Broadcaster Verne Lundquist will call his final Masters in 2024

Legendary broadcaster Verne Lundquist will call his final Masters Tournament this April, CBS announced Wednesday. His final call will mark his 40th Masters on the mic.

Lundquist, 83, has called several iconic Masters moments through the years, including Jack Nicklaus’ “Yes sir!” birdie on the par-4 17th in 1986, en route to winning his sixth green jacket at age 46, and Tiger Woods’ chip-in birdie on the par-3 16th en route to a playoff victory over Chris DiMarco in 2005 – “In your life, have you seen anything like that?!”

Lundquist worked nationally for ABC Sports from 1974 to 1981, CBS from 1982 to 1995, and TNT from 1995 to 1997, before returning to CBS from 1998 to 2016. He spent a decade-plus as radio voice of the Dallas Cowboys, and he has covered everything from the NFL, NBA and Olympics to college football, basketball and even the game show “Bowling for Dollars.” He was lead play-by-play announcer for SEC football on CBS from 2000 to 2016, before retiring from college football broadcasting.

The Masters has been a constant. Lundquist took the mic at Augusta National in 1983, and he maintained the role aside from a two-year hiatus in 1997-98. His first Masters assignment was on the par-5 13th hole, the final leg of Amen Corner, and he was assigned to the 17th-hole tower for 1986 – after longtime 17th-hole announcer Frank Glieber, a close friend, died of a heart attack in 1985. Lundquist eventually moved to the tower at No. 16, the picturesque par 3 known as Redbud with water guarding the green’s left side and a mid-green ridge that tends to funnel balls toward a traditional Sunday hole location tucked near the water’s edge.

Woods missed the green long and left at No. 16 during the final round in 2005. He would have done well to get the chip shot inside 20 feet, it was speculated. But Woods judged the shot perfectly, the ball trickling toward the top of the ridge and catching the slope softly; it funneled toward the hole and dropped, seemingly milliseconds before halting its final rotation.

Lundquist was on the call.

“Oh my goodness,” he said as the ball approached the cup. The crowd’s roar built toward a crescendo.

The ball fell into the cup.

“Oh wow!” Lundquist exclaimed before pausing a moment for emphasis. “In your life, have you seen anything like that?”

That line crossed over into popular culture, becoming a go-to expression to offer praise for an unlikely feat. It came from the lips of Lundquist, who never scripts his delivery for a pivotal moment, he has often said.

“I just don’t think that it works unless it’s instinctive,” he told the Atlanta Constitution in 2006. “You sure don’t stay awake at night and think about what you’re going to say when Tiger Woods chips in from 90 feet.”

This spring, Lundquist might have the chance to call Woods one more time at 16, preferably with the five-time Masters winner in contention yet again on the back nine Sunday. The golf world would relish it.