Welcome To The Club! Pavin Joins Fox Sports Broadcast Team

Coleman McDowell reports that former U.S. Open Champion Corey Pavin has been welcomed by Greg Norman to the Fox Sports broadcasting club. Also added was Steve Flesch, formerly of Golf Channel, along with CNN's Shane O'Donoghue, who will host when Joe Buck is not the lead play-by-play announcer. O'Donoghue will providing essays and features, too. (McDowell also confirms the previously reported hiring of Juli Inkster.)

McDowell writes:

“I feel really good about this crew,” Mark Loomis, coordinating golf producer for Fox Sports, told Golf.com. “One of the reasons we have been taking our time is that we’re putting a team, not just a bunch of individuals, together. We went about it slowly and deliberately, and I think this group we’re adding today all complement the team really well.

Pavin will serve as a studio analyst at the U.S. Open, while Inkster will be an on-course analyst at the U.S. Open and an analyst at the U.S. Women’s Open. Flesch, who has spent several seasons working with Golf Channel, will work as a hole announcer for most of the USGA events.

Pavin was greeted after his U.S. Open win by Norman, who welcomed him "to the club" of major winners.

This just about rounds out Fox's team, with only a few on-course reporters needing to be named.

Jessica Marksbury recently interviewed Joe Buck about the Fox team as they prepare for their first telecast from the Shark Shootout's final round. On his broadcast partner Norman...

Greg will be as open and as naturally critical as a guy can be without overdoing it. You have to be honest with the viewer, but you also have to be fair and remember how hard this game is. The Shark will have teeth, but I don't think he'll be a Great White every time he opens his mouth.