When you think of Maryland men?s basketball coach Gary Williams, you see a man pacing the sidelines, getting on referees and yelling encouragement (and a few other things) to his team from the bench at the Comcast Center. In short, he is an intense competitor and a successful basketball coach.
But Williams is a man of many talents and starting today and running through Sunday, he will be a very important part of Comcast SportsNet?s coverage of the AT&T National hosted by Tiger Woods. Not a bad gig for the national championship-winning coach.
“Tee Time at the AT&T National” debuts today at 7 p.m. and will air each night throughout the week following SportsNite at 6:30 p.m. Comcast SportsNet?s Chick Hernandez will join Williams as they host the 30-minute live show with interviews and analysis immediately following each day?s round. “Tee Time at the AT&T National” will also feature an hour-long show on Sunday following the championship round.
CSN?s Chick Hernandez told me what it is like working with Williams.
“Gary and I have a good relationship. He is fun to talk golf with and he loves to play,” Hernandez said. “As a matter of fact, he belongs to Congressional and knows the course very, very well. This will be the third time that Gary and I have worked on a golf tournament, with him being an analyst, and he really does his homework and does a great job as an analyst. Having Gary has a wonderful side benefit to us because so many players are college basketball fans.
“The players want to come on the air with us and talk to him about college basketball and he gets to talk golf with the top pros. How good is that?”
Host Tiger Woods will be on “Tee Time at the AT&T National,” Tuesday with Gary and Chick to provide all the details of his charity. Jill Sorenson will also be the reporter on site all week beginning with the practice rounds Monday.
D.C.-based XM radio will offer fans portable XM satellite radios for no charge to listen to the tournament for the day. XM will also have complimentary trial booths at the two designated main entrances at the Congressional Country Club.
The first 1,000 spectators to sign up at the XM booths Friday through Sunday will be able to use the radio for the day, no strings attached. XM is the exclusive home to PGA radio and covers all the stops on the tour.
XM spokesman David Butler said: “We are very excited about having the fans hear our exclusive coverage on XM channel 146 every week in cooperation with PGA Radio. We are the home for golf fans and we could not be more excited about working with Tiger to give fans a chance to listen to action while they walk the course.”
On the TV side, the Golf Channel will have special programming all week with hole-by-hole coverage starting at 4 p.m. Thursday and Friday. The weekend coverage will be on CBS Saturday and Sunday at 3 p.m.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this! on www.examiner.com.
