Trey Wingo, a longtime fixture at ESPN, will call the action from the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
One of the biggest names in sports broadcasting is headed to PGA Tour Live.
Trey Wingo, a longtime fixture at ESPN, will call the action from the first two rounds of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, January 28 and 29.
The 57-year-old TV veteran left ESPN at the end of 2020 after a 23-year-run, most recently as co-host of the sports talk radio show “Golic and Wingo.” For many years he hosted NFL Live and also anchored some of the network’s most high-profile events, including the NFL Draft and Wimbledon.
ESPN anchor Trey Wingo attends the Madden Bowl XX Red Carpet event at the USS Intrepid. Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
PGA Tour Live won’t be Wingo’s first foray into golf. For seven years he hosted ESPN’s coverage of two majors.
“I’m excited. I love the game and loved covering the U.S. Open and the Open Championship for years,” Wingo told Golfweek in confirming the news Friday morning. “I’m thrilled to be covering golf again.”
Wingo will call featured groups from the first two rounds at Torrey Pines alongside PGA Tour veteran Billy Kratzert.
The self-confessed golf nut plays at every opportunity near his Connecticut home and sports a 7.6 index.
“I love the game but the game doesn’t love me back,” he said with a laugh.
Since leaving ESPN, Wingo has also launched a hit sports podcast, Half-Forgotten History, the second season of which drops next week.
I’ve always felt a strange sort of kinship with Tiger Woods. We don’t really know each other. But our lives and paths have intersected enough that I’ve felt a strange tie to him for a long time. We grew up 18 miles apart, as southern California kids …
I’ve always felt a strange sort of kinship with Tiger Woods.
We don’t really know each other. But our lives and paths have intersected enough that I’ve felt a strange tie to him for a long time.
We grew up 18 miles apart, as southern California kids in the 1970s and ‘80s. In the mid-1990s I worked for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, and I had to make sure any mention of Tiger’s exploits included the key phrase of “Cypress’ Tiger Woods,” since Cypress was in our circulation area.
Carlos Monarrez is a staff writer for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA Today Network.
When I became the golf writer at the Free Press in 2004, Tiger tracked me down in Michigan and continued to stalk me by playing in the Buick Open every year.
So we’re very similar people, give or take a billion dollars in net worth and slightly different golf swings.
I always loved watching Tiger play golf and I appreciated his skill and artistry on the course. But I was never a fanboy, and I didn’t root for or against him. I was never enough of a fan to be emotionally involved in Tiger’s highs and lows.
That’s why I was surprised by how sad I was Sunday night after watching “Tiger,” the first installment of an excellent two-part HBO documentary about Woods’ life that boasts “never-before-seen footage and revealing interviews with those who know the golfer best.”
The documentary is riveting and replete with those”revealing interviews.” Most notable were Dina Parr, Tiger’s high school girlfriend, and Joe Grohman, a teaching pro at the Navy golf course near Woods’ home who befriended Tiger and his father, Earl, when they played there regularly during Tiger’s childhood.
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At the center of all that sadness was Woods’ complicated relationship with his dad. It was clear Tiger loved and idolized Earl but chafed under his direction as he became a young man and a sports icon.
The documentary asserts, through interviews with Grohman and Parr, that Earl, who died at age 74 in 2006, had extra-marital affairs, which hurt the relationship with his son and provided a poor example for a young Tiger.
“Gosh, you know, I loved this guy,” Grohman said of Earl during the doc. “Earl was a great, great dad. But I don’t know how to smooth this one over. I assure you that we were not the best role models when it came to honoring your marriage. I assure you. This is a tough one. I think I need 2 seconds to collect my thoughts.”
Grohman paused briefly before he continued.
“(Shoot). He’s not going to like this (stuff) at all,” Grohman said of Tiger. “Earl had this little Winnebago and we’d let him teach on the range. And he somehow would teach very attractive blonde women. I never figured out where he met these women. And often after the lesson they’d go into the Winnebago for cocktails. And Tiger was at the course and I was just every bit as bad.
“I mean, for a long time me and Earl were the two biggest male figures in his life, the two closest to him. And here I am chasing skirts and bringing them to the course. And he’s seeing this. Yeah, yeah, and I was married, too, at the time. And he’s seeing this. Yeah. You know to have that kind of access to this child’s development and expose him to that – it’s just, it’s just, yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah.”
