Category: Golf on TV

CBS reports Masters final round was most-watched golf broadcast in past 5 years

Final-round viewership was up 19 percent from 2022.

Safe to say folks tuned in for the final round of the Masters.

Jon Rahm’s four-stroke win and his second major championship was the most-watched golf broadcast in the past five years on any network, CBS reported Tuesday. It averaged 12.058 million viewers, peaking at 15.021 from 7-7:15 p.m. ET. The numbers are up 19 percent from last year’s final round.

Sunday’s presentation on CBS totaled 16.251 million viewers in combined average viewership for the conclusion of the third and final rounds. Additionally, it also became the most-streamed round of golf ever on Paramount+, while recording double-digit year-over-year growth across households, minutes, and average minute audience (AMA) vs. last year’s final round of the Masters.

The previous high for a final round was 2018, when Patrick Reed slipped on the green jacket. That Sunday averaged 13.045 million viewers.

Rahm chasing down four-time major champion Brooks Koepka, combined with the PGA Tour vs. LIV Golf storyline, made for a compelling Sunday. And the numbers reflect that.

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Mark Rolfing Q&A: Veteran golf analyst praises SentryWorld, dishes on LIV Golf, rolling back the golf ball and the future of the PGA Tour

The longtime Golf Channel and NBC broadcaster will return to Wisconsin this summer as an analyst for the U.S. Senior Open.

When Mark Rolfing was recently at SentryWorld in Wisconsin, there was snow scattered throughout the majestic, 18-hole parkland golf course on the city’s north side.

The snow will be gone and the course will look considerably different when the longtime Golf Channel and NBC broadcaster returns this summer as an analyst for the U.S. Senior Open, which will be contested at SentryWorld from June 29 to July 2.

Rolfing thinks the course, which has undergone massive renovation the past two years to get ready for one of the USGA’s flagship events, will be a great test for the best senior golfers in the world and believes it will be the blueprint for future major championship golf venues.

Rolfing, who is an ambassador for Sentry Insurance, talked with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin about SentryWorld hosting the major championship, Wisconsin becoming a golf destination, LIV Golf, the proposed rollback of the golf ball to limit distance, the future of the PGA Tour and more.

Jim Nantz celebrates the life of dear friend in CBS special: ‘The Masterful Tom Weiskopf’

Before the coverage of Sunday’s final round of the Masters begins on CBS, Jim Nantz will host a special program.

AUGUSTA, Ga. – Before the coverage of Sunday’s final round of the Masters begins on CBS, Jim Nantz will host a special program that is close to his heart.

Jim Nantz Remembers Augusta: The Masterful Tom Weiskopf (Sunday, April 9, 1 p.m. ET) will include reflections from Nantz on the outstanding career and legacy of Tom Weiskopf, who died last year and was announced as a member of the 2024 World Golf Hall of Fame class in March (to be inducted posthumously during the week of the 2024 U.S. Open at Pinehurst). The special includes an interview with Weiskopf (done in 2020 prior to his passing in 2022) and focuses on his four runner-up finishes at the Masters, including most notably in 1975.

Weiskopf, the winner of 16 PGA Tour titles, including the 1973 British Open, was 79 at the time of his death, and had been dealing with pancreatic cancer since late 2020.

In addition to his playing career and his renown as a golf course designer, Weiskopf worked in television at both CBS and ABC/ESPN as a golf analyst. During the final round of the 1986 Masters as Jack Nicklaus charged up the leaderboard, Weiskopf was asked by Nantz to describe Nicklaus’ mindset as he played the closing stretch. “If I knew the way he thought, I would have won this tournament,” he famously said.

“Boyhood hero. Later life friend. Delivered a eulogy at his memorial service. Admire him so much. Wanted him to get his due,” Nantz wrote in an email last week. “The show documents his amazing life. I think people will be blown away by his standard of excellence in everything he touched.”

Masters 2023 leaderboard: Get the latest news from Augusta

CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus noted that Nantz forged a deep personal relationship with Weiskopf.

“It’s a labor of love, which a lot of Jim’s programs are,” McManus said. “It’s a tribute that comes from Jim’s heart, not just from his brain and not just from his voice.”

