“I can’t stand that,” said Jack Nicklaus during a walk-and-talk at the 2025 Memorial Tournament. An interviewer named Rex Hoggard was having a walk-and-talk with Ben Griffin, who was teeing up in second position at the time. Just as Griffin was done with the interview and the broadcast returned to the booth—snap!— Jack Nicklaus lost his cool and said, “Seriously, here’s a guy who’s leading the golf tournament… on a very difficult hole, and you’re talking to him about stuff that totally takes his mind off of what he was doing.” Jack couldn’t stand the idea of walk-and-talk interviews. To him, they’re rude and distracting. He emphasized that old-school golfers wouldn’t have tolerated being interrupted while playing.
“You would not have any teeth left if you did. He’d hit you right in the face with it,” Jack added, referring to Ben Hogan. Hogan was the most disciplined player of his era—he kept his life private and rarely engaged with the media. Back then, golfers were extremely serious and focused, and something like a mid-round interview would’ve been unthinkable. When Hoggard was having the walk-and-talk with Ben, Griffin was about to take a tough shot on the very difficult 17th hole at Muirfield. Jack felt it was the worst possible time to distract him with questions. So yeah, in short, Nicklaus isn’t really a fan of this modern media trend. And as for Hoggard, he didn’t just brush it off.
“I don’t doubt that, Mr. Nicklaus,” Hoggard responded to the backlash he faced after Nicklaus’s disagreement. Moreover, Hoggard cleared the air on the Golf Channel Podcast: “I have no doubt that Ben Hogan would have knocked my teeth out. Yes, if I showed up back in the 1950s with a microphone as he was walking down the 18th fairway at Marion trying to win the US Open. I don’t doubt that Mr Nicklaus” Hoggard even agreed that he does not like these walk-and-talks as well, and that it is an experiment. He knows full well that approaching someone like Ben Hogan in the 1950s would’ve been unthinkable. But times have changed. Today’s media landscape is different, and so is his job. Walk-and-talks may not sit well with everyone, but they’re part of the current media experience and are also approved by the PGA Tour. But nothing about that walk-and-talk was his fault.
“Even on Awful Announcing, they said that there was nothing wrong with the questions. It’s just that Jack took exception to that. And I would agree that these are new ones and that it’s a work in progress.” Awful Announcing is one of the platforms Hoggard keeps an eye on, and when they weighed in, he found some relief. They didn’t criticize the questions themselves; in fact, they confirmed there was nothing inappropriate or out of line in what was asked. That mattered to Hoggard because it helped separate the issue from his delivery. It wasn’t about how he did his job; it was about the broader concept of walk-and-talks. But it’s not like NBC forces the players to be a part of it.
Story behind the walk and talks….
NBC never forces any player to be a part of it if they are not willing; it’s all a well-organized and structured process. Hoggard clarified on the Golf Channel Podcast that “these interviews are clear dates in advance, not the day of days in advance. Ben Griffin was approached by the PGA Tour about possibly doing a walk-and-talk on Friday afternoon so these these are locked in long before” Hoggard pointed out that these interviews are planned well in advance—often days before the round, not just hours. In Ben Griffin’s case, the PGA Tour had already reached out earlier in the week to coordinate the walk-and-talk. It’s part of a structured effort to blend media access with player comfort, not something sprung on them mid-round. They have a complete list of players who enjoy the interview and players who don’t; it’s all in the books!
“The PGA Tour also has lists of players, some who are open to the idea, some who are lukewarm and some who are absolutely not. And so the players have been very, very clear.” It’s not a free-for-all; the PGA Tour actively tracks player preferences and builds its media plans accordingly. That way, only those who’ve shown some level of comfort with the format are ever considered. “Scottie Scheffler had not done a walk and talk; it’s probably not going to happen.” Scottie Scheffler is one such player who is not open to a walk and talk, so it all boils down to players who embrace it and those who don’t.
Whether you side with tradition or embrace modern coverage, the debate over walk-and-talks reveals golf’s generational shift. For now, it’s clear: media, like the game itself, is evolving and not everyone’s on board.
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