This Mercer graduate is leading Tokyo Olympics golf coverage for a major TV network

As the Olympic golf tournament began Wednesday evening, astute listeners might have heard a familiar Middle Georgia voice.

Tom Abbott, a 2004 Mercer graduate and 2015 Mercer Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, is one of the lead commentators on NBC for both the men’s and women’s tournaments.

Abbott has worked for the Golf Channel after his four years at Mercer, where he was on a golf scholarship while he majored in business. Abbott hosted a Mercer sports recap called “Mercer in a Minute” for a local TV station and helped with a weekly news show for “Mercer99” a campus station.

At the Golf Channel, where he’s been since 2005, Abbott worked his way up the ranks and on various studio shows. He now travels to more than 20 tournaments a year for Golf Channel and NBC Sports. Abbott does most of his work on the LPGA tour and covers the five LPGA majors as well as works on the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup broadcasts.

Abbott will call the Olympics from a studio in Stamford, Connecticut as much of the coverage on the games is happening outside of Tokyo due to COVID restrictions and logistical concerns.

“Being part of the team and part of the Olympics on NBC and all of the excitement is going to be really cool,” he said in an interview with The Den. “The Olympics is really the most important, if not one of the most important, franchises and parts of NBC’s programming. We have Sunday night football and some other big championships, but the Olympics is a really big part of our makeup. To be involved in that is really quite special.”

The men’s competition will air in the U.S. on July 28-31 and the women’s competition on Aug. 3-6, with air times being from roughly 6:30 p.m.-2:30 a.m. ET. In addition, from 8-10 p.m. Aug. 1 and 2, Abbott will host the preview show in the studio before the rounds.

This story was originally published July 30, 2021 at 2:45 PM.