Fox Sports’ first year covering the US Open turned in the worst day of Holly Sonders’ life.
That’s what the former TV reporter told on Paige Spiranac’s “Playing A Round” podcast earlier this week about her time at Chambers Bay golf course in 2015. The 33-year-old says she was harshly criticized for asking winner Jordan Spieth after his win whether he had packed a fifth outfit for a potential playoff the next day.
“People were like, ‘Oh my God you are the stupidest person I’ve ever met,’” she said on the podcast.
“‘What a dumb bimbo’. That was probably the worst day of my life, the next day. I remember sitting on the charter flight to the Women’s Open, watching all this come in (even by) some people who were friends of mine in the media.
“To this day, I don’t even understand. It was a joking question to Jordan, I understood … I got destroyed by that.
“After that, I was like, ‘F*** it.’ If all these people I had given so much to in the world of golf are going to come down on me on that, then forget it.”
Sonders essentially became the first victim of Fox’s coverage that was skewered by fans, so she got reassigned from on-course interviews to the postgame show a month later.
“That hardened me,” said Sonders, who had become a star at Golf Channel before leaving for Fox.
“That was probably the hardest month of my life. I left the comfort of Golf Channel for a new crew with Fox, who is the best crew in the world. Everybody crushed all of us. I give the most credit to everybody at Fox. We got better and better and we were a close group.”
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Sonders left Fox Sports in October 2019.
“After 10 years of it, and the same golf crowd, I just wanted to live my life,” said Sonders, who recently got engaged to controversial gambler “Vegas Dave” Oancea. “All my relationships failed, ’cause I was doing NFL on the weekends. I had accomplished on TV what I wanted to accomplish. It was just time to live my life.”
