Finding her voice

While Jim Nantz may be the voice of golf at CBS Sports, the most visible person on those broadcasts is a 38-year-old native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named Amanda Renner (formerly Balionis). She is the one who handles on-course interviews of the day’s most noteworthy golfers and conducts Q&As with newly crowned champions. And since taking on that role in 2017, she has demonstrated an engaging enthusiasm for her work as well as a deep knowledge of the game and the people who play it at the highest level.

Renner is also quite good at something that is much more difficult than it looks, which is asking the right questions in the right ways so that often reticent and remote subjects reveal themselves on live television.

Think of Dustin Johnson tearing up during an interview with Renner after he captured the 2020 Masters and spoke with uncharacteristic depth about how much that win meant to him. Or Tiger Woods expressing equal parts sadness and shock about the death of Kobe Bryant in an interview with her mo...