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2023 Masters: Maureen Madill returns to Sirius XM Masters radio, her first U.S. major in nearly four years due to COVID-19 and rare disease

Madill first made a name for herself doing radio commentary in 1997.

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Nearly four years since her last broadcast for the in America for PGA Tour Sirius/XM Network at the 2019 U.S. Open, Maureen Madill’s distinctive voice returned to the airwaves at the 87th Masters.

“It was such strange times during the pandemic that you got used to people not being around,” she said. “You didn’t really miss anybody because you missed everybody.”

There are a variety of reasons Madill, a native of Coleraine, Northern Ireland, who has a wonderful command of the Queen’s English and a cult following of listeners, has been absent from the airwaves for nearly four years.

The global pandemic made 2020 a wipe out, then in 2021 travel restrictions prevented her from entering the U.S., and in 2022 a rare amoebic parasite in her stomach had attacked her liver and kept her sidelined.

Masters 2023 leaderboard: Get the latest news from Augusta

“Your world shrinks when you’re ill, doesn’t it?” she said.

Madill first made a name for herself doing radio commentary in 1997 for BBC Radio Five Live and she first started working with SiriusXM way back in 2007. After the Masters, she is scheduled to be a part of the team for SiriusXM’s PGA Championship broadcast in May as well.

Madill brings the knowledge of a seasoned pro to her coverage and paints a word picture as well as anyone in her business. Prior to her broadcast career, Madill was an accomplished amateur, who won the British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship in 1979 and the British Ladies Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 1980. She represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Curtis Cup in 1980, and later coached the team in the late 90s/early 2000s. She turned pro in 1986 and played on the Ladies European Tour, where her best finishes were runner-ups in the 1989 British Women’s Matchplay and the 1990 Haninge Open.

Madill, 65, had her life turned upside down after she went to London to do a speaking engagement in November 2021. She flew there on a Friday, caught a flight home the next day, didn’t feel well and on Sunday she tested positive for COVID-19. However, she didn’t suffer from normal symptoms. Instead, she was bedridden with joint and muscle pain and reduced to walking with a cane. A scan revealed a black spot on her liver, which was presumed to be cancer, but for three months, she met with a raft of health professionals who couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her.

“They had never seen it before, what caused it or how to attack it,” Madill said. “After each doctor’s visit, my husband Brian would say, ‘Well, they haven’t given us any bad news yet,’ ” Madill recalls. “That was the mantra that kept us going.”

For all the scans, appointments and consultations, a diagnosis proved elusive. On one occasion, her husband suggested she would have to stop drinking her daily glass of wine. “I said, ‘You have to be joking. Why would I do that?’ ” Madill said.

Her husband was concerned that her liver had been under attack.

“How many health professionals have I seen?” she said. “I said, none of them have ever seen anything like this. They’ve all seen alcoholic’s livers. Mine is not an alcoholic’s liver. This is the only thing keeping me going. I’m not stopping drinking red wine. He said, ‘Oh, Ok.’ That was my medication. A glass of red wine in the evening helped keep me going.”

In August, she finally received answers. Her medical team had sent some of her blood off to the tropical diseases hospital in London. They determined she had a rare amoebic parasite in her stomach and it had attacked the liver.

“My immediate reaction was this is great. It’s not cancer,” Madill said. “I’m looking at this doctor and he’s telling me something very serious and why is she looking quite pleased? I took it as the lesser of two evils. It was something from which I had a chance of recovery and that was the first time I had heard that.”

She went home and toasted the semi-tropical amoebic parasite in her gut that finally had a name.

Once her doctors diagnosed the problem, her condition improved quickly. She described her health as a vertical graph. “It’s been a lovely, lovely up turn in the last five weeks,” she said, noting that last month her liver was declared clear and she began taking medication to attack the parasite. She’s still dealing with joint issues but it’s nothing like the pain she previously endured. After sitting on her back side for 15 months, she’s beginning to work on her fitness.

Not even cold, wet conditions and gray skies could drown Madill’s enthusiasm at being back at Augusta National on Saturday and doing the job she loves. “It’s like broadcasting from a swimming pool but I wouldn’t trade places with anyone in the world.”

