Masters week doesn’t officially begin until Jim Nantz welcomes the audience with his iconic “Hello, friends” greeting. The warming introduction has been a staple of Nantz’s broadcasts for more than two decades, but do you know how it first made its way on air?
“Hello, friends” isn’t just a friendly greeting or a fun catch phrase; it’s a message to Nantz’s late father while he was battling Alzheimer’s disease. After learning about the real origin story behind “Hello, friends,” you’ll surely get choked up every time you hear Nantz break out his famed greeting.
The Origin Story Behind Jim Nantz’s Iconic Greeting, “Hello, Friends”
In February, Nantz appeared on the “Vanity Index Podcast” with Chad Mumm and Wells Adams and broke down the origin story of “Hello Friends.” The legendary broadcaster debuted the greeting at the 2002 PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club as a simple yet powerful message to his father, Jim.
At the time, Nantz’s father had been battling Alzheimer’s for seven years. Before the PGA Championship, the longtime CBS broadcaster knelt by his father’s bed and told him to listen for a special message he had planned.
“When I come on the air, I’m gonna look into that camera, and I’m gonna say, ‘Hello, friends,’ and that’s for you, Dad, ‘cause you have nothing but friends,” Nantz said on the podcast. “That’s going to be my little trigger line that lets you know at that very moment I’m thinking of you.”
Nantz didn’t expect the line to stick. It was meant as a personal, one-off message to his father to give him a boost, so Nantz had no idea it would take on the life that it did.
“Some people, I think, think it’s some sort of attempt, lame attempt to try to have a signature phrase or line. Had nothing to do with that,” the 66-year-old said. “It all had to do with trying to communicate with my father.”
Nantz Thinks of His Late Father Every Time He Says “Hello, Friends”
Nantz’s father passed away in 2008 at the age of 79, but his memory lives on every time the broadcaster welcomes the audience with his famed line. Nantz can’t help but think of and miss his father whenever he jumps on the air and says “Hello, friends.”
“I say, ‘Hello, friends,’ and I think of my dad watching down on me, and it relaxes me, and I fall into the flow of the show,” he said.
The broadcast both isn’t the only place where Nantz honors his father. In 2011, he founded the Nantz National Alzheimer Center in partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital. The NNAC “conducts cutting-edge research and provides state-of-the-art training for physicians and health professionals related to Alzheimer’s disease and dementing illnesses,” per its official website.
When the 2026 Masters gets underway this week, Nantz will welcome the golf world with his iconic tag line. Now that you know how “Hello, friends” came to be, it might be hard to hold back tears.
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