Money And Golf
The November 2006 issue of Golf Digest had a very interesting article on money and how it relates to all things golf. One of the things that really grabbed me was the salaries of the various announcers/hosts/analysts on tv. As shown below, Jim Nantz is the highest paid golf-related celebrity raking in $4.375 million. Granted, he does golf, football, basketball and who knows what else so he’s definitely worth it.
| Announcer | Annual Salary | |
|---|---|---|
| Jim Nantz | $4.375 million |  |
| Nick Faldo | $900,000 |  |
| Kelly Tilghman | $375,000 |  |
| Kraig Kann | $315,000 |  |
| Megan West | $125,000 |  |
I’m probably more surprised at the difference between Kelly Tilghman and Kraig Kann’s salaries as I figured they’d be much closer than reported. This implies that Tilgman is the “lead” analyst/host at the Golf Channel and if so, then like Nantz, she deserves what she’s making. On the other hand, (and this is an opinion only), I’m not a huge fan of Megan West and I couldn’t tell you why. Considering that all she does is the evening golf news, is that out of line? I’m not sure, but it’s still good money.
Did you also know that a 1-hour lesson with Butch Harmon costs only $600/hour? And an all-day outing starts at $50,000! David Leadbetter charges $10,000 for a half-day lesson. What? I’ll have more in upcoming blogs.