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Gannett may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. Terms apply, see operator site for Terms and Conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, OH), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN). Must be 21 or older to gamble. Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside.

Golf Channel to debut ‘BagCam’ during Friday’s Valspar Championship broadcast with Justin Thomas and Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay

BagCam, which is the latest effort to bring the viewer closer to the action, received a test-run in December.

Get ready for BagCam.

NBC Sports is slated to debut a camera from within a player’s golf bag during Friday’s second-round coverage of the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship at the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort in Palm Harbor, Florida.

“BagCam” will sit within Justin Thomas’ golf bag during holes 17-18 on Golf Channel and Peacock, bringing viewers closer to the action than ever before.

BagCam has the ability to provide a 360-degree perspective as the audience joins Thomas and caddie Jim “Bones” Mackay for a variety of moments and interactions within the round, whether it’s on the tee, walking from shot-to-shot or a decision on what club to hit for an approach shot.

“We are always exploring ways to innovate within our golf coverage while not disrupting or interfering with what’s happening on the course,” said Tommy Roy, lead producer for NBC Sports’ golf coverage, in a statement.

BagCam, which weighs no more than a pound, received a test-run with Bones carrying it in Thomas’s bag at the PNC Championship in December. Mackay was a logical choice to be the guinea pig for the camera, which provides a viewpoint as if it were a drone sitting right above a player’s clubs. Mackay spent 25 years as Phil Mickelson’s caddie before transitioning to an on-course commentator role with NBC Sports/Golf Channel in 2017. He returned to caddying last year with Thomas, who won the PGA Championship in May.

BagCam is the latest effort to bring the viewer closer to the action and should be a welcome addition to the broadcast.

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Schupak: Netflix series ‘Full Swing’ is good, not great — but we expected more

I didn’t think Joel Dahmen could be more likable, but he and his caddie Geno Bonnalie are going to add a huge new fan base.

Here’s my one-sentence review of Netflix’s golf documentary “Full Swing:” It’s good, not great.

That probably isn’t going to make a billboard, but especially if you consider yourself a hardcore golf fan you might come away underwhelmed. The fact is, the golf fan isn’t the target audience; it’s geared toward welcoming a new audience to the game and I sincerely hope it succeeds to do for golf what “Drive to Survive” has done for Formula One.

Although I have my doubts.

My biggest gripe of all is that it just isn’t edgy enough. With the exception of a few too many curse words, especially from Brooks Koepka, you wouldn’t know this isn’t a series from the PGA Tour’s house organ, PGA Tour Entertainment. For all the unprecedented access that Netflix supposedly received from the Tour and golf bodies that run the majors and the players, I wanted more. There should have been more locker room scenes and fewer sponsor-driven activities.

That’s not to say there isn’t some good material. I finished the first episode, which centers on the relationship between Justin Thomas and Jordan Spieth and even though it was past my bedtime, I couldn’t help but binge another episode.

Mike Thomas, JT’s dad and swing instructor, steals the show for me. He tells the story of the time Jordan had JT’s rental car moved from the WM Phoenix Open parking lot. It’s a great prank and that anecdote will probably resonate with new viewers, but it would’ve been so much better if they could’ve come up with fresh anecdotes rather than rely on an oldie but a goodie.

It has previously been reported that Netflix suits requested a re-cut to take Koepka out of the first episode because it was too much of a downer and that was a wise call. It was fascinating to see the fragility of the four-time major winner’s confidence and self-belief in his game and perhaps explains his jump to LIV better than he has done publicly to this point. He opened up more than any player, which was great, but it also may make some viewers check out. And topping the list of those who come off poorly in the show is Koepka’s then-fiancee, now wife, Jena.

Episode 3 highlighted Ian Poulter and his decision to go to LIV and how much the Ryder Cup meant to him. This finally begins to introduce the LIV Plotline.

But it is the one that follows that I expect to become a cult favorite. For those who remember John Feinstein’s book, “A Good Walk Spoiled,” the unsung hero was Paul Goydos. To me, Joel Dahmen is the Paul Goydos of “Full Swing.” I didn’t think Dahmen could be more likable, but he and his caddie Geno Bonnalie are going to have a huge new fan base. Excellent job showing the warmth of their friendship.

