Weekend Plans With CBS Golf Analyst Amanda Balionis

Balionis in addition to her SmartCart and interview duties also helps run the CBS Instagram accountGETTY IMAGES

Despite only being in her second full year with CBS Sports' golf team, AMANDA BALIONIS wears plenty of hats each weekend. While many viewers will recognize her for post-round interviews with contenders on Saturday and Sunday, Balionis also plays a central role in preparing the net's metric-based SmartCart segments and keeping the golf community entertained and informed on social media. Balionis took THE DAILY through a typical weekend on the PGA Tour, how she manages interviews with players and what interests her away from the course.

TOURNAMENT SCRAMBLE: I’ll usually fly into the tournament on a Thursday morning and I’ll watch the coverage that day if I can. That night I’ll start doing the research, really keeping an eye on the trends over the first 18 holes. On Friday, I’ll go out to the course before coverage/play really starts to meet with our producers. We’ll think about possible statistics to highlight on the course and things historically that might determine how the leaderboard will shape up. We like to find those things early and keep an eye on them as they develop. The goal there is to give the viewers something to look for that maybe otherwise they wouldn’t be paying attention to. We try to not get too heavy into it but it can be really fascinating to look at what players have to do well in a given week at a certain course in order to win. So Friday, we take in all the coverage, I’ll read transcripts from that day’s press conferences with the players -- see if there have been any changes in equipment or swing coaches -- then if I have a chance to talk to the players as well I’ll do that too. 

MOVING DAY: Once Saturday hits, I take control of the CBS Sports Instagram account. Myself and one of our operations people drive around starting at about 10:00am and try to give the CBS Sports community a glimpse of how fun golf can be. We try to do a good mix of on-site activations that people may find interesting coupled with updates of the leaders and what’s going on with them. Once that's posted I head in to watch the coverage, read up on my notes, catch up on any developing stories between Friday night and Saturday morning I may have missed and head up to the SmartCart to double check our graphics are ready to go. Throughout the broadcast we’re keeping an eye on what players we want to bring on to interview, should we do a highlights package and what should be included in that. 

ART OF THE POST-ROUND INTERVIEW: These players are never contractually obligated to talk to us which I feel like a lot of people don’t realize. It’s not the NBA or NFL where that’s part of the deal. But they're still unbelievably gracious about their time. Of course if they didn’t play well they’re not going to be in the best mood, but it is very rare that we would request an interview and a player would say no. That speaks to the players on the Tour but also they know every week out here is a fresh start. There’s always positives to being close to a victory but not being able to get it done on Sunday. Even talking with JORDAN SPIETH Sunday at The Masters when he came out of nowhere to give himself a chance to win, right before we went on I asked how he was feeling. He said, “Amanda I’ll be honest with you, I’m completely gutted.” But then he added how proud of himself he was to even get in that position that day. Golf is mostly disappointment. If you win once out of the 27 times you tee it up in a season, that’s a really good year for a lot of these guys. I get they won’t be all-smiles when they haven’t had their best week but you wouldn’t want them to pretend otherwise. You want that genuine feeling and reaction. PHIL MICKELSON is a great example of that, no one is more honest about their game than him. 

OFF THE COURSE: I used to be heavily involved with K9s for Warriors when I lived in Jacksonville. I kind of got away from that when I moved and started traveling every week. But I looked for a way to still give back and started a new routine on Fridays where before I head into work I try to visit a local animal shelter. I try to highlight the shelter and the people there and help them get the supplies that they need. Really anytime I can help or be around dogs I’m all in on that. I also do a lot of yoga in my free time. TV-wise I’m about to dive into the second season of “THE HANDMAID’S TALE.” I’m also huge on “MADAM SECRETARY” ... I guess really any shows that have strong female characters I’m pretty much addicted too!