CBS Sports yesterday announced that it has added Dottie Pepper as an on-course reporter and analyst for the net's golf coverage beginning in '16. She will debut in late January for coverage of the PGA Tour Farmers Insurance Open. She will remain an ESPN golf analyst (CBS Sports). GOLFWEEK.com's Martin Kaufmann noted Pepper "will fill the role" that David Feherty held for the past 19 years before leaving for NBC. CBS Sports Chair Sean McManus said that his list of candidates to replace Feherty "began and ended" with Pepper. McManus: "Dottie was really the first and only choice we pursued." Kaufmann noted with Pepper, CBS Sports "landed arguably the game’s best female analyst, and one with extensive experience covering the men’s and women’s tours." She "still has two years left on her contract with ESPN, which holds exclusive rights to her work on cable" (GOLFWEEK.com, 10/14). Pepper said, "There’s no replacing Feherty. Here’s what I told the guys when I went to CBS to meet with them. I am not funny. But I will work really hard. So there you go." The AP's Doug Ferguson noted CBS "had been the lone network to not have a female analyst." But McManus said, "We didn’t hire Dottie because she’s a woman. We had been considering for a long time adding a woman to our crew, and this turned out to be perfect" (AP, 10/14).
