PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Golf Channel analyst Smylie Kaufman is taking on a larger role with the network and will be joining its “Live From” telecasts throughout the remainder of 2026. Kaufman, a mainstay on Golf Channel and NBC telecasts in recent years, will work appear on the show on Tuesday-Sunday during weeks when it’s on site, starting this week at the Players Championship.
Kaufman is joining the show as an analyst months after Johnson Wagner departed Golf Channel to join the CBS golf team.
“His analysis is excellent,” said Matt Hegarty, Golf Channel’s coordinating producer for news and studio coverage. “The level of attention he pays during meetings, the ideas he has, he’s fully engaged.”
Wagner became known at Golf Channel for going out and recreating memorable shots from the just-completed round. The goal for Kaufman isn’t to simply follow that line. “Smylie is his own man,” Hegarty said. “Johnson is Johnson and Smylie is Smylie. There’s going to be some separation.”
The first example of that came on Sunday for the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The leader Daniel Berger faced a decision on a greenside bunker shot on the 13th hole at the Bay Hill Club and Lodge: Play at the hole or pitch out sideways. Berger decided to pitch out and made bogey. Following the round, Kaufman went on Golf Channel and instead went for the green, putting one ball in the water and another on the green.
The plan going forward, Hegarty said, is to follow that line rather than only recreating shots, though that could still be in play. Another option for Kaufman is recreating memorable shots from past tournaments. There are several to watch for at the Players Championship this week. One is the final round shot Si Woo Kim hit in 2017 (a driver off the deck on the 14th hole) en route to winning the tournament.
Last year, Rory McIlroy in the first round played a memorable shot off the pine straw to the right of the 18th fairway en route to making birdie and his second Players win.
“Smylie doesn’t necessarily want to recreate every shot or replay every shot,” Hegarty said. “We’ll say here’s what the pros did, but here are some other options that they could have gone with. They could have played this differently, if it was warranted. We’re into that.”
Kaufman and Wagner are both repped by WME’s Jason Horrell.