Rosburg won six times on the PGA Tour, the highlight being his victory at the 1959 PGA Championship. Instead of becoming a club pro in the mid-1970s, when his PGA Tour days were over, Rossie turned to television. He had dabbled in TV during the late 1950s and ’60s, but when ABC hired him in 1974 Rosburg took on a special assignment. He became golf’s first truly on-course announcer.

The idea to have an announcer walk with players was hatched by Roone Arledge, the head of ABC Sports, and golf producer Chuck Howard. Their first stab at on-course commentary involved Bud Palmer, who was stationed on a tower behind the 15th hole were he did commentary until the last group past his hole. He then put on some special gear and would pick up the final group and follow them in. Palmer was a very capable announcer, but he was a fish out of water in terms of on-course analysis. Howard quickly realized that the job needed to be handled by a player. He was hunting for a special player and Steve Reid, who was the television coordinator between ABC and the PGA Tour told him about Rosburg. He interviewed for the job and got it. In talking with Howard 20 years later, he said that Rossie was just what they wanted because he knew the players, so they didn’t feel it was intrusive when he looked over their lies and assessed the circumstances for viewers. Rosburg figured out early that his job was to tell what kind of lie a player had, what kind of shot that player had to execute, what the conditions were, and how well the player succeeded. Rosburg perfected the art of the roving announcer, thus paving the way for Judy Rankin, Roger Maltbie, David Feherty, Mark Rolfing and others.

Rosburg was with ABC for 31 years, making him the longest serving active golf announcer on television. He didn’t do much work for ABC after 2000, but the network did make sure he was aboard for their last PGA Tour telecast, the Tiger Woods Target Challenge in December 2006.