Name: Brian Crowell
Age: 45
Club: GlenArbor Golf Club
Residence: Bedford Hills, N.Y.
Occupations: PGA Professional, television broadcaster, radio host

Brian Crowell has been a golf instructor in the Met Area since 1991 and for the past seven years has been the PGA head professional at GlenArbor Golf Club in Bedford Hills, N.Y. Crowell is a member of the Met PGA’s Board of Directors and in addition to his duties as a golf professional, he is a television broadcaster, radio host, author and band member. Clearly, Crowell wears many hats, and MGAgolf.org had the opportunity to chat with him and learn about each one his roles.

What are your responsibilities as GlenArbor’s head professional?
In a nutshell, my duties include helping the members and their guests to enjoy the golf, which involves being a major part of GlenArbor’s instruction program and overseeing the tournament program as well as member and guest services.

You are the Treasurer of the Met PGA. How long have you been on their board?
I’ve been on the Met PGA Board of Directors for eight years now, and I’ve been on the Executive Committee in every capacity except for president, which hopefully is something I can achieve one day. I take a lot of pride in being on this Board because we’re trying to grow the game and help our fellow professionals get the most they can out of their experiences.

Your instruction has been featured in books, magazines and newspapers, and you recently wrote a book, Slice-Free Golf. Why should Met Area golfers buy your book?
I think the slice is the No. 1 problem in amateur golf, and frankly, slicing is the root of many evils in the golf swing. Slice-Free Golf is the product of over 20 years of teaching and it gives people a solid program to overcome the slice almost immediately and produce great results. It has great photos and a step-by-step program that will change any golfer’s life.

What types of challenges did you face during the course of writing the book?
It was a process because you have to find a very good editor and the right photographer, and I’m still learning the marketing side of all of it. It was very enjoyable because it’s the product of helping these issues with golfers for my entire career as an instructor, and I wanted to get all of this material in one source because the slice seems to come up in various forms over and over again with golfers. It’s all about how to deliver the club to the ball on the right track, and Slice Free Golf really simplifies everything. It was a lot of time and a lot of effort, but it’s nice to have that final product and relieving to get it into one book. It took about six months to get the content together and another two or three to get everything edited, proofed and through the processes, but it’s available now through Amazon and my website, SliceFreeGolf.com.

People can hear you on the radio and see you on TV. Where did your passion for becoming on-air talent come from?
I think all golf professionals have that quality because they need to step up in front of a crowd all the time, whether it’s for prize presentations, or to greet a corporate outing or to make announcements to the membership. So all of us are entertainers in a way and I was very fortunate to have the right guy in one of those crowds that said, “You should be doing more of this,” and it turned into radio and then television and, it’s just been a really cool ride.

Has anybody ever confused you with Dan Hicks or Jim Nantz?
Yes! [Laughs] If I’m wearing a blazer at a PGA Tour event I can’t get through a crowd without being asked for an autograph from Jim Nantz for CBS events or Dan Hicks for an NBC product. I’ve never signed for either of them, but I do get a lot of quizzical looks when they realize I’m not who they thought I was. When I first met Jim Nantz, I said to him, “I bet a lot of people call you Brian Crowell,” and he got a kick out of that.

On Sunday, March 25, you will be the co-host with Dottie Pepper of the Golf Digest Equipment Special, which will air on NBC from 1:00-2:00 p.m. before final-round coverage of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Can you give us a tease of what will be hot and trending in 2012?
This is such an exciting show, and I absolutely look forward to doing it every year. The theme this year leans toward fitting and making sure that what golfers buy is right for them, their body types and their swings. I think it’s a really valuable show for the amateur golfer to see because in addition to seeing the latest and greatest equipment and training devices, it goes back to the idea of what people buy should be right for them, which is great reminder for golfers of any skill level.

You'll also be at Augusta National working as a Masters commentator for DirecTV and CBSsports.com. What exactly will you be covering on that “Masters In-Depth” channel and who will you be working with?
CBS has an affiliation with DirecTV, and their subscribers have access to six or seven different Masters channels. The channel I’m hosting is really a wild ride because we cover everything from the practice facilities to player interviews to coverage of play-by-play shots and movement up the leaderboard. We cover a lot of action and a lot of it you can’t see on network coverage, so it’s really a neat product and I’ll be hosting that program and my analyst will be Bobby Clampett. The two of us do five or six hours of coverage each day and it’s a blast.

In addition to the Masters, you’ve covered the U.S. Open, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Women’s Open. Which tournament do you enjoy the most?
The Masters is my favorite of the majors because it defines the season and major golf championships, but there’s a whole different feeling while broadcasting at the Ryder Cup. I’ve been fortunate with NBC to be part of Ryder Cup coverage and I’ll never forget the sounds and the crowds because the overall excitement and energy at Valhalla was incredible when the U.S. triumphed. I’ve got the best of both worlds and I’m truly tickled to have the opportunity to be on the teams of both NBC Sports and CBS Sports, which is one of the benefits of being a freelancer.

You’ve been involved in radio for quite some time as host of “The Clubhouse” on WFAS 1230 AM based out of Westchester. Is the show all golf or a little bit of everything?
The show is in its tenth season this year and it started as a golf show, but we’ve sort of branched out. There’s still an emphasis on golf, but you could say we major in golf and minor in all other sports. I get to feature fellow pros from clubs in the Met Section and it’s great to feature their clubs and facilities and we talk about local events, too, including MGA championships and high school golf. It’s been a real thrill and my co-host Mark Jeffers and I have had a lot of fun doing it for a decade now.

You also play in a band. What’s your band’s name and what do you play?
Yes, it’s called Fase2. We started out as Mid Life Crisis, but a lot of our friends said that sounded too old, so Faze2 is a younger and fresher way to say Mid Life Crisis. We all absolutely love it. I’ve played the tenor sax since I was in the fourth grade and eight years ago I picked up the electric bass and have not put it down since. I absolutely love it. My wife is the lead singer, GlenArbor’s superintendent, Ken Benoit, is the rhythm guitarist and Rick Torres is our drummer, and that spot has rotated a bit even having Round Hill’s pro Tom Henderson sit in. I can’t get enough of it, I could play that bass forever and I just love rehearsing and playing with the group, which plays everything from Van Morrison to Green Day.

As a Twitter user (@bcrowellpro), who has the most interesting Tweets both from the golf world and non-golf world?
I haven’t figured out all of Twitter yet, but some of the fun folks to watch are those on Tour. As a broadcaster, it’s important to know as much as I can about my subject, so when you’re part of the social media world you get to find out little things you wouldn’t otherwise know, like where Rickie Fowler is going to dinner, what he does in his spare time and what rock band Paula Creamer likes. These are things that are very helpful to me and I bring them up when I do player interviews or when I provide commentary on the air. As far as I’m concerned, knowledge is power, and these social media outlets really help us to learn more and more.

How do you manage your time to fit all of these things into your schedule?
With the number of things and projects that I’m doing, I have to remain incredibly appreciative of GlenArbor and its membership for allowing me to have all of these options. It’s really nice to work at a place that not only allows all these things to happen, but supports it.