Golf Channel analyst Johnson Wagner’s TV career has “seen a steady rise from its humble beginnings as a Golf Channel fill-in,” but in “many ways the former pro is a perfect fit for Golf Channel’s charge into the future,” according to James Colgan of GOLF. The channel’s newest content series, running on Golf Central during this week’s Truist Championship, will be highlighting the greatest Tiger Woods shots from his historic 2000 run. The series “offers a glimpse into Wagner’s growing stardom as a golf TV everyman, taking him to four settings in the U.S. and Canada where he will try to replicate some of Woods’ most historic shots.” Wagner’s brand of celebrity has “seen a noticeable rise in status” due to his “on-air reenactments of the greatest, most challenging and most death-defying shots from golf’s biggest events -- and his affinity for utter disaster while doing them.” As his playing career wound down, Wagner “was spurred on” by Golf Channel broadcaster Peter Jacobsen, who “saw Wagner’s plainspoken nature as a natural fit on the golf-TV airwaves.” Wagner’s facial hair also “immediately earned him notice in the chair at Golf Channel.” His reputation as an analyst “unafraid of the occasional blistering opinion or harsh critique followed soon after.” Colgan: “But his on-air reenactments have made him a cult celebrity” (GOLF, 5/7).
Column: Analyst Johnson Wagner shaping the future of Golf Channel as a rising talent
