The Business of Great Golf Storytelling - Jimmy Roberts, Co-Founder of Big Swing Media

Ever wonder what it's like to walk the hallowed grounds of Augusta National alongside legends like Byron Nelson? In our Season 19 finale, host Colin Weston sits down with the incomparable Jimmy Roberts - sports broadcasting icon, master storyteller, and co-founder of Big Swing Media - for a conversation that spans the evolution of golf media and the $250 billion annual business of golf. We To learn how a cold call to ABC's Wide World of Sports launched a four-decade broadcasting career that would lead to earning 16 Emmy Awards.

From his first nervous steps at the 1991 Masters to launching a premium media company dedicated to golf's business landscape, Jimmy shares the lessons learned from a career that's covered every major sporting event on the planet. Whether you're an aspiring broadcaster, a golf industry professional, or simply someone who loves a great story, this episode is your backstage pass to one of sport's most respected voices.

Three key takeaways that you'll discover:

✅ The Power of Curiosity Over Stats Jimmy reveals that his entire career was built not on memorizing statistics, but on genuine curiosity about people. His advice? "God gave us two ears and one mouth" so listen more because everyone has a story worth telling.

✅ Golf is a $250 Billion/year Global Ecosystem With more golf courses in America than McDonald's restaurants and 130 million "golf engaged" Americans, Jimmy explains why he and co-founder Fred Bucher launched Big Swing Media to cover the business side of the game that's been largely overlooked.

✅ Storytelling is About Making People Care From his days at ABC Sports learning from legendary producer Roone Arledge, Jimmy shares the foundational principle of great storytelling: educate your audience and give them a reason to connect emotionally with the subjects you cover.

Inspiring Quotes from Jimmy Roberts:

"Everybody's got a story. The heart of storytelling is to educate people and give them a reason to care. Give them a reason to identify, give them a reason to root."

"If there was such a thing as YouTube back then, I'd probably be either waiting tables or selling insurance right now because there'd be evidence of my incompetence. I was really fortunate to learn on the job and make a lot of mistakes in obscurity."

"We're not broadcasters, we're narrowcasters. We've identified our little lane where there's a lot of white space, and we're colouring in some of the lines."

Episode Chapters

00:00 - Introduction