In 1971, McCord turned professional. He played in over 400 PGA Tour events but never won. His best two finishes on the
PGA Tour were at the
Greater Milwaukee Open, placing second in both
1975 and
1977. During his years on tour, he had two dozen top-10 finishes. McCord was involved in an embarrassing episode during the
1984 FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. When lining up a putt on the 15th green, McCord's pants split open, exposing his backside as he was not wearing any underwear. McCord wrapped a towel around his midriff and went off to find a replacement pair of pants. Eventually
Peter Jacobsen offered McCord his rain pants for a "fee" of $20.
Broadcasting career At age 37 in
1986, McCord joined
CBS Sports as a golf analyst. He was noted for his outspokenness and irreverence, traits that got him banished from the CBS commentary team for the
Masters Tournament. During the network's Masters coverage in
1994, McCord remarked that the 17th green was so fast it seemed to be "
bikini-waxed", and that "
body bags" were located behind the green for players who missed their approach shots. Several months later,
Augusta National Golf Club used its influence with CBS to have him removed from the Masters commentary team. While McCord continued to cover every other golf event aired by CBS, he did not return to Augusta with the network. He was not the first CBS commentator to be banned:
Jack Whitaker referred to the gallery at the end of the 18-hole playoff in
1966 as a "mob" rather than "patrons" and was banned for the next five Masters; he was allowed to return in
1972. After 33 years with CBS, McCord was not brought back for the network’s 2020 golf broadcast team. McCord also plays a limited schedule on the
Champions Tour. After turning 50 in May
1998, he won his first title at the
Toshiba Senior Classic in March
1999, and also won that year's
Ingersoll-Rand Senior Tour Championship. Back in 1991, he won the
Gateway Open on the Ben Hogan Tour, the second-tier golf tour in the U.S., now called the
Korn Ferry Tour. McCord has also written two books,
Just a Range Ball in a Box of Titleists and
Golf for Dummies. In
1996, he appeared as himself in the
Kevin Costner movie
Tin Cup, a movie he says is based on his life. He and fellow former CBS commentator
Peter Kostis are partners in the Kostis/McCord Learning Center in
Scottsdale, Arizona. McCord formerly served as a co-announcer on the
EA Sports'
Tiger Woods PGA Tour series along with
David Feherty. ==Personal life==