David William Feherty (born 13 August 1958) is a former

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

and current golf broadcaster. As a touring professional he won five

European Tour The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fift ...

events, competed at

the Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

twice ( 1989 and

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

), and played on Europe's 1991 Ryder Cup team. Late in his career he joined the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. Since retiring, he has worked as a television personality; from 1997 through 2015 Feherty served as an on-course reporter for the ''

PGA Tour on CBS ''PGA Tour on CBS'' (or ''Golf on CBS'') is the branding used for broadcasts of the PGA Tour that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. Coverage overview CBS Sports has been a carrier ...

''. In 2011, he introduced a self-titled interview series on

Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television television network, network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ...

and subsequently joined

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

full-time in 2016. In July 2022, it was announced that Feherty would depart NBC and become an analyst for

LIV Golf LIV Golf () is a professional golf tour financed by the Public Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. The name "LIV" refers to the Roman numerals for 54, the score if every hole on a par-72 course were birdied and the number ...

Golf career

Feherty turned professional in 1976 and spent most of his playing career in Europe, where he won five times and finished in the top ten twice in the European Tour's Order of Merit, placing tenth in 1989 and eighth in 1990. He spent 1994 and 1995 playing mainly on the PGA Tour in the U.S., and the best result on the tour was a second-place finish at the 1994

New England Classic The New England Classic was a golf tournament on the PGA Tour from 1969 through 1998. It was held under various names at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Massachusetts. Tournament highlights *1975: Roger Maltbie wins for the second conse ...

. His combined career earnings exceeded $3 million. Feherty represented Ireland in international competition and captained the victorious 1990

Alfred Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championshi ...

team. Feherty played for Europe on the 1991 Ryder Cup team.

Personal life

Feherty was born in

Bangor, County Down Bangor ( ; ) is a city and seaside resort in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the southern side of Belfast Lough. It is within the Belfast metropolitan area and is 13 miles (22 km) east of Belfast city centre, to which it is linked ...

, Northern Ireland. He lives with his second wife Anita and their five children in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas. They have one daughter, Erin, born in 1998. Anita Feherty has two sons from a former marriage. Until 1995 he was married to Caroline Feherty, a South African beauty queen. They have two sons. Feherty has had a long struggle with depression and alcoholism,—which he publicly addressed in 2006—however these symptoms, in addition to racing thoughts and insomnia, proved to be part of a

Bipolar disorder Bipolar disorder, previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and periods of abnormally elevated mood that last from days to weeks each. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with ...

diagnosis he received in 2011. In an interview with ''Golf Magazine'' about his problems, Feherty said: "I used alcohol to mask my inner demons". The outspoken columnist then took a shot at actor and noted

Scientologist Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a Scientology as a business, business, or a new religious movement. The most recent ...

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Gol ...

, who has said that therapy and drugs are useless and that depression can be cured by physical exercise: ''"Actually, some sort of exercise would have helped me. If I kicked the shit out of Tom Cruise, I'd feel a lot better about myself."'' Along with

George Lopez George Edward Lopez (born April 23, 1961) is an American comedian and actor. He is known for starring in his self-produced ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American culture. Lopez has rec ...

, Feherty hosted the Lopez-Feherty Foundation Anti-Pro-Am in November 2005. In 2008, Feherty was hit by a truck while cycling. He suffered three broken ribs, which punctured his lung. He was hospitalised for a few days with a tube in his chest. He resumed his broadcast duties at the

2008 Masters Tournament The 2008 Masters Tournament was the 72nd Masters Tournament, held April 10–13 at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. Trevor Immelman won his first major title, three strokes ahead of runner-up Tiger Woods, a four-time champion. Immel ...

. Feherty became a

naturalised citizen Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

of the United States on 23 February 2010. In 2012, Feherty was awarded the third-highest honor within the Department of the Army Civilian Awards, the Outstanding Civilian Service Award, for substantial contributions to the U.S. Army community through his work with the Troops First Foundation. On 29 July 2017, Feherty's oldest son, Shey, died after a drug overdose on his 29th birthday. Feherty describes himself as a "diehard atheist".