Grohman nodded and shook his head.
“Sorry, champ,” he said quietly. “Sorry.”
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Parr gave her own sad story about Woods having to deal with his father’s infidelity. She spoke of an incident that happened when Woods and Earl had traveled to a summer tournament.
“He was sobbing on the phone uncontrollably,” she said. “I couldn’t even understand what he was saying, he was so upset. He finally caught his breath and you know said, ‘My dad’s out again. He met this girl and they’re going out.’
“The sound of Tiger’s voice was so upsetting I wanted to crawl through the phone and just take care of him. I’ve never heard somebody in my life so upset. And his dad I don’t think really cared that he knew it. I think that also bothered him. Like why would you not try to hide this from me? …
“Tiger’s mom (Kultida) was a loyal, good mother and he absolutely loved her. So there was an anger there with his dad. But he could never show it, he could never express it. He had to keep that in and it changed the relationship with him and his dad.”
Tiger Woods was not interviewed in the documentary. His agent, Mark Steinberg, issued this statement Sunday to Golfworld: “Just like the book it is based off of, the upcoming HBO documentary is just another unauthorized and salacious outsider attempt to paint an incomplete portrait of one of the greatest athletes of all-time.”
The book Steinberg referred to was “Tiger,” written by Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict, who are executive producers on the documentary, and published in 2018.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. There are plenty of light moments. One of the best is when the personal animosity Kultida feels for Phil Mickelson is explained. Woods grew up in the shadow of the older Mickelson during their youth in California and they became each other’s main rivals on the PGA Tour.
“Phil’s nickname is Lefty,” former Los Angeles Times reporter Thomas Bonk said. “But Tida called him Hefty.”
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One of the themes in the documentary is the sense that Woods seemed trapped in some ways into becoming who Earl wanted him to be. One poignant example came when Woods’ kindergarten teacher, Maureen Decker, tried to tell Earl his son wanted to play other sports.
“I think Earl had a master plan since Tiger started walking,” Decker said. “… One day, Tiger opened up and he asked me to ask his dad if he could play some other sports besides just golfing. And I told him I would.
“None of the teacher were happy to see Earl coming in for a conference or for anything at all. They said he was a pain in the ass. That’s what they said, and I agreed with them. He was a definite S.O.B. So I didn’t want to say anything to aggravate Earl. But I did say that I thought it would be nice if Tiger could play other sports. But Mr. Woods said he had to concentrate on his golf.”
Woods has been fiercely protective of his privacy, which made the archival footage from home movies taken at Parr’s house even more special. It showed Tiger doing typically silly teenager stuff like dancing and lip-synching and mugging in a tuxedo on his way to a formal event.
Parr said Woods enjoyed the freedom of being himself at her house, as opposed to the “quietness of his house” that “sometimes drove him crazy.”
“He knew that he could be himself,” she said, “and there was no judgment and no pressure to live up to all these expectations.”
Parr painted a somewhat harsh view of Woods’ upbringing, which included countless trophies but few friends and possibly even fewer options to explore who he might have become without his father’s driving guidance.
At one point, the story of the final round of the 2001 Masters is told and within it, Tiger’s disdain for Mickelson is explored. Rooted in that disdain is the idea that Woods struggled to understand how Mickelson could waste all his talent by not being more disciplined.
Tiger outdueled Mickelson in the final round to complete the “Tiger Slam” — holding all four major titles at the same time. Mickelson wouldn’t win his first major for another three years.
But it made me think about the cost of Woods’ excellence, and how much he had to give up and endure to become the best. That price, despite all of Woods’ riches, remains incalculable.
The second part of the documentary airs on HBO at 9 p.m. Sunday.
Carlos Monarrez is a staff writer for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA Today Network. Reach him at cmonarrez@freepress.com and follow him on Twitter @cmonarrez.
Golf Channel changed the way golf fans consume the game and paved the way for the eventual creation of the NFL Network as well as MLB, NBA and NHL channels. It has grown from just 15 hours of live programming in the network’s first week—the 1995 Dubai Desert Classic was the first televised event—to more than 100 live hours from three U.S. time zones and five countries this week.
