Scott Van Pelt is hosting his edition of SportsCenter this week from Augusta National Country Club, the site of The Masters golf tournament. The heralded tradition of the sport is considered to be one of the most difficult events for which to secure a ticket, but it has been part of Van Pelt’s career as a media professional from nearly the very beginning.
Fans recognize Van Pelt at the tournament and often ask him for pictures, and his coverage of the proceedings has become a regular part of the tradition itself. Yet it took Van Pelt time to become fully accustomed to working in sports media and overcoming imposter syndrome, something he attributes to being part of the reason why he believed he would never work at ESPN.
Van Pelt was rejected from the journalism program at the University of Maryland and struggled to find a full-time television job for many years out of school. One of his friends offered him a chance to work at the Golf Channel, a new startup network at the time, and he worked to become an anchor of the Golf Central program. When championship golfer Tiger Woods was playing in Doral, Fla., Van Pelt drove five hours from Orlando just to ask if he would be able to interview him the next week. Woods obliged and informed the PGA Tour that he wanted to speak with Van Pelt, a conversation that he affirms impacted his career.
While Van Pelt was at the Golf Channel, he worked with producer Lee Rosenblatt, a former employee at ESPN that was nicknamed “Nate,” the reasoning behind which is unbeknownst to Van Pelt. Nonetheless, Rosenblatt told Van Pelt that he would work at ESPN someday, a statement that Van Pelt did not believe would become true. Rosenblatt then subsequently bet Van Pelt $100 that he would, prompting Van Pelt to write a Post-It note that reads, “I’ll never work at ESPN.” In 2001, Van Pelt was hired by ESPN and officially lost the bet, but he keeps the note on his desk as a reminder not to state the things that he will not do.
“It’s good to have that sort of rutter for yourself, and I think of it often, and I’ve changed some of the things I’ve done,” Van Pelt said in a recent interview on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. “I’ve taken on different challenges throughout time, and I try to remind myself not to just get stuck in a lane, which I think can happen to all of us if we’re not willing to do the thing we think we aren’t good enough to do.”
Earlier in the conversation, show host Dan Le Batard asked Van Pelt if he considers the week in which he gets to cover The Masters as a representation of having a “get-to job” rather than a “got-to job.” Van Pelt replied that it was without question and explained how he gets to reconnect with old friends every time he visits Augusta, including someone who works on the grounds that recently introduced him to his nephew.
“There’s something about it – and I get that if you haven’t been here, you can roll your eyes at it – but everyone’s sort of in a good mood; everyone’s on their best behavior,” Van Pelt said. “All the players love it – they revere the place. I owe my career to it largely having met Tiger [Woods] and having him do what he did in ‘97 and have the opportunity to talk to him about it afterwards and maybe get on the radar of ESPN or whatever, so I don’t know. It invites me to be reflective; it invites me to be nostalgic, and gratitude is something I try to put out in the universe all the time. I don’t always do a great job of it, but it’s really easy to do that this week.”
Van Pelt has found that he appreciates going to The Masters more with age and tries to maintain a sense of perspective regarding his career. He discussed that there is a point when you wake up and realize you are on the “Back 9 of your life,” and thinks back to the time when he was in the early stages of his career covering the sport. Van Pelt is undoubtedly grateful to be at the course this week to watch the 88th iteration of The Masters as golfers from around the world compete for the title.
“The end of the runway doesn’t feel like it’s immediate, but it’s you’re getting there, so undoubtedly coming here and thinking, ‘How long do you get to do this – this get-to job?’ I don’t know, but I’m here right now, and so you just try to be present in that and grateful in that because at some point, I won’t. I try not to think a ton about that, but absolutely, age makes you more aware of and present in the present.”
