Amanda Balionis was all set to open her camera to capture the PGA Tour season opener, the 2026 Sony Open in Hawaii. Instead, she captured a quiet scene that carried an unmistakable wink of timing. What appeared to be a simple sighting quickly turned into a playful signal that her own comeback to the golf circuit was starting with a story already writing itself.

“Also- spotting an albatross on the PGA TOUR’s first day back? A little too on the nose universe 😂,” Balionis wrote in a story she uploaded on Instagram.

Amanda Balionis left the PGA Tour in 2016, doubting her future in broadcasting. In a nostalgia post shared on January 15, 2026, she wrote, “2016 was the year I left the PGA TOUR thinking I was leaving broadcasting because the TV jobs just weren’t coming.”

After leaving broadcasting, she moved to San Diego and worked in the marketing field before returning to TNT Sports. Then CBS Sports hired her, where she became a regular covering the PGA Tour. She completed 19 weeks in 2025 before shifting to NFL duties.

Apart from the regular tour, she made selective golf appearances in late 2025. This included hosting AWS Live at the Tour Championship and the PURE Insurance Championship. She also hosted the Tito’s Shorties Classic.

Now that the PGA Tour has resumed, she was back to cover the season opener event in Hawaii. The rare bird sighting appeared as a symbolic nod to her return.

The 2026 season starts without The Sentry. The PGA Tour announced the cancellation of the event in October 2025 due to drought conditions on Maui. This made the Sony Open in Hawaii the season opener this year.

Many elite golfers are part of the field, including Ben Griffin, Nick Taylor, Keegan Bradley, Robert MacIntyre, Chris Gotterup, Michael Kim, JJ Spaun, and others. With a score of 8 under par 62, Nick Taylor and Kevin Roy share the top spot on the leaderboard. Ben Griffin, Chris Gotterup, John VanDerLaan, and Kim Seong-hyeon follow them closely with 7 under par 63.

Although Amanda Balionis is back on her PGA Tour duties, she has a soft corner for the NFL.

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Amanda Balionis admits the NFL is her first love

Amanda Balionis covers both golf and American football, as they largely fall on different timelines. However, she shared an Instagram story declaring football her “first love” and the NFL her dream.

Balionis grew up in Pittsburgh idolizing Steelers Sundays and Bonnie Bernstein’s NFL sideline reporting. In the early 2010s, freelancing in NYC in a 300 sq ft apartment, she took a PGA Tour in-house reporter job out of necessity. Labeled “the golf girl” in male-dominated media, she joined Callaway in 2016 before CBS hired her part-time for golf in 2017, full-time in 2018, with college football and NFL added later.

She has been very active with her duties. In 2025, she covered 19 PGA Tour weeks, including the Masters and the PGA Championship. Then, from September, she started covering the NFL. Apart from that, she also managed a herniated disc and pinched nerve pain.

Amanda Balionis’ perfectly timed albatross moment added a lighthearted touch to her return, turning a routine assignment into a scene that felt personal and symbolic.