But 2020 has been a year of transition for the network and on Sunday, Golf Channel’s long-running “Morning Drive” TV show came to the end of the road.
The Golf Channel, owned by NBCUniversal, had been based in Orlando since its launch in 1995 but is pulling up stakes.
“As we announced in February, Golf Channel will be moving its media operations primarily to NBC Sports’ headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, by year-end, while GOLFNOW and GOLFPASS will continue to operate from Orlando,” a Golf Channel spokesman said in a statement to Golfweek in June.
It’s the show that moved me to America in 2015 & made Orlando our home for 6 years.The show that taught me @GolfChannel is a family who make 3am starts doable! The lights went down on @GCMorningDrive today, tough to watch the raw emotion on air but we’ll welcome Golf Today in ‘21 pic.twitter.com/CAxwsoTO0G
Some are making the move north, but many are not, including some associated with “Morning Drive,” like Gary Williams—who started as a co-host in 2011—Robert Damron and Lauren Thompson.
That’s a wrap! 12 years overall with a company built by a King. Thankful for every moment, knowing I leave @GolfChannel as a better person for this chapter in my life. pic.twitter.com/cYe9ZYwvqY
Paige Mackenzie was a co-host who said via social media she’ll be heading west to Arizona. She will continue to be a part of the Golf Channel studio programs and tournaments. She was an analyst during NBC’s U.S. Women’s Open coverage and is expected to see her role on LPGA broadcasts grow in the future.
Morning Drive will tee off for the last time this weekend. When I joined the MD family I was reminded how wonderful it was to be a part of a team. I am thankful and grateful. A lot of us will head in different directions in 2021 and I wish the best to the greatest GC teammates. pic.twitter.com/j1AfNqYCX8
Williams’ future plans are unknown—other than that he will not be with the channel any longer—yet he wished those making the move to Connecticut all the best.
I’ve been a fan of @GolfChannel since Mr. Palmer lit the lamp in 1995.I was,am,and will always be exceedingly grateful to have been a part of the https://t.co/CPwPhh3czW those pointed north,do what you do with pride.I’ll wear my GC letterman jacket proudly. pic.twitter.com/nCsKrWWtWB
Damon Hack will be making the move, and showed his appreciation for Williams (and all his co-workers) while working an LPGA event this weekend.
Down in Naples w @LPGA but also thinking about Studio AP this am. Final weekend of @GCMorningDrive. What a ride it’s been! @Garywilliams1Up revved up the engine nearly a decade ago and the ride has been awesome. Excited for the new adventure and thankful for the bonds created pic.twitter.com/EaLbMpwIvZ
The network recently announced the hiring of Shane Bacon, who will serve as a co-host for a new, live daily show, “Golf Today.” He’ll be joined by Hack as well as Anna Whiteley and Jimmy Roberts.
Golf Channel says “Golf Today” harkens back to network’s first year in 1995, when a show with the same name was the network’s original live tournament pre-game show.
The new “Golf Today” is set to debut on Monday, Jan. 4.
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak and Tim Schmitt contributed to this article.
Some are making the move, but many are not, including some associated with “Morning Drive,” like Gary Williams — who started as a co-host in 2011 — Robert Damron and Lauren Thompson.
The network recently announced the hiring of Shane Bacon, who will serve as a co-host for a new, live daily show, “Golf Today.” Fellow hosts are Damon Hack, Anna Whiteley and Jimmy Roberts. That show debuts on Monday, Jan. 4.
Sunday’s broadcast should be an emotional one. It starts at 10 a.m. ET and should have plenty of highlights spanning the show’s tenure.
Paige Mackenzie was a co-host and she said via social media she’ll be heading west to Arizona, but will still be a part of the Golf Channel studio programs and tournaments. She was an analyst during NBC’s U.S. Women’s Open coverage and is expected to see her role on LPGA broadcasts grow in the future.
