Who Is The Tour Championship Announcer? Meet The Man With The Awesome Voice

If you've been watching the Tour Championship this week, you may well have picked up on the striking voice of the first-tee announcer at East Lake Golf Club.

A booming and deep tone fills the air whenever that latest pair of players walk up to begin their rounds.

Akin to a world-class boxing, an NFL or an NBA emcee, Larry Gardner feels born to fulfill this role.

His welcoming of Collin Morikawa, in particular, struck a chord with people and he now has tens of thousands of fans around the world. "Please welcome... Collin Morikawa!"

It was simple, but the reason Gardner is so popular is down to his cadence, tone and delivery. It's an art form to be a good announcer, and Gardner could well turn out to be a great.

Speaking to the PGA Tour, Gardner revealed he actually started announcing a little in high school. He continued through his time at Kennesaw State University and has held the mic for Georgia Tech Athletics, Rome Emperors (Atlanta Braves High A MiLB Affiliate) and multiple media companies, too.

The owner of this particularly striking voice admitted he sounded like Steve Urkel at the end of his seventh grade but then woke up "sounding like Darth Vader."

His dream to be a professional announcer began more than 20 years ago before Gardner's big break came via a viral audition back in February 2023.

Out of more than 500 applications trying to land the Atlanta Braves' PA announcer gig, Gardner made it to the final three.

While he was unfortunately not selected on that occasion, his powerful voice and charisma helped him become popular and earn several other opportunities - including a crack at sending the PGA Tour's 30 best players off from the first tee every day this week.

Gardner - who spends much of his time as a salesman and has worked in insurance previously - appears to be having a whale of a time at East Lake and has been quoted as expressing his disbelief over positive feedback from the likes of Rory McIlroy, Jim Nantz and Jim Furyk over his announcing skills.

Speaking to the PGA Tour, he said: "To be able to put something PGA Tour-related on your resume, and not only that, but when you've got people like Jim Furyk and Jim Nantz calling you out on national TV who didn't know you from Adam's tom cat last week...

"Those are the types of things that are keys to unlock your future, those are the types of things where the doors will open and that can propel you to even bigger things.

"My dream has always been the NBA. If you're an NBA team, I'm telling you, all I need is one shot, just one shot. Don't miss your chance or blow it. Nah, I'm just teasing. But I'm serious.

"And then you get people like Rory saying 'hey, nice job yesterday' - that's pretty freaking cool, man!"

As if to highlight the reason Gardner's popularity has sky-rocketed in the past few days, he finished by saying: "I want people to be able to say he poured every ounce of passion and energy into what he gave for his fan base. Character matters more than money - I'll always say that."