If it’s a live bat instead of a golf ball, do you still say “fore?”
Halloween came early for NBC’s Kevin Kisner and Dan Hicks as a bat flew into their broadcast booth, spooking them and forcing them to take cover during the British Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
“Apparently, a bat of some sort is flying around,” Mike Tirico told viewers as the broadcast showed Kisner and Hicks’ freakout. “Kevin Kisner … this is a man who is a proud hunter — he’s under his jacket, he is spooked by this bat. Dan Hicks is trying to keep it away from him.”
While Hicks flailed his arms aimlessly, attempting to scare off the bat, Kisner essentially hit the deck as he ducked down and used his sports coat as overhead protection.
Hicks has been NBC’s lead play-by-play talent since 2000, but a bat in the booth had to be a first.
“I’m telling you Mike … just when you think you’ve seen it all,” Hicks told Tirico after things had settled.
Hicks said the bat did 20 laps in their tower during its invasion.
For Kisner, he’s in the booth as an analyst while also regularly still competing on the PGA Tour. In his last time out, he finished T8 in the ISCO Championship.
“I saw the feet up looking to land, I was ducking out,” Kisner said about the bat.
The pair weren’t even midway through the tournament when the bat debacle took place, as they’ll hope no more flying creatures make their ways into the booth the rest of the weekend
“You never know what you’re gonna get at a major championship,” Tirico joked. “You’re on the air for 8-9 hours.”
Tirico may be right.
A bat in the broadcast booth in broad daylight? Time will tell what else the British Open has in store.