Morning Drive will tee off for the last time this weekend. When I joined the MD family I was reminded how wonderful it was to be a part of a team. I am thankful and grateful. A lot of us will head in different directions in 2021 and I wish the best to the greatest GC teammates. pic.twitter.com/j1AfNqYCX8
Williams wished those making the move to Connecticut all the best:
I’ve been a fan of @GolfChannel since Mr. Palmer lit the lamp in 1995.I was,am,and will always be exceedingly grateful to have been a part of the https://t.co/CPwPhh3czW those pointed north,do what you do with pride.I’ll wear my GC letterman jacket proudly. pic.twitter.com/nCsKrWWtWB
And Damon Hack showed his appreciation for Williams (and all his co-workers) while working the LPGA event in Naples.
Down in Naples w @LPGA but also thinking about Studio AP this am. Final weekend of @GCMorningDrive. What a ride it’s been! @Garywilliams1Up revved up the engine nearly a decade ago and the ride has been awesome. Excited for the new adventure and thankful for the bonds created pic.twitter.com/EaLbMpwIvZ
And other staffers have looked back at a special decade as well.
YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY DONT KNOW HOW TALENTED, DRIVEN, AMAZING/AWESOME, POSITIVE, AND FUN THE ENTIRE @GCMorningDrive TEAM IS. PLEASE WATCH FOR THE FINAL TIME TOMORROW AT 10amET TO CELEBRATE THE SHOW’s INCREDIBLE 10 YEAR RUN 💙💛💚 https://t.co/1u1FVF0E0W
Shane Bacon is joining Golf Channel and NBC and will co-host a new live, daily program, Golf Today.
Golf Channel and NBC have a new host and a new program.
On Tuesday the network announced the hiring of Shane Bacon, who will serve as a co-host for a new, live daily show, Golf Today. Fellow hosts are Damon Hack, Anna Whiteley and Jimmy Roberts. Bacon will also be a member of Golf Central Live From and will provide play-by-play commentary and reports during live tournament coverage.
The announcement bookends what has been an up-and-down year for the network. In May, NBC and Golf Channel on-air personalities took voluntary pay cuts amid the pandemic. In June, major layoffs were announced for its Orlando-based staff after February’s news of Golf Channel moving its offices from Florida to Stamford, Connecticut, as part of a corporate consolidation.
A week later, the USGA announced the media rights for its championships had moved from Fox Sports to NBCUniversal. Bacon was the former host of Fox’s golf coverage and currently hosts a podcast with PGA Tour pro Max Homa.
“Golf Today represents a natural progression in our daily studio programming. At midday, we can lead the daily golf conversation with access to newsmakers in all time zones, Tour players on the range preparing for upcoming tournaments and live press conferences.” said Golf Channel executive producer Molly Solomon via a press release. “We’re also thrilled to welcome Shane Bacon as a co-host of Golf Today. Shane has developed an avid fan base with his fresh and insightful approach across his work on golf broadcasts, social media and podcasts, and he’ll be a great fit with the Golf Today, Live From and tournament teams.”
Golf Today was the original name of the network’s live tournament pre-game show and will replace it’s current morning show, Morning Drive. The show debuts on Monday, January 4.
“I’m excited to be joining the GOLF Channel and NBC family – it’s where golf happens, and I’m a golfer,” said Bacon. “The fact that I get to work with the top of the top in terms of analysts, play-by-play voices, and behind-the-scenes folks is a dream come true. I’ve known Damon for a long time and he’s the cream of the crop when it comes to golf journalism. Being a part of a new show will allow us to be creative and collaborative, lean on those ideas that we like, and build a great team together.”
World Golf Hall of Fame member Peter Alliss has died at age 89, but not before becoming an unforgettable figure in the game of golf.
The last time that England’s Peter Alliss made the trip across the pond was in May 2019 to accept a journalism award presented at the Memorial in Columbus, Ohio.
“I’m afraid there’s been some terrible mistake made today,” he said. “A journalistic award to me, someone who has no idea how to do short hand, can’t type and is bloody awful at spelling, but I’m here.”
He looked frail and required a cane but friends looked after him, pushing him in a wheelchair.
“They almost bathed me and fed me and tucked me into bed at night,” he said. “I can do it myself but I quite enjoy it.”
There it was, the droll, understated style of the man known as “The Voice of Golf,” who spent more than 50 years in the broadcast booth for BBC in his inimitable style that he once described as being “the cheeky chap who went where angels feared to tread.”