The producers scored with Matt Fitzpatrick winning the U.S. Open in dramatic fashion. They take us inside the post-victory celebration but it all appeared a little too tame. Will some viewers come away thinking golfers are too boring other than flying everywhere in private jets? The chances are good.

Episode 6 contained some of the best and worst of the show. On the one hand, Tony Finau is going to get nominated for Father of the Year. Both his rags-to-riches story and trying to find the right work-life balance is going to be very relatable. I loved seeing the golf-ball-sized dents in the garage door where Tony and his brother used to hit balls into a mattress in front of it. That visual was cool. Already one of the most popular players, Finau is going to add a whole new fan base. But the Collin Morikawa section of this episode felt very flat and it failed to add anything new about one of the rising stars in golf other than that he wears olive pants.

In episode seven, Sahith Theegala also comes off as humble and not your average touring pro. His family support is genuine. The friendship between Joaquin Niemann and Mito Pereira felt authentic. Many of the international players, especially those who don’t speak English as a first language tend to have a tight bond. Here the “Full Swing” team excelled at showing the agony of defeat as Pereira squanders a chance to win the PGA Championship with a double-bogey on the final hole. This marked a terrific job of getting audio, as the crew picked up Pereira realizing he’s likely blown his chance of winning a major. There are some great shots of his girlfriend looking on and it’s like watching her witness a car crash.

Kudos to producer Chad Mumm for continuing to pursue Rory McIlroy’s participation long after the show had been green-lit. It would’ve felt odd not to have him involved. The final episode centers around McIlroy, who is at the heart of the PGA Tour-LIV Golf debate. McIlroy seems the most comfortable in front of the camera and unafraid to hold anything back. He doesn’t seem to be worried about any consequences of taking a few shots at Phil Mickelson and other LIV players. Lines have been drawn and we know exactly where Rory stands.

The good news is Season 2 already is in the works. Here’s hoping it will go from good to great.

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Industry vet Ross Berlin handpicked by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy to head player relations for TGL

“My sons are terribly excited about the concept of TGL, and I think we have a winner.”

When Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy agreed to be involved in TGL, the tech-focused golf league debuting next year, they had one person in mind to handle the critical role of player relations.

Who better than Ross Berlin, the industry veteran who spent 24 years at the PGA Tour before retiring in March 2022 as senior vice president of player relations? Just when Berlin thought he was out and had bid adieu to the retired life, they pulled him back in.

“Tiger and Rory when they got involved kept mentioning to me that I would be a perfect fit to fill a role with this new enterprise,” Berlin said in a phone interview with Golfweek. “I couldn’t have written a better script about returning to the game than in this capacity and be able to re-establish a lot of great relationships with leading players in the game. It’s a dream come true for me so I had to jump at it.”

Berlin, who began in his consulting role as senior vice president of player relations for TGL in November, has been hard at work securing player commitment and will play an integral role in scheduling, working in tandem with the PGA Tour to make sure the schedules dovetail nicely, team selection and down to the nitty gritty of rehearsals and logistics.

Berlin is well on his way to fielding the six teams of three. There could be some designated alternates for each team, which could expand to 24 players, but that is still to be determined.

So far, nine players have been announced as participating, and Berlin said he has 12 players committed and another dozen reviewing contracts for the 18 spots with additional names to be rolled out over time to build momentum. The final rosters will compete in 15 regular season Monday night matches, followed by semifinals and finals matches, starting January 2024. The matches will be played at a tech-infused, short-game complex. Fans will be able to see every shot live over a two-hour broadcast on prime time television.

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In addition to his tenure at the Tour during which he was involved in WGC’s and the Presidents Cup and served as a member of the Tour’s Executive Committee, Berlin represented Michelle Wie West as an agent with William Morris Agency (2005); worked at Eagle International Group as Managing Director of Europe to manage organizational, sales, and hospitality projects in connection to the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama Golf Club (1995-1999); and served as Chairman of USA Golf, the national governing body of men’s and women’s golf for golf’s return to the Olympics in 2016. Prior to joining the golf industry, Berlin started his professional career as a lawyer at Iverson, Yoakum Papiano, & Hatch, later joining World Cup USA 1994, Ince as SVP, Venues; ISL Marketing AG, FIFA’s exclusive marketing partner; and managing director of World Cup ’94.

