GARY McCORD’S cheeky “bikini wax” joke cost him the chance to cover the Masters for the last 30 years.

But he insists it is the best thing that happened for his broadcasting career.

Former pro golfer and outspoken McCord joined CBS’s team of golf analysts in 1986 and risked the wrath of the prestigious Augusta National Golf Club that hosts the Masters each year when he referred to the “cheap seats” at the 14th hole.

But it was in the 1994 tournament that things took a dramatic turn for him – thanks to one gag that did not go down well.

McCord had been flicking through a magazine during a commercial break and spotted an advert for a beauty salon near his hometown in California.

And that prompted his iconic line of commentary just a few minutes later when eventual champion Jose Maria Olazabal left himself with a difficult putt on the notoriously-fast 17th green. 

Speaking on his Off Their Rockers podcast with fellow former CBS pundit Peter Kostis, McCord retold the story.

He said: “You just have to rewrite the cliches. 

“Olazabal asked his caddy about what the next shot is. Pin is back right on the last day. 

“I said the caddie, his brother, is telling him, ‘Don’t hit it over the green because there’s body bags down there.’ Cliche, it’s a euphemism for, ‘He’s dead.’ That’s it, no big deal.

“I put magazines up there with me. All I do is read, I get words, I ingest words into my head. Any word. 

“I looked down during a commercial break and I see the Golden Door, Escondido, California, I live there it’s expensive.

“I’m looking at the menu of what the girls get – cucumbers on their eyes, seaweed wraps and bikini waxes.

“As you know at Augusta, the one thing they are definitely afraid of is the speed of the greens.

“Jose hits it over to the left and he’s got to putt over to the right and it’s just faster than hell.

“I said, ‘This putt that Jose’s got here is really, really delicate. Once he gets to the top of that hill, it’s a speed freak all the way down. In fact, I don’t think they mow these greens, I think they bikini wax them.”

McCord – who failed to win in his 400 PGA Tour events – was sat next to CBS Sports president Neil Pilsen at the time and his boss cracked up into laughter. 

So when the phone that connects to the producers did not go off, he thought little more of it.

But on the Wednesday after the Masters, McCord was called into a meeting with CBS golf producer Frank Chirkinian and was shown a handwritten letter from former Masters champ Tom Watson complaining about the commentator to Augusta National and demanding his “eradication”. 

And 48 hours later, his fate was all-but sealed as Augusta were plotting their emphatic expulsion – then it was officially confirmed a few months down the line.

McCord bumped into Watson at Pebble Beach the following year and the pair got into an angry spat over the letter to Augusta. 

But the veteran, who continued covering all of CBS’ other golf tournaments until his 2019 sacking, added when it was suggested the furore boosted his earnings and profile.

McCord said: “He’s poking him in the chest and I’m poking him in the chest.

“I just told him that I don’t understand why he didn’t man up and come to talk to me first and he was trying to be God in this whole thing.

“I understand it and actually I got more publicity for doing this than anything I ever did in golf.

“I should pay him a retirement fee. I should [get him a present].”

McCord certainly grabbed the headlines during his playing days, too.

In one event in 1984, he managed to split his pants – exposing his backside and the fact he was not wearing any underwear.

He wrapped a towel around his midriff to protect his decency while Peter Jacobsen offered him his waterproofs for $20. 

McCord also secured the Fewest Putts in one year, thanks in part to the eccentric character apparently deliberately aiming just off the green near the end of the season so he could chip close to the hole. 

However, McCord is not the only CBS broadcaster to be hit with a ban from Augusta.

Jack Whitaker suffered a similar fate after his cardinal sin, referring to the crowd at the Masters not as “patrons” but as a “mob”.

He was, though, allowed to return after his five-year exile – initially as a spectator before filling in when his colleague fell ill.