Renton Laidlaw, President of the AGW, and Roddy Williams, European Tour Press Officer, present Peter Alliss the Michael Williams Outstanding Services to Golf Award at the 137th Open Championship on July 15, 2008 at Royal Birkdale Golf Club, Southport, England. Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Alliss, who died at age 89, regaled those in attendance at the outdoor ceremony with stories of a life well lived in the game, following in the footsteps of his father, Percy, a three-time Ryder Cupper, including the tale of how he quit school and turned pro at the tender age of 15 to work for his old man at Ferndown Golf Club.
“I played my first big golfing event in 1946. I was 15 years of age and played in the Boys’ championship on the west side of Edinburgh. My father was one of the best players of his day and he took me up on the train from the south coast of England all the way to Edinburgh and I made it to the semifinals and was installed as the favorite,” he recalled. “I was up against a young lad named Donald Dunsdone. He was about 5 foot 3 and had very oily, greasy hair and a face covered in pimples. You don’t see many people with pimples these days, I suppose. It’s because they bathe more than once a month now. If I do say so myself, although I was only 15, I was dashingly beautiful. Handsome, six feet tall, not an ounce of spare flesh. This poor lad was just cannon fodder, really.
“We started out and I was 2 up after 4 and the crowds were running – there must have been about a dozen of them – and we got to 16 and we shook hands and he beat me 3 and 2. On the way back on the train my father let me know where I had gone wrong and what I could’ve and should’ve done. He said, I guess there isn’t any need for you to do any further education; you’re not going to be a doctor, lawyer, accountant, but you do have a little talent at golf and if you practice and use your brains there is a chance you’ll do something in the world of golf. Who knows, you might make a Ryder Cup team and that would afford you the opportunity to put your name forth for a bigger club job. You’ll be OK. You’ll be able to make a living. That’s what we thought about in those days. You can be my assistant and we’ll take it from there. I did. I started working for him. I had no idea that those few words you can be my assistant and enter the world of golf would have such a tremendous impact on my life.”
Peter Alliss in action during the 1973 Open Championship at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Scotland. Photo by Allsport UK
For the next 70 years, Alliss traveled the globe, circumnavigated it a half-dozen times by his own estimation “always at somebody else’s expense, I hasten to add,” he noted, meeting all sorts of people – businessmen, actors, politicians – playing golf at the most wonderful courses and against the best players in the world.
While Alliss downplayed his abilities as a golfer, he continued the family tradition, winning 23 tournaments worldwide during a professional career that lasted until 1974.
He represented England 10 times in World Cup competitions and played on eight Great Britain & Ireland Ryder Cup teams between 1953 and 1969.
Everyone at Ryder Cup Europe is saddened to hear of the passing of eight-time Ryder Cup player Peter Alliss. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.
“And then after a period entering the world of television, first in Britain and then in South Africa, Asia, Japan, Australia, Canada, and eventually the U.S., where I spent 30 wondrous years working with some delightful people. Some of them are even here,” Alliss said. “Some I haven’t seen in 25 years or more. I suddenly had the most horrid thought, what if I still owe them money? That’s why they turned up. Get the old bugger before he dies. But anyway, it has been a wonderful journey.”
Indeed, it was. In an introductory video, Clive Clark, his fellow Englishman and commentator, shared a bit of classic Alliss dry humor, which seems a most fitting way to end this tribute:
“I remember someone asking Peter, ‘What’s the finest shot you’ve ever seen?’ He immediately replied, ‘I was playing in the Ryder Cup at Eldorado in Indian Wells in 1959 and I was 1 down playing the 18th hole in a singles match against Jay Hebert. The last hole is a par 5 with a frightening amount of water down the right side and guarding the green. I blistered a 3 wood to within six yards of the pin.’ An observer asked Peter, ‘So, is that the finest golf shot you’ve ever seen?’ To which Peter replied, ‘No, Jay was a few yards ahead of me and proceeded to hit a fat 2-iron into the lake. That was the finest golf shot I’ve ever seen!'”
