Most of all, Colt Knost’s job takes him places.
It requires him to annually visit three of the most beautiful golf courses in the world: Augusta National, Riviera and Pebble Beach. It requires his presence at two majors and at least two-thirds of the meaningful golf events on the calendar. It sees him travel from the golf city of the Phoenix Open to the treeless expanse of the Scottish Open, and virtually every golf environment in between.
But if you want to know what makes Colt Knost qualified to be the kind of professional golf broadcaster promoted to the “supertower” of CBS on Wednesday morning – if you want to understand why he gets to fly to all the beautiful and important places in the golf world just to talk about them – you should really ask him somewhere else. Somehow… less honored.
The John Deere.
“John Deere week is a secret favorite of mine, and that’s honestly because of one restaurant there,” Knost says with a chuckle. “It’s called Duck City. And I mean, the chef – Chef Jeremy – who’s been there forever, took over from his father, Chef Charles. I mean, it seems like every time you walk in there, you’re dining on a player.”
Duck City is a special place for Knost, and his daily 7 p.m. table is one of the rhythms of the annual schedule that keeps his personal golf world running (not to mention Duck City’s famous veal jalapeno – Knost’s favorite). But his certainty in choosing John Deere Week over all the glorious places listed above? That is the special sauce.
“It surprises everyone,” Knost said. “It’s not the most beautiful field in the world, but every year we make it such a fun week.”
In most respects, the work of a successful sports television analyst is full of prospects. Emerson said a man is measured “by the angle at which he looks at objects‘, and if that’s true, then a good sports TV voice is measured by its sharpness, its distance from dull bromides and listless axioms – ‘boy, he’s a great driver of the golf ball” – that have filled the hours of golf broadcasts since the beginning of time.
In other words, the job of a successful sports TV voice requires the ability to visit Augusta National, but the willingness to get the John Deere out.
On Wednesday morning, Knost’s acumen was recognized in the form of a promotion from his bosses at CBS. He will join the ‘super tower’ in 2026 with Frank Nobilo, Trevor Immelman and Jim Nantz, replacing the retired Ian Baker-Finch. The new job is Knost’s third since joining golf media after a successful career as a touring pro, the latest in a meteoric rise from a golfer with a good sense of humor to one of pro golf’s storytellers.
“I remember, after the first few tournaments I did as a tryout, [legendary CBS Sports producer Jim Rikhoff] sent me this great text where he basically said, “Look, we hired you because of who you are and because of who we know, and I want you to be on air like this.”
The common thread in Rikhoff’s message?
“If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t work out, but you can’t be someone else,” Knost remembers. He took it to heart.
He quickly learned that being your most honest self in front of an audience of a few million TV viewers can be difficult. Criticism circulates quickly, even when justified.
“Charles Barkley is one of my broadcasting heroes, and he said it best,” Knost said. “He told me, ‘You can praise these guys 90 percent of the time, and they’ll never call to thank you, but as soon as you criticize them, they’ll call you and wear you down. You just have to be prepared for it.'”
It is an extra challenge for Knost. When Barkley criticizes hoopers, he is largely talking about men a third his age; When Knost criticizes golfers, he is often talking about his friends.
How does he manage it? The honest answer is that it is difficult. The lines in sports television are difficult to navigate for any former athlete, even if the core requirements of fairness and objectivity are clear. Knost is expected to speak with candor within milliseconds of witnessing decisions that decide fortunes and inheritances. Sometimes those decisions are mistakes, and it’s his job to say so.
“It’s never anything personal against them,” Knost said. “But if a player ever has a problem with something I’ve said, I’m always happy to talk about it.”
Apparently it works. Knost’s jump to the CBS booth is his third promotion in half a decade in golf TV. His responsibilities will expand from covering one group to covering the entire field. His dream of one day holding golf television’s highest office, chief analyst, just got a jolt.
“Look, there’s the CV factor,” says Knost, acknowledging golf’s long tradition of hiring only major champions for the role of lead analyst. “But I think I could absolutely do it one day.”
Knost isn’t a big winner, unless you count American amateurs, but he’s fine with that. If he one day gets the job as chief analyst, it won’t be because his brain can approximate a big winner. It will be precisely because it can’t be done – because Knost sees things that some big winners don’t.
Like Duck City at the John Deere.
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