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CBS' Peter Kostis Says State Of Golf In Great Shape, But Not Buying Into Olympics

CBS golf analyst Peter Kostis is nearly back to full strength following a ’13 colon cancer diagnosis that forced him to miss the latter half of that golf season. The 68-year-old Kostis returned to CBS broadcasts last year and says now he is 90% “back to where I was” as well as 100% cancer-free. Kostis maintains his on-course reporting duties and has added a new “Help Me Kostis” segment to the telecast each week in which he analyzes the swing of a local celebrity or athlete. Kostis caught up with THE DAILY prior to Rory McIlroy's win last week at the Wells Fargo Championship to talk about the state of the game, the Olympics’ potential impact on the sport and his thought-process on calling shots. 

Q: What does the trajectory of the sport look like with recent wins by Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler?
Kostis: This week speaks volumes -- I did some interviews and typically the first question I got was how bad it was going to hurt the tournament that Rickie wasn’t going to play. Times have changed, because I used to get that same question about Tiger. Now people are asking that same question about Rory or Jordan or Rickie. With all the young guns, I think the state of the game of golf is phenomenal right now, and we have so many young kids who are still developing.

Q: Adam Scott commented this week about the Olympics next year and how he sees it as an exhibition and not the highest priority for him. What kind of impact do you see it having on the game? 
Kostis: I have never bought into the Olympic hype. Having said that, I think it can do things for countries that are not golf oriented. I think it can do things for the development of golf in South America or the Far East, other places where golf hasn’t been big. But I don’t think it’s going to do diddly squat for the U.S. or Australia or some of the other places that are big into golf. A kid in Des Moines isn’t going to watch the Olympics next year and say, “I want to be an Olympic champion in golf.” He’s still going to say, “I want to win the Masters.” I don’t think it’s going to necessarily grow the game, but we’re going to have to wait and see.

Q: How do you approach being critical of players if it is merited?
Kostis: I don’t ever think that I am necessarily critical. I don’t think that’s required. When Player A hits the ball 30 yards into the woods and my producer comes to me and says, “Show me what he did wrong,” my job is to explain what happened that made that result. That’s not being critical, that’s just showing how he got to the end result. I don’t like the type of announcing where you’re projecting your thoughts into the thoughts of the player. I don’t like “he choked” or “he’s gagging.” You don’t know, everyone is different, everyone is unique and everyone deserves their opportunity to compete. My stuff is mostly swing oriented, and if a player hits a ball in the water, I don’t have to say that was a crappy shot. Most average viewers are going to understand he wasn’t trying to do that.

Q: With you being an instructor for several players, does CBS try to keep you away from following groups that include your students?
Kostis: They used to; they don’t any longer. Last year I followed Paul Casey at Memorial -- he was in the hunt and had a terrible Saturday. But I’ve got to do my job, and Paul knows that. I’ll say, “Look, he’s gotten out of his rhythm or he might be pressing.” I’m not going to sugarcoat it for my students, and I’m not going to paint a dark picture because it’s a student of another teacher whom I don’t have a great affection for. It’s not part of my equation.

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