While most components of the golf world have enjoyed a renaissance through the pandemic – tee sheets are booked, club manufacturers can’t keep shelves stocked, coaches are in high demand – there is one bit of mildly disturbing news when it comes to …
While most components of the golf world have enjoyed a renaissance through the pandemic — tee sheets are booked, club manufacturers can’t keep shelves stocked, coaches are in high demand — there is one bit of mildly disturbing news when it comes to the TV ratings for 2020’s three majors.
The PGA Championship in August saw fairly flat overall numbers and both the U.S. Open and Masters saw dramatic drops in 2020 when it came to TV ratings.
Fluke? Coincidence? Or a worrisome trend?
It’s tough to say for certain, but here are a number of factors that might have contributed to the ratings flop:
Bryson DeChambeau celebrates with the championship trophy after winning the 120th U.S. Open Championship on Sept. 19, 2020 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The jumbled schedule didn’t help
The schedule we’ve all come to know and expect is the schedule for a reason. April is the perfect time to kick off the golf season and the Masters sees little competition in its familiar time slot. The U.S. Open has similarly enjoyed success due to its traditional Father’s Day placement and a fairly free spot on the sports calendar.
Moving into new timeslots, most of which already have established events, means a glut of sports on TV that can simply be too much for the average person to consume. Most fans are not exclusively golf fans and the pileup of events has made it too much to get through.
“Everyone is excited in the spring, like, ‘Oh we’ll have this incredible fall with so much sports to watch,’” Austin Karp, the managing editor/digital at Sports Business Journal who closely tracks ratings and the sports television industry, told USA Today columnist Dan Wolken. “But the problem is there is that tonnage. That’s why we spread this out over the course of the year. People are inundated with, ‘OK, I have football, do I really need to watch the NBA Finals? My mind is trained to watch that in June.’”
Football is still king
When it was announced that times for the Masters would be moved up to ensure there was little or no overlap with major college football games and the late NFL matchups, some golf purists were miffed.
The numbers proved CBS and the Masters made the right decision, however, as the Notre Dame-Boston College football game drew a comparable Saturday rating (3.00) to CBS’ third-round coverage of the Masters (3.05). The LSU vs. Alabama game that was originally scheduled for later that day (it was postponed due to COVID) likely would have drawn a much larger number.
On Sunday, the final round of the Masters averaged a 3.4 rating and 5.59 million viewers on CBS, making it the lowest-rated Sunday round from Augusta since 1957. Meanwhile, the early NFL games on Fox combined for a 10.27 share, even though the schedule included a number of below-.500 teams in games between the Eagles-Giants and Washington-Lions.
Simply put, while golf is shining on many stages, it’s not yet ready to compete with football, which has become the de facto national pastime.
Collin Morikawa watches after teeing off on the 16th hole during the final round of the 2020 PGA Championship golf tournament at TPC Harding Park. Photo: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports.
More platforms, more splintering
Although CBS’ numbers for the PGA Championship were down, ESPN’s early coverage of the event saw a 35 percent increase in viewership and the largest average on cable since 2010.
And while network numbers for the Masters were down significantly, the streaming app from Augusta National Golf Club allowed fans more thorough coverage — and more opportunities to check in on the leaderboard — than ever before. Additional coverage options are better for diehard fans, but they also allow casual fans to pop in and out, and that can impact the traditional network broadcast.
And this only becomes a larger issue moving forward.
PGA Tour LIVE on ESPN+ will air more than 4,000 hours of live streaming coverage annually. It also will feature on-demand replays of PGA Tour events, original golf programming and edited speed round recaps.
Per the arrangement, ESPN+ subscribers will not see an increase in cost with golf’s addition. Current PGA Tour Live subscribers will need to move to ESPN+, where they also will be able to call up 12,000 other live sporting events.
“When we enter into this new deal with ESPN+, there is this element of being inside that sports ecosystem and the reach of that that is going to be as strong a direct-to-consumer model as you are going to find,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said. “For (Disney) to get behind the PGA Tour and our athletes and tournaments going forward is huge. We are going to diversify our audience, reach a younger segment of viewers, and add 52 million uniques to the promotion of our tournaments and our Tour.”
While this is great news for those who have nothing to do all day and a serious PGA Tour watching habit, average fans will likely have to pick their spots, ducking in and out to see players they prefer or tournaments they associate with.
