Beloved American sports reporter Jim Gray was dismissed from an assignment covering the PGA Tour yesterday. The Golf Channel had hired Gray, described as a freelance journalist by USA Today, to report during the Northern Trust Open in Pacific Palisades, CA this weekend, but after a spat with a Tour player, Gray was sent home. From USA Today’s Game On:

Gray apparently got into a heated argument with golfer Dustin Johnson’s caddie Thursday. Johnson incurred a two-stroke penalty after nearly missing his tee time, a blunder Gray reported on the network’s Golf Central show. After Johnson posted a first round 73, his caddie got into a profanity-laced argument with Gray.

“Our aim is to provide the best possible golf coverage for our viewers. Anything else is a disservice. In order not to provide further distraction, we’ve decided to remove Jim from this particular assignment,” [The Golf Channel spokesman Dan] Higgins said Friday.

The excuses I keep hearing for Jim Gray’s refusal to die are the dearth of on-air television talent and his annoying ability to actually get stories that others can’t. I have no problems with Gray, other than the fact that he strikes me as the kind of guy that would talk on his cell phone in a movie theater and chloroform his mother for gas money. I’m sure he’s just misunderstood, like Kim Jong-il and British actors. Again with Richard III?! Losers.