FOX Sports has announced its full cast of characters for its inaugural season of USGA coverage and from the looks of things they will have plenty of on air talent.
In addition to Joe Buck, Greg Norman, Holly Sonders, Brad Faxon, David Fay, Corey Pavin and Juli Inkster FOX has added plenty of new names to their season long coverage of the USGA events, including the U.S. Open in June. 
I count twenty new additions to the FOX Broadcast Team and some of them are certainly familiar while others are not. You can see the entire list and the press release here.
Tom Weiskoph’s selection stood out as the gem of the group. He’ll bring a legitimacy and insight to a varied group of announcers.
Buddy Marucci, one of the most accomplished amateurs in the game and past Walker Cup Captain is an interesting choice as is PGA Tour player Joe Ogilivie.
Ogilivie has been called the smartest golfer on the tour and he may give us some atypical insights into the game.
However the name on the list that shocked me was Gil Hanse. Hanse is a leading “minimalist” course architect fresh off his adventure in Rio, fighting the red tape of working in Brazil and finally being able to build the Olympic golf course.
Now, having an architect on the crew isn’t new but Hanse is an odd choice: none of the USGA events covered by FOX will be played on a Hanse design. The flagship U.S. Open is being conducted at Chambers Bay, a Robert Trent Jones II course and Jones was passed over.
Jones has one of the larger portfolios in the course architecture business (with an ego to match) and I can’t help but echo Geoff Shackelford’s sentiments: “Wish I could be there when Robert Trent Jones Jr. sees that Gil Hanse got the call but the Chambers Bay designer-of-record did not!”
This past weekend at the USGA’s Architecture Symposium I had a quick chat with Hanse and if you can size up a man in five minutes I came away with this thought: Hanse has little, if any ego. 
As I was standing aside the putting green at the USGA’s headquarters (a Hanse design) Gil himself walked up the green and I greeted him with a “How are you doing today?” he extended his hand, said he was fine and opened with “I’m Gil.” Like a golf geek like me needed to know his name.
The thing is, I knew who he was but he doesn’t know me from Adam but as he initiated a conversation I took it and ran with it.
I proceeded to tell him what a great day it had been so far with lectures from Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Jones. I noted that Jones was a good story teller and he concurred, “Bobby can tell a story.”
I mentioned that he was the headliner, the grand finale as he was last on the program but he protested with a laugh and said “It was more an issue with my schedule. I was up at three o’clock this morning to get a flight from Hilton Head to get here today.”
I feigned sympathy for his early morning wake up (oh, the tough life of a course designer) and told him since I had him one on one I would ask my question right here. He laughed and said go ahead.
“What’s the story with Bandon Municipal?” I asked. Hanse is working with Mike Kaiser to build another course at Bandon, Oregon but this will be a municipal course, supposedly with lower green fees.
He shrugged with frustration and told me that Kaiser had warned him that the key word on this project would be “patience.”
“We started this nine years ago” he said and after one bureaucratic hang up after another they are still only in “the planning stage.” Kaiser’s planned land swap with Oregon is now on hold again due to some squawking from Oregon’s Bureau of Land Management. So now he’s on hold waiting for a call from Kaiser.
As we chatted, and believe me I was eating this up that a guy like Hanse would take the time to be so open and welcoming to a guy he just met, some of his pals in the business were heading to Hanse and welcoming him with hellos. With that I stepped aside as he greeted his friends.
At that point Hanse turns to me and says, “Sorry Jeff, I didn’t mean to turn my back on you.” But I insisted there was no problem and I said “Hey, these are your boys, I get it.”
As I walked away I thought either Hanse is an extremely polite man, has no ego at all or maybe really was enjoying our conversation. I’d like to think maybe all three applied.
Later during his presentation he opened up with his reluctance to speak. Right off the bat he says, “I think talking is overrated.” Truly a man who thinks actions speaks louder than words but to his credit he entertained the crowd for an hour.
With that attitude I can’t help but think that FOX may need a guy with a cattle prod sitting next to Hanse during the telecast poking him to add something to the conversation.
My Close Encounter of the Hanse Kind has given me a three year run of conversations with course designers.
In 2013 I stalked Tom Doak at Sebonack and last year at the ’14 U.S. Open I listened to an emotional Ben Crenshaw on the putting green at Pinehurst. And this past weekend a chat with Hanse. Hmm, three of the most renowned, minimalist architects in three years, so I got that going for me.
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