Announcer Dottie Pepper excited about getting call on No. 13

When Dottie Pepper received her hole assignment for this week’s Masters broadcast, she was ecstatic.

The veteran announcer, who joined CBS last fall, will call the action at the par-5 13th.

“It’s just way cool,” she said of the iconic hole that completes Amen Corner and is known for producing some of the most dramatic moments in tournament history.

Her memories of the 13th include the good and the bad: Standing out are Phil Mickelson’s shot between the pine trees in 2010 and Curtis Strange’s finding the tributary of Rae’s Creek in 1985.

“It’s kind of down in that low section of the golf course where the sound carries,” she said. “There’s the element of will he go for it or will he not?”

As a former LPGA player, Pepper knows the ins and outs of the game. She won 17 times in her professional career, including the Na­bis­co Dinah Shore twice. After retiring in 2004, she turned to broadcasting and has worked for the Golf Channel, NBC Sports and ESPN.

After David Feherty left CBS last year, Pepper was hired to be an on-course reporter and analyst for CBS. There are no walking announcers at the Masters, so she’ll be in the booth.

Feherty was assigned to the 15th hole for CBS in recent years, but Peter Kostis will move to that hole this year.

“There’s no science to this,” said Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports. “Both are equally proficient in calling holes. It made sense for Peter to move up to 15 and made 13 available for Dottie.”

Pepper will remain with ESPN as an analyst for its golf coverage, and she made her CBS debut in late January at Torrey Pines.

She has spent the early part of the year adapting to her new colleagues and learning their system, including spending time in the production trucks earlier this season.

“It’s a different way CBS processes information than NBC,” she said. “The biggest transition for me was new voices in my ear. Those are the voices you need to be keying on.”

Pepper will be the first female announcer to call the Masters for CBS, but she is downplaying that aspect.

“The microphone doesn’t know if you’re male or female,” she said. “The only way I know how to prepare is full tilt. To me it’s not a big deal. I’m preparing to cover a golf tournament. Who in the world wouldn’t want this opportunity?”

On Wednesday night, Pep­per was honored by the Golf Writers Association of America with the William D. Richardson Award, given to someone who has consistently made an outstanding contribution to golf. Pepper has made many.

“I had to Google it,” Pep­per said of the award. “And then I got a little wobbly in the knees.”

Beyond her playing career and TV work, Pepper has served a two-year stint on the PGA of America’s board of directors, on which she focused on developing junior golf in America. She has co-written children’s books on bullying, creating a golf ball character named “Bogey.”

She remembers her first visit to Augusta National when she was still in college at Fur­man University in Green­ville, S.C.

“There was so little security I talked my way into player parking,” she said with a laugh. “I had played on the Cur­tis Cup team and had my USGA badge, and they kept waving me through.”

Times have changed, but the thrill Pepper gets from the Masters hasn’t.

“I would have taken a position anywhere,” she said. “Even as much golf as I covered with NBC, 12 to 13 events by the time the Mas­ters rolled around, I sat and watched golf.

“I never went to Masters parties because I wanted to watch the golf tournament.
I used to take baby-sitting jobs so I could watch the highlights show late at night.”