CBS Sports Commentator Jim Nantz to Receive ASGCA Donald Ross Award
Sports broadcasting legend has spent four decades chronicling historic moments and promoting the game
For four decades, hearing the voice of Jim Nantz has meant an important sporting event was taking place. Since joining CBS in 1985, Nantz has brought a level of professionalism matched only by his love of sports and the art of storytelling to viewers who share his passion. His calls from NFL games and Super Bowls, NCAA basketball games and Final Fours, and PGA Tour events, the Masters and the PGA Championship will be remembered for generations. His voice has served as the soundtrack to unforgettable moments from some of the country’s greatest golf courses, creating memories forever etched in the game’s history.
His insights, storytelling, and unmistakable passion for golf have helped millions develop a deeper appreciation for great course design. Beyond the broadcast booth, Nantz, a friend and supporter of the NCGA, has brought that passion to life through hands-on design projects ranging from his backyard golf holes to courses such as Tepetonka Club in Minnesota. Nantz currently serves as a golf course design consultant for Tepontka’s short course, which is being designed by OCM Golf.
Nantz’s positive impact on the game makes him a worthy recipient of the 2026 ASGCA Donald Ross Award. The organization’s highest honor recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution to the game of golf and the profession of golf course architecture. Nantz will receive the award during the ASGCA Annual Meeting in October.
“It is fitting that Jim Nantz is the first broadcaster to receive the Donald Ross Award,” said ASGCA President Mark Mungeam. “He has been and is the ‘voice of golf’ for multiple generations of fans. His love and respect for the game – and the courses it is played on – is evident in all of his broadcasts."
A member of the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the youngest ever to be inducted into both the Pro Football and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Nantz is a four-time Emmy Award-winner and five time National Sportscaster of the Year. In 2025, he was named Honorary Chair of the First Tee. He graduated in 1981 with a degree in radio/television from the University of Houston, where he was recruited as a member of the golf team.
Nantz joined the CBS Sports golf team in 1986 and has anchored CBS’ golf coverage since 1994. He spent 32 years as CBS’s lead play-by-play announcer for NCAA men’s college basketball and this fall he begins his 23rd season as the lead play-by-play voice for the NFL on CBS.
“My admiration for the American Society of Golf Course Architects runs deep,” Nantz said. “I have long studied their work and the thoughtful process they use to shape their masterpiece landscapes. To be recognized by this extraordinary group is truly an honor.”
In 2011, Nantz worked with Houston Methodist Hospital to create the Nantz National Alzheimer Center (NNAC), dedicated to funding innovative diagnostic discoveries for early and accurate detection of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementing illnesses (www.nantzfriends.org). The center was named in honor of Jim’s late father, Jim Nantz Sr., who lived with Alzheimer’s disease for 13 years.
The Nantz family journey was the basis for the New York Times bestseller “Always By My Side,” whose foreword was written by 2018 Donald Ross Award Recipient President George H.W. Bush.
Past Donald Ross Award Recipients
2025 David Fay, USGA Executive Director
2024 Robert Trent Jones Jr., ASGCA, golf course architect
2023 Frank Jemsek, Jemsek Golf
2022 John Lawrence, The Toro Company
2021 Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, ASGCA, golf course architects
2020 Renee Powell, golf pioneer/player/course owner
2019 Joe Passov, golf writer
2018 President George Herbert Walker Bush, U.S. President
2017 Alice Dye, ASGCA Fellow, golf course architect
2016 Michael Bamberger, golf writer
2015 Bradley S. Klein, golf writer
2014 Maj. Dan Rooney, founder, Folds of Honor Foundation
2013 Rees Jones, ASGCA, golf course architect
2012 Bill Kubly, golf course builder
2011 James Dodson, golf writer/editor
2010 Tim Finchem, PGA Tour Commissioner
2009 Ron Dodson, sustainable golf advocate
2008 George Peper, golf writer
2007 Dr. Michael Hurdzan, ASGCA, golf course architect
2006 Jim Awtrey, chief executive officer, PGA of America
2005 John Singleton, irrigation pioneer
2004 Thomas Cousins, philanthropist, urban golf developer
2003 Bill Campbell, president, USGA, captain, Royal & Ancient Golf Club
2002 Byron Nelson, professional golfer
2001 Jack Nicklaus, ASGCA, professional golfer, golf course architect
2000 Jaime Ortiz-Patino, owner and president, Valderrama Golf Club
1999 Arnold Palmer, professional golfer
1998 Judy Bell, president, USGA
1997 Gene Sarazen, professional golfer
1996 Ron Whitten, golf writer
1995 Pete Dye, ASGCA, golf course architect
1994 James R. Watson, agronomist
1993 Brent Wadsworth, golf course builder
1992 Paul Fullmer, ASGCA executive secretary
1991 Michael Bonallack, secretary, Royal & Ancient Golf Club
1990 John Zoller, executive director, Northern California Golf Association
1989 Dick Taylor, editor, “Golf World” magazine
1988 Frank Hannigan, executive director, USGA
1987 Charles Price, writer, “Golf World” magazine
1986 Deane Beman, commissioner, PGA Tour
1985 Peter Dobereiner, “London Observer” columnist, author
1984 Dinah Shore, sponsor of women’s golf tournaments
1983 Al Radko, director, USGA Green Section
1982 Geoffrey Cornish, ASGCA, golf course architect, historian
1981 James Rhodes, governor of Ohio
1980 Gerald Micklem, captain, Royal & Ancient
1979 Joe Dey, executive director, USGA
1978 Herb and Joe Graffis, founders, National Golf Foundation
1977 Herbert Warren Wind, “The New Yorker” columnist, author
1976 Robert Trent Jones, ASGCA, ASGCA founding member