Golf lifestyle media company Back9Network said it has hired a mix of journalists, athletes and models — including one model made Internet famous by a botched beauty pageant answer in 2007 — to host programming ahead of its Sept. 29 DirecTV launch.
Model Caite Upton — whose response to a Miss Teen USA pageant question about Americans’ lack of geographical knowledge has more than 61 million hits on one YouTube video — will co-host a program called “Off Par” with comedian and actor Matty Blake.
Upton, who was 18 at the time, later parodied her pageant answer at the MTV Movie Awards and on Comedy Central’s Tosh.0, among other programs.
Meanwhile, Back9 has hired Shane Bacon and Erica Bachelor to co-host “The Turn.” Bacon has written about golf for cbssports.com and Yahoo! Sports and Bachelor is a former host on the E! Network.
Back9 also hired former PGA pro John Maginnes, former Golfweek senior writer Jeff Rude and British women’s wakeboarding champion and commentator Will Christien to co-host “The Clubhouse.”