“I enjoyed my work very much at the PGA Tour but it was getting to work that was taxing. When you jet up every Sunday to the next tournament location, that was a pain in the rear,” he said. “It was that part of the job that wore me out.”

Instead of viewing this new enterprise from a PGA Tour player relations perspective, Berlin’s looking at the concept through the lens of a consumer, particularly younger consumers like his two sons, who are in their 20s.

“My sons are terribly excited about the concept of TGL,” he said, “and I think we have a winner.”

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Watch: Wearing mic for CBS, Keith Mitchell credits his caddie for calling him off a shot during live coverage of 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

The highlight of the segment was when Mitchell’s caddie called him off a shot.

Max Homa wore a mic during live coverage of the Farmers Insurance Open  on CBS and it was a huge hit. He went on to win, making the week even more special for Homa and his fans.

This week at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Keith Mitchell took his turn with the mic.

One of the first things he said was how “Homa killed it” last week.

In solo fourth and two shots back of the lead after three rounds on the Monterey Peninsula, Mitchell donned the live mic on the par-4 third hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links.

“Appreciate it guys for letting me come on. Easy to say yes, speaking to you, Nantz, and Trevor, especially after Max killed it last week. Let’s just hope what happened last week happens this week, right,” he quipped.

Mitchell took turns chatting with Nantz, Immelman, Ian Baker-Finch and Frank Nobilo.

After talking about his tee shot, Mitchell admitted that there’s “never a bad stroll anywhere at Pebble,” walking with his hands in his pockets as if truly on a stroll.

Lynch: Better broadcasts are here, but it shouldn’t have to be at gun point

A few minutes later, as he prepared for his second shot, Mitchell had a brief chat with his caddie John Limanti, who interrupted to back him off a shot.

“That was a nice play because over the green is dead,” Mitchell said, giving praise to Limanti. “We threw some grass up a couple times. … so right when I was about to pull the trigger, he put some grass up again and. … if you go over this green, it might even be out of bounds back there. So that was a nice call from him. We took four yards off of what we originally had and the wind kinda died.

“So that was a great, great call from Johnnie to pull me off like that.”

Mitchell’s approach stopped about 13 feet from the cup and he two-putted for a par.

Mitchell admitted he wasn’t sure exactly where his approach ended up until he heard the CBS crew talking about it.

“Thanks to you guys in my ear I know where my ball is,” he said.

More solid insight from this new CBS initiative, bringing fans closer to the game than ever before.

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Jim Nantz pays tribute to CBS colleague Billy Packer during Friday’s coverage of Farmers Insurance Open

Nantz and Packer were long-time partners on CBS’s coverage of the men’s Final Four.

The sports world lost a legend with the passing of longtime CBS college basketball analyst Billy Packer, who passed away Thursday at age 82.

On Friday, during third round live coverage on CBS of the Farmers Insurance Open, Jim Nantz had some kind words for his friend and colleague, calling him “one of the most important figures in CBS Sports proud history.”

Nantz is calling the golf action in San Diego remotely from Kansas City. On Sunday, he’ll do play-by-play for the Chiefs’ game against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game. But for 18 years he worked the NCAA Tournament, culminating in the Final Four, alongside Packer.

“Billy called 34 national championships before retiring in 2008. He was a true character. He was fearless in his commentary while deeply faithful to his friends and family,” Nantz said.

Packer worked the Final Four for NBC and CBS from 1975-2008.

Packer’s son Brandt, a producer at Golf Channel, posted a message of tribute to his father on Twitter on Thursday night.

Packer’s son Mark told the Associated Press that his father had been hospitalized in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the past three weeks and had several medical issues, and ultimately succumbed to kidney failure.

“He really enjoyed doing the Final Fours,” Mark said. “He timed it right. Everything in life is about timing. The ability to get involved in something that, frankly, he was going to watch anyway, was a joy to him. And then college basketball just sort of took off with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird and that became, I think, the catalyst for college basketball fans to just go crazy with March Madness.”

