most famous words of his golf broadcasting career.
“In your LIFE have you seen anything like that?!”
Woods would win all five of his green jackets with Lundquist in the tower above, and no moment would top that famous sendoff in 2005—not even Verne’s other famous Masters’ call, Jack Nicklaus’ “Yes Sir!” in 1986. But that didn’t stop the CBS Sports announcer from becoming a cherished staple of Masters telecasts over the years, or from sending out on a suitable note with his final broadcast in the booth last weekend.
Golf fans who watched the telecast on the Masters app early Sunday morning are fully aware of this. They were treated to maybe the most telling moment of that swan song: Verne waiting by the side of the 16th green for Woods, the counterpart to so many of his Masters memories, to come.
Lundquist was spotted waiting for Woods just behind a large oak tree on the right side of the 16th green, and then again a few seconds later, when cameras caught the two of them sharing a handshake and a few good words before Woods continued on with his round.
The chat appeared to be lost in the sands of time, with no microphones or reporters there, but in a post-Masters appearance on the Steam Room podcast with Ernie Johnson and Charles Barkley on Monday morning, Lundquist revealed exactly what the two luminaries said.
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