Media career

In 1997, Feherty retired from the tours and joined

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

as an on-course reporter and golf analyst. Feherty is a contributor to ''

Golf Magazine ''Golf Magazine'' is a monthly golf magazine. It was started in April 1959 by Universal Publishing and Distributing, who sold it to Times Mirror in 1972. Time Inc. acquired it in 2000. It was acquired by Howard Milstein in 2018. It was the world' ...

'' and has his own column in the back of the magazine called Sidespin. He is also the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and Booksense best-selling author of four books, ''A Nasty Bit of Rough'', ''Somewhere in Ireland a Village Is Missing an Idiot'', ''An Idiot for All Seasons'', and ''David Feherty's Totally Subjective History of the Ryder Cup''. On 21 June 2011, Feherty premiered his own weekly primetime talk show called ''

Feherty David William Feherty (born 13 August 1958) is a former professional golfer and current golf broadcaster. As a touring professional he won five European Tour events, competed at the Open Championship twice (1989 and 1994), and played on Europ ...

'' on the

. Feherty is also a co-announcer on

EA Sports EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network" ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour ''PGA Tour'' is a series of golf video games developed and published by Electronic Arts - and later their EA Sports sub-label - since 1990. The series primarily features courses featured on the U.S. PGA Tour, and other notable courses (such as t ...

series with

Jim Nantz James William Nantz III (born May 17, 1959) is an American sportscaster who has worked on telecasts of the National Football League (NFL), NCAA Division I men's basketball, the NBA and the PGA Tour for CBS Sports since the 1980s. He has anchor ...

Gary McCord Gary Dennis McCord (born May 23, 1948) is an American professional golfer, commentator and author. Early life and career McCord was born in San Gabriel, California, and raised in southern California, graduating from Ramona High School in Rive ...

, and

Bill Macatee Bill Macatee (born November 17, 1955) is an American sports broadcaster for CBS Sports and Tennis Channel. Early life and career Macatee was born in Rome, New York, and grew up in El Paso, Texas. He graduated from Burges High School in El Paso. ...

. He is a periodic guest on Dallas' sports radio station, KTCK. He appears in advertisements for the Cobra golf company, showing off his trampolining and cheerleading skills in the advert, to show off the company's ''Speed'' drivers and woods. In September 2005, Feherty guest-starred in the Season 6 episode of ''

Yes, Dear ''Yes, Dear'' is an American television sitcom created by Alan Kirschenbaum and Gregory Garcia, that aired on CBS from October 2, 2000, to February 15, 2006, with the total of six seasons and 122 episodes. It starred Anthony Clark, Jean Louis ...

'' (" Greg's a Mooch"). In the 18 April 2009, issue of ''D Magazine'', Feherty was one of five writers to comment on

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

's move to Dallas. In his article, Feherty uses the article to express his support of Bush and to speak on politics. Criticism was aimed at Feherty for this suggestive comment about House Speaker

Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...

and Senate Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

''From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with
Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...
,
Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...
, and
Osama bin Laden Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (10 March 1957 – 2 May 2011) was a Saudi-born extremist militant who founded al-Qaeda and served as its leader from 1988 until Killing of Osama bin Laden, his death in 2011. Ideologically a Pan-Islamism ...
, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death."''

Feherty made the following controversial remarks and described his politics as such: ''"As for me, my politics are somewhere in the middle—and then way outside both wings. I believe in the death penalty, especially for pro-lifers, child molesters, those opposed to gay marriage, and for stupid dancing in the end zone. I believe in the abolition of estate taxes and the

Pickens Plan The Pickens Plan is an energy policy proposal announced July 8, 2008, by American businessman T. Boone Pickens. Pickens wanted to reduce American dependence on imported oil by investing approximately $US1 trillion in new wind turbine farms ...