Packer joined CBS in 1981, when the network acquired the rights to the NCAA Tournament, and remained the network’s main analyst until 2008.

Sean McManus, the chairman of CBS Sports, said Packer was “synonymous with college basketball for more than three decades and set the standard of excellence as the voice of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.”

Golf Channel also paid tribute to Billy Packer during Friday’s pre-round coverage.

Jace Evans from USA TODAY Sports contributed to this article.

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Lynch: Better PGA Tour broadcasts are here, but it shouldn’t have had to be at gunpoint

Engaging, honest and wry, Homa is a perfect guinea pig for this experiment.

Fifteen years ago, the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman interviewed Barnabas Suebu, the governor of an Indonesian province that was facing a dire climate crisis. A Suebu axiom became a rallying cry for effecting change even when the prevailing mindset is ossified: “Think big, start small, act now—before everything becomes too late.”

As mantras go, Jay Monahan could do worse than hang it above the door at the PGA Tour’s Global Home in hopes that what has taken root during his organization’s current crisis will continue to flourish when the threat passes.

One of the Tour’s fledgling efforts to start small and act now was seen during Friday’s third round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines, when Max Homa wore a microphone for a ‘walk and talk’ with CBS Sports. The only players that viewers are accustomed to hearing during tournament action are those who washed-up in the booth or hobbled into a headset, so the shock of access to someone actually competing – heck, contending – might have been enough to topple every groaning barcalounger in The Villages.

Engaging, honest and wry, Homa is a perfect guinea pig for this experiment. Regardless of how compelling the content was in the moment, it’s mere occurrence stands as evidence of two things: how little it really takes to elevate the golf viewing experience, and how long that enhancement was forestalled by the Tour’s corporate killjoy attitude.

This moment with Max didn’t happen now because those in charge of broadcasting golf have never considered how to better do their jobs, or couldn’t be bothered pitching fresh approaches to Ponte Vedra. Every executive involved in televising the Tour has a tale about how their effort to enliven telecasts was stonewalled. Chalk it up to a combination of factors —corporate complacency, a culture of arrogance, a milquetoast reluctance to inconvenience the very players they’re rewarding with millions of dollars annually.

Monahan has lately taken to framing the battle with LIV Golf as one of product versus product, a stance he can only adopt with confidence after the Tour belatedly grasped the extent to which it was shortchanging fans, never mind players. Even the commissioner’s loyalists know that it took a rival product – fortuitously for them, a lousy and amoral one – to force an upgrade of the Tour’s offering, both to members and consumers. Because change came at gunpoint – or, more accurately, at the point of a shamshir – it’s unsurprising that many golf fans greet progress with begrudgery and remain wholly unsympathetic to the business predicament in which the Tour finds itself.

When the war to own professional golf is finally over – surely a few days closer now that General Greg has unfettered command of his side – the Tour landscape will be markedly different. Schedules will be transformed, events elevated, broadcasts advanced and fan experiences enhanced. Players will be paid more too, obviously. Perhaps then cash will cease to be the focus, since golf faces greater questions than the true value of Patrick Cantlay’s charisma.

Shane Lowry is attuned to a longer-term reality that too many of his shortsighted peers neglect. “We got side tracked into thinking that $100 million is just normal. Everybody is throwing out these figures that are just astronomical,” he said recently. “I’m going to Phoenix in a couple weeks to play for $20 million. It’s great to be involved in it. I just hope it’s sustainable.”

A time is nearing when even the biggest Tour stars will need to pump the brakes on what they think they’re entitled to and decide to be a little more like Max, giving a paltry something back to the fans who generate that revenue.

The innovation we saw Friday is small, sure, but not insignificant when viewed as a prelude to future improvements in coverage. The obvious change in mindset at Tour HQ – apparent also in granting access to Netflix for a fly-on-the-wall series– indicates a realization that not only its players deserved better. None of which is to say that gratitude is due LIV, whose own wretched productions prove that elevating the viewer experience isn’t an authentic aspiration. The PGA Tour audience will be better for the current attitude reboot in Ponte Vedra. Someday they might even forget that that it took a ham-fisted sportswashing enterprise to bring about change, even something as minor as putting a microphone on a guy named Max.

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