New sports are invading
While movement in the schedule introduced obvious obstacles in college and pro football, other sports are starting to permeate the TV sports landscape.
For example, the English Premier League has seen huge gains as soccer gains traction with young viewers.
The season-opening match between Leeds and Liverpool in September averaged 1.26 million viewers on NBC, the biggest for an opening weekend in history. Granted, Liverpool is a solid draw, one of the few clubs that always pulls a big number, but as more fans turn their attention to soccer, fewer recreational minutes are left over for golf and other sports. Later that day, for example, the Safeway Open managed a .24 rating on Golf Channel.
MMA, esports and other options continue to nibble away at a portion of the rating pie.
Tiger Woods celebrates after making a putt on the 18th green to win The 2019 Masters golf tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Photo by Michael Madrid-USA TODAY Sports.
Tough to match? (Not really)
In some cases, it seemed inevitable the numbers would need to dip. In the case of the Masters, which was going up against one of the all-time great stories in Tiger Woods’ resurrection, any circumstance would have made this tough to match up with. Right?
Although Dustin Johnson is a big name, he certainly doesn’t stir the interest of Woods, especially considering the improbability of Tiger’s victory. The 2020 Masters saw a drop of 51 percent in ratings and 48 percent in viewership from Woods’ victory.
But for those making this argument — that numbers were down largely because of Tiger’s historic run the year prior — realize that compared to 2018, ratings were still markedly down.
And now the good news …
Before we wade too deep into a puddle of doom and gloom, realize that PGA Tour ratings have largely been a pandemic success story. For example, the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis beat every NBA game it went up against in ratings, aside from a Lakers-Clippers extravaganza. Many small events have seen huge year-over-year ratings increases, and with an even more comprehensive coverage plan coming in the near future, golf appears to be on solid TV footing for the foreseeable future.
If there are a few things to take away from the numbers, it’s this:
• The year 2020 has been an anomaly.
• Golf’s future TV success hinges on nurturing the familiar schedule spots it has long dominated and filling in small holes as they become available and manageable.
Phil Mickelson will team up with Charles Barkley to face off against Steph Curry and Peyton Manning on Friday at Stone Canyon in Arizona.
The countdown is on for The Match: Champions for Change.
On Friday, when the rest of us are recuperating from our turkey dinners, Phil Mickelson will team up with Charles Barkley to take on Steph Curry and Peyton Manning in the third installment of the Match, which will be played at one of the courses owned by Mickelson Golf Properties, Stone Canyon in Oro Valley, Arizona.
Lefty was involved in the first two Matches. He defeated Tiger Woods in 2018 at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, but when he teamed up with Tom Brady earlier this year, they lost to Woods and Manning, a defeat that Mickelson jokingly questioned.
“We really should’ve won that match,” he said. “There were a couple things down the stretch, I mean, Peyton’s iron shot on 16 to 3 feet. I don’t know if that was legit. I don’t know what happened. I missed something. I couldn’t see the green … and somehow his ball is three feet from the hole when it’s all said and done. I don’t know, I question that.
“So I don’t wanna like, file lawsuits, you know, question the outcome or any of that stuff, but I do have a question on that one.”
Mickelson will likely have to carry plenty of the weight on Friday. Curry is a talented player, and Manning has shown he can swing the stick a little bit himself. As for Barkley, well, we’ve all seen that swing.
“At Stone Canyon, we actually have Chuck tees,” Mickelson said. “They’re a little bit further up.”
Mickelson described Stone Canyon as “pretty penalizing in spots because of the desert but it’s also got a great mixture of fun holes, like drivable par 4s, reachable par 5s.
“Our sixth hole is a spectacular par 3 with waterfalls and such. It’s only about a wedge. But it’s a very demanding shot.”
Mickelson then described part of the strategy that he and Barkley plan to deploy later this week.
“If I can hit the green, and let him putt, that’s our strategy on that. Same thing on the drivable par 4s. We saw what happened in Match II where we were really getting beat up pretty good and then Tom and I, on 11, I drive the green and he rolls the putt in for eagle and it just turns the whole match the other way.”
Gary McCord will be on hand for The Match III: Champions for Change. He broke down the players and the course with Adam Schupak.
