Golf -- CBS Bows To Taste Masters, Drops Mccord From Team

AUGUSTA, Ga. - CBS commentator Gary McCord's colorful comments during this year's Masters telecast apparently were a little too harsh for the folks who run the tournament.

CBS Sports, bowing to pressure from officials at Augusta National Golf Club, said yesterday that McCord would not work its 1995 telecast.

His crime: Saying the speedy greens looked like "they used bikini wax" and that the bumpy terrain "looks suspiciously like body bags."

"In prior years we had expressed concern to CBS about the appropriateness of some of Mr. McCord's commentary," Masters chairman Jack Stephens said in a statement.

"In spite of assurances to the contrary, Mr. McCord's remarks in 1994 were even more distasteful and conflicted directly with our goals. We therefore felt compelled to seek a change for 1995."

Stephens said the goal of Augusta National "has been to provide our television viewing audience with the best possible positive contribution to the game."

McCord, a pro golfer who plays a handful of PGA Tour events each year, joined CBS in 1985.

He was not available for comment yesterday, but his agent, Eddie Elias, told The New York Times that CBS golf producer-director Frank Chirkinian informed him of the decision last week.

"It's the Masters. What can you do?" Elias said. "I can't blame CBS. But I don't think it will hurt Gary at all. Actually, I think it's a home run for him. Gary didn't set out to be irreverent. His comments weren't out of line, just journalistic observations done in a cute way."

McCord isn't the first CBS announcer to be dropped at the request of tournament officials. Jack Whitaker was bounced in 1966 after calling galleries at the Masters a "mob scene."