AUGUSTA – A voice as welcoming and familiar as the azaleas that brighten Magnolia Lane will grace the Masters television broadcast this week when CBS golf analyst David Feherty returns to work for this year’s first and most anticipated major championship.
Feherty working the Masters appeared a long shot only three weeks ago when, while riding his bicycle near his Dallas home, he was hit by a truck and seriously injured.
Feherty, who said he was “six inches from having my head crushed like an egg,” suffered a punctured lung, three broken ribs and a ruptured bursa sac in his left elbow.
As he lay on that road gasping to breathe and, later in the hospital, Feherty had little idea what laid ahead as he’s recovered, he’s been craving his return to the airwaves. The Masters at Augusta National beckoned.
The 49-year-old native of Northern Ireland said he’s been “overwhelmed” by the outpouring of support that has come his way, including some moving sentiments from his counterparts at NBC. While Feherty was recovering, he received calls from Johnny Miller and Roger Maltbie, both of whom offered their well wishes on the air during last month’s CA Championship at Doral.
That’s saying a lot considering the fact that Feherty also has gone through much rehab for depression and alcohol addiction in recent years.
Feherty’s return to Augusta is particularly significant because of what the Masters means to him.
“For me, the Masters is the most absorbing golf tournament, not just from work standpoint, but from a voyeuristic point of view,” he said. “I get to watch it close up and personal and on a scale of dramas you see it all there.