The producers of Capital One’s The Match: Champions for Change deserve a raise for plucking Gary McCord out of retirement to serve as one of the on-course commentators for the upcoming made-for-TV match pitting Phil Mickelson and Charles Barkley against Peyton Manning and Steph Curry.
McCord, a journeyman Tour pro turned golf commentator for CBS Sports for 35 years, is the right combination of glib, wacky and flat-out funny to keep the conversation light and the laughs coming. He’s also played enough golf with Sir Charles, known for his ungainly hitch in his swing, over the years to predict that Mickelson will have his work cut out for him.
“This will be the greatest coaching exhibition since Knute Rockne,” McCord said.
Turner Sports will televise this third rendition of The Match, to be held Friday, Nov. 27, at 3 p.m. ET at Stone Canyon Golf Club in Oro Valley, Arizona, and McCord explained why he was interested in participating.
“This is right up my alley. The format is four guys trying to get it in the hole while bitch-slapping each other verbally. That’s fun,” he said. “Those four guys will do it. If we can get them going, which shouldn’t be hard to do, it will be quite entertaining. You know that Phil will find something and just like a scab he’ll start picking at it until he can get somebody to come back with something. He’s probably the best guy out there with the biggest needle.
“There’s a reason they hired me and it’s not to say, ‘It’s 165 yards and he’s got a 6 iron.’ I’m just going to follow along and try to keep throwing kerosene on the fire.”
McCord said he and Barkley have made plans to go play a practice round next week to figure out how to play Stone Canyon, which is situated at the base of the picturesque Tortolita Mountains, offering views of the Santa Catalina Mountains in all directions.
McCord last played with Barkley, known as “the round mound of rebound” during his NBA days, about a month ago and suggested that Mickelson better be practicing hard.
“Chuck can go practice all he wants but what he’s going to get under the gun, nobody knows. The problem with Chuck is he’s got the yips. It’s performance anxiety. When we play, he makes a full swing and it’s fine. It can get squirrely at times, but it’s OK. It never comes out unless there is some anxiety. I’ve seen him hit balls all day and it’s beautiful. He gets to The Match and he could have the triple hitch. You can’t practice for the yips. God love him, he’s fun to be around, he’s funnier than hell and I wish he could play good golf. If I had a Christmas wish, it would be for Charles Barkley, please, just let him be able to play golf again.”
But McCord said not to count on Barkley to find his game all of a sudden. Manning he knows is quite capable as a golfer and while he’s never seen Curry play, McCord thinks the two of them should have a decided advantage. With the modified alternate-shot format, Mickelson will have to play many of Barkley’s miscues. He predicted Mickelson may spend more time in the desert than Moses.
“Phil could come out of this with something between 20 and 50 jumping cholla attached to him,” McCord said. “He could be a walking cactus by the end of this thing.”
Reason enough to tune in as they raise significant charitable dollars towards a goof cause, and it will be a bonus to hear McCord back in the saddle adding his insights and inimitable style to the broadcast.
As Tiger Woods was making the turn in his first round at the Masters, HBO released a teaser for its upcoming documentary called “Tiger.”
As Tiger Woods was making the turn in his first round at the first-ever November Masters on Thursday, HBO released a one-minute, 15-second teaser clip for its upcoming two-part documentary film called “Tiger.”
The teaser video starts with a shot of a young Tiger striping a tee shot, then spinning around like a helicopter, displaying all the youthful exuberance of a child.
Earl Woods, his father, then comes on the screen. Talking at a microphone, he says: “Please forgive me, but sometimes I get very emotional talking about my son.”
What follows is a series of archive footage of Tiger over the years.
Speaking on a podcast back in May, noted journalist Armen Keteyian said that “Tiger Woods,” the New York Times No. 1 best-selling book he co-authored with Jeff Benedict in 2018, is being made into a two-part, four-hour-long DocuSeries. It was originally expected to come out in 2020, perhaps during this week of the Masters.
HBO has now confirmed the documentary is coming January 2021 to HBO Max.
Keteyian also said that CBS golf analyst and Hall of Famer Nick Faldo, HBO Sport’s Bryant Gumbel and other central figures in Tiger’s life, including some that declined to speak for the book, will make appearances in the documentary.
Golfweek’s Adam Schupak contributed to this article.
