Looking at Shane Lowry, John Daly, and so many other golfers, it’d be hard to imagine the PGA Tour being intolerable towards… facial hair. Yet, legend has it that former commissioner Deane Beman enforced a ‘No Beard’ edict (never official, however), believing golf a gentleman’s game demanding clean-shaven pros. Of course, some resisted, and one such story cracked up Brandel Chamblee. The one that unfolded during a pro-am event in Tucson in 1997.

In the debut video episode of The Favorite Chamblee, Bailey and Chamblee hosted golf veteran Gary McCord, who confessed he nearly sued the Tour over that very thing: “I showed up with a beard. I don’t know, and they told me, “You can’t wear a beard for the ProAm.” [The officials said] Deane Beman said he’ll find and suspend you if you wear the beard in the tournament,” said McCord.

Then, McCord called ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, and “they had me send the dress code from the tour. Didn’t mention anything about not having a beard.” In fact, the ACLU told him, “If they kick you out of the tournament or something, you’re going to win first prize because we’ll sue them for that.” At that, both Bailey and Chamblee started laughing. When McCord derided himself with, “I’ve always been an idiot,” Chamblee laughed and replied, “You’ve always… yeah.”

Not the only beard story we’ve got. During the Open Championship, David Duval walked in with a goatee. Arnold Palmer didn’t like it and gave the pro some grief over it, but his longtime agent, Alistair Johnston, took a dig at that, pointing at the framed photographs of the former winners in beards (from the 1800s), saying, “Arnold, turn around and look at all the pictures on the wall behind you.”

This isn’t the first time Chamblee has shown his funny and more relaxed side. Take, for instance, the 2020 exclusive interview with Golfweek when he said YouTube and social media have… “bi*ch-slapped instruction into reality.”

On the other hand, McCord was once a PGA Tour player. But as his career dwindled, he joined CBS as an analyst in 1986. But popularity didn’t come when he had faces like Jim Nantz to compete with behind the scenes. So, with the help of Rollie Fingers, a seven-time All-Star pitcher, McCord achieved his iconic ‘handlebar mustache.’ And that’s one of the reasons he is known now. That and being banned from the Masters broadcast for his outlandish language.

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Gary McCord’s jokes didn’t sit well with the Augusta National Golf Club

Back in 2023, in the second episode of Kostis & McCord, Gary McCord revealed to his longtime colleague Peter Kostis the infamous story of his banishment from the Masters broadcast in 1994.

McCord started with CBS in 1986 and quickly realized he needed to test the boundaries of what he could say while covering the Masters. So, in 1994, during coverage at the 17th hole, McCord famously compared an extremely slick putt to “I don’t think they mow these greens; I think they bikini wax them,” inspired by an ad he saw during a commercial break.

Neal Pilson, CBS Sports president, found that hilarious, and surprisingly, neither CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian nor Augusta National’s chairman Hord Hardin objected at the time. But the trouble came with Tom Watson, who sent a letter to Augusta National demanding McCord be removed, labeling him “the Howard Stern of golf.” A few months later, McCord was indeed dropped from CBS’s Masters coverage, bringing an end to his commentary at the prestigious Masters.

Of course, the two remained ‘enemies’ for the years to come, but as per McCord, the hate has calmed down. In fact, in the same interview, he confessed, “I got more publicity for this than anything I ever did in golf. I probably should have paid him [Watson] a fee.”

Nonetheless, it’s not a stretch to say a lot of problems in McCord’s life have come because of… McCord.