Sports-talk-show host Chris Russo has some spicy takes on golf

It's a tranquil fall morning at Shorehaven Golf Club—just not on the patio where Chris Russo is ranting to the delight of a long-time listener, first-time caller. Only I’m not holding a phone but rather sitting next to one of the most popular—and animated—sports-talk-show hosts ever. Russo, better known as “Mad Dog,” has been talking mostly about golf for an hour, but as we start to wrap up a lively conversation, we begin riffing on topics like the recent retirements of Roger Federer and Serena Williams, the greatest NBA teams of all time, and Chris Paul versus Bob Cousy.

We disagree on the latter—let’s just say Russo is a staunch defender of the old guard, including old point guards—but I still emerge smiling from the spirited back-and-forth chat like countless callers who have interacted with him through the years. The radio legend’s career first took off in the New York market alongside Mike Francesa on WFAN’s “Mike and the Mad Dog” show. But after that pair’s iconic 19-year run, Russo has been a solo, national act, and the face—well, voice—of SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio channel for 14 years. “I’ve been very lucky, right place, right time,” says Russo, 63, who was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame on Nov. 1. “I’ve tried not to make the colossal error, which can kill you.”

Actually, it doesn’t take much to get Russo going, and, oh, does he have some spicy takes on golf—starting with one of the game’s most sacred locations. “I thought St. Andrews was overrated,” says Russo, who played there for his 60th birthday in 2019 when he led a 12-buddy group in a Ryder Cup-like event. “There’s too much going on. There are so many courses. There are balls being hit all over the place. A lot of the holes in the middle are very similar.”

When it comes to the real Ryder Cup, Russo breaks into his signature quicker—and louder—cadence to address the current ban on LIV golfers competing in the biennial event. “If they don’t let them play next year in the Ryder Cup, I don’t want to watch,” says Russo, who added that LIV has provided a huge uptick in the amount of golf calls he gets during his SiriusXM show. “The Presidents Cup is already a joke. No Cameron Smith? You’re taking the best player in the world away!”

Russo is an advocate for more match play in the pro game and, not surprisingly, given his old-school bias, he takes Jack Nicklaus over Tiger Woods. “Tiger faced better depth, but Jack beat more top-tier players.” As for LIV Golf, Russo is most bothered by what he sees as hypocrisy from its critics. “My issue is, I don’t wanna hear people killing the golfers when NBC’s got deals with the IOC, when the NBA’s got deals with China,” he says. “Who says that Harold Varner can’t get a hundred million dollars? You’d probably do the same thing!”

Russo signed a contract he “never saw coming” this year with ESPN, making weekly Wednesday appearances on the network’s “First Take” morning debate-style program headlined by the equally energetic Stephen A. Smith. At an age when most people are thinking about winding down their careers, Russo found another layer to his that has introduced him to a younger audience.