. I'd lower the

legal drinking age The legal drinking age is the minimum age at which a person can legally consume alcoholic beverages. The minimum age alcohol can be legally consumed can be different from the age when it can be purchased in some countries. These laws vary between ...

and raise the driving age to 18 nationwide, make

Kinky Friedman Richard Samet "Kinky" Friedman (born November 1, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, novelist, humorist, politician, and former columnist for ''Texas Monthly'' who styles himself in the mold of popular American satirists Will Rogers and ...

governor of Texas The governor of Texas heads the state government of Texas. The governor is the leader of the executive and legislative branch of the state government and is the commander in chief of the Texas Military. The current governor is Greg Abbott, who ...

, and make all schools, public and private, start earlier with one hour of physical exercise."'' CBS Sports distanced itself from Feherty's comments:

We want to be clear that this column for a Dallas magazine is an unacceptable attempt at humor and is not in any way condoned, endorsed, or approved by CBS Sports... David Feherty is an insightful and sometimes humorous commentator for CBS Sports' golf coverage...however, his attempt at humor in this instance went over the line, and his comments were clearly inappropriate. We hope he will use better judgment in the future."''

On his nightly cable news television show ''Countdown'',

Keith Olbermann Keith Theodore Olbermann (; born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and r ...

went as far as to say the "soon to be ex-CBS Sports golf analyst David Feherty", based on comments Feherty made in the D-magazine article, leaving the audience with the impression CBS Sports was about to let Feherty go for his remarks. About two weeks later, Feherty announced the PGA Tour's

Valero Texas Open The Texas Open, known as the Valero Texas Open for sponsorship reasons, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, played near San Antonio, Texas. It dates back years to 1922, when it was first called the Texas Open; San Antonio-based Val ...

, in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

for CBS. In August 2015, Feherty left CBS following his final event with the network—

The Barclays The FedEx St. Jude Championship, founded as the Westchester Classic in 1967, is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Since 2007, it has been played as the first tournament of the playoff system for the FedEx Cup, with the field limi ...

. In September 2015, it was announced that Feherty would be moving to

and Golf Channel full-time beginning in 2016, serving a similar role as he did with CBS. The deal also included renewal for ''Feherty'' on Golf Channel, a first-look development deal with

Universal Television Universal Television LLC (abbreviated as UTV) is an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Universal Studio Group, a division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It serves as the network television production arm of NBC; a predeces ...

, and the ability for the two to collaborate on other projects, including some outside of golf. In July 2022, it was announced that Feherty would leave NBC Sports and join the broadcast team at

Professional wins (11)

European Tour wins (5)

European Tour playoff record (2–1)

Sunshine Tour wins (3)

Other wins (3)

*1980

Irish PGA Championship The Irish PGA Championship, formerly the Irish Professional Championship and colloquially known as the Irish Professional Close or National Championship, is a golf tournament that is played annually in Ireland since 1907. It is one of the oldest ...

*1982

*1989 Ulster Professional Championship

Results in major championships

CUT = missed the half-way cut (3rd round cut in 1979 Open Championship)
"T" = tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 3 (1987 Open Championship – 1990 Open Championship) *Longest streak of top-10s – 1 (three times)

Results in The Players Championship

CUT = missed the halfway cut

Professional team appearances

Dunhill Cup The Alfred Dunhill Cup was a team golf tournament which ran from 1985 to 2000, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill Ltd. It was for three-man teams of professional golfers, one team representing each country, and was promoted as the "World Team Championshi ...

(representing Ireland):

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

(winners),

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

Four Tours World Championship The Four Tours World Championship was an annual professional golf tournament that was played from 1985 to 1991. It was played between teams representing the four main professional tours: the American PGA Tour, the PGA European Tour, the PGA Tour of ...

(representing Europe): 1990, 1991 (winners) *

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...