Verne Lundquist opens up about final Masters broadcast: 'It's time'

The legendary Verne Lundquist will sign off of CBS following this year’s Masters Tournament and as he said, “it’s time.”

At 83 years old, Lundquist already pulled back from football and basketball coverage in recent years, but kept his post at hole No. 16 at Augusta National. The 2024 edition will be his last.

He recently opened up on the decision to finally step away.

“It’s time. I’m not a spring chicken anymore,” the 83-year-old Lundquist said of his impending retirement, via KVUE. “My boss and I talked about it a couple of years ago. By the way, he is retiring at the same time, as is (CBS Sports Chairman) Sean McManus, Jim McKay’s son. 

“I don’t know if you remember Jim; he was the greatest storyteller we ever had in this business. But Sean is retiring after Augusta, and we will be there for the full week and then head up to New York for Sean’s retirement party. It’ll be emotional; I’m not going to deny that.’”

Lundquist has some iconic calls at the Masters. Such as his “yes sir” for Jack Nicklaus in 1986 and “in your life, have you seen anything like that” for Tiger Woods in 2005.

Watching the broadcast on 16 will never be the same after 2024.

But again, it’s time.

“My first one was in 1982,” Lundquist said. “I missed a couple, but fortunately, that was the last one that was rained out on Sunday and they had to play on Monday. It hasn’t happened since. God, don’t let it happen this year. I’ll miss the people and the membership. We’ve gotten close to a lot of the members now after 40 years, and I adore some of the folks. 

“I’ve done the 16th hole since 2000, I can’t wait to see who they’re going to put at 16, because I don’t know. I have a couple of pretty good ideas. But, it’ll be a very emotion-filled week, no doubt about that.”

After bouncing from networks such as ABC, CBS and TNT from 1974 to 1997, Lundquist returned to CBS in 1998 and remained there for the rest of his career.

He is most known for anchoring CBS Sports’ coverage of college football play-by-play for the SEC on CBS from 2000-16. It’s hard to envision an Iron Bowl between Alabama and Auburn and not hear Lundquist on the call.

Lundquist’s final football game was the 2016 Army-Navy game and eventually retired from college basketball broadcasting prior to the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

The Masters is scheduled for April 11 through 14th at Augusta National.