Kenny Mayne is walking back his claim last month that he is banned from Augusta National.
The former ESPN star said he believed he was barred from the iconic course during an appearance on “God Bless Football” with Jon “Stugotz” Weiner because of on-air comments he made around 20 years ago, before the network was set to cover the Masters.
Mayne, 66, chose to set the record straight during an interview on the “Awful Announcing Podcast” this week after seeing the story go viral.
The legendary “SportsCenter” host said most of the story is true, but he does not know for sure whether he’s allowed at Augusta or not.
“Yeah, it’s funny, that’s a real story and a fake story at the same time, which that’s kind of true with everything, I think,” said Mayne, who used to cover golf for the Worldwide Leader.
He confirmed that after jokingly saying on air he would show up at the course with some “saucy” women for a round, someone from Augusta did call the ESPN production truck about it.
Augusta is famous for exercising an extreme level of control over its brand and the verbiage used during the Masters broadcast, but the people in the truck had Mayne’s back and tried to explain that the comment was just part of his usual schtick.
“They really did get upset,” Mayne said. “They really did call ESPN. They called the truck while we’re still on the air. And my boss is like, ‘No, no, no, he just does jokes. He’s not really gonna do that.’’
The details and truth around the aftermath are where things get a little fuzzy. Mayne said he was not already invited to the Masters at the time since he was covering horse racing, but chose to tell the story like he was banned for life from the course because it was funnier.
He believed the tone and context of what he told Stugotz last month wasn’t taken into consideration, and soon the story was all over several national media outlets.
His bosses at his current podcast, “We Need a Fourth” for SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, want him to leave the story as is.
“They were like, ‘keep it going.’ They didn’t give a damn about the truth of it.” Mayne said. “They just liked that my name was out there and people might hear about our show.”
He was, however, invited by former Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker to play in his golf tournament at Augusta the day after the Masters this year. He’s unsure if Augusta would want to set the record straight in any way.
“They may have a better sense of humor than we think,” Mayne said. “Maybe it was just one guy who called [the truck].”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
