Golf Channel will be a part of a new venture after Comcast announced plans to spin off its cable TV networks.
Wall Street Journal was first to report the news on Tuesday. Comcast made it official Wednesday, declaring that Golf Channel as well as MSNBC, CNBC, E!, Oxygen, USA and Syfy will be spun off. It’s being tabbed as a $7 billion move. Bravo, the streaming service Peacock, which often carried Golf Channel’s PGA Tour tournament coverage (as well as LPGA), and the NBC broadcast network, are staying put.
Sports Business Journal reports that the cable channels will be part of a new venture led by Mark Lazarus and Anand Kini. Lazarus is the chairman of NBCUniversal’s media group.
Jeeno Thitikul of Thailand speaks with Anna Jackson, Brandel Chamblee and Mel Reid on the Golf Channel set after winning the 2024 Aon Risk Reward Challenge ahead of the 2024 CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club. (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
As this relates to the future of Golf Channel, Sports Business Journal reports:
Golf Channel is locked in with rights to the PGA Tour and LPGA through 2030. But the spin-off poses an interesting question for the future of the network. There have been persistent rumors for more than a year that the PGA Tour could make a bid to buy Golf Channel or its assets. The network has cut back on some production costs, while the tour has assumed more below-the-line production at tour events from both NBC and CBS. This year, it rolled out its new PGA Tour Fleet production trucks and is officially opening the expansive PGA Tour Studios in January. That’s not to mention the $1.5B the tour received from the Strategic Sports Group and potential further investment from Saudi Arabia’s PIF.
The U.S. Golf Association, which conducts the U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open, has a deal with NBC that expires in 2026. The R&A’s deal goes through 2029.
Golf Now is among the digital assets held by Comcast that are also expected to be spun off.
Lydia Ko needed a tissue before leaving Golf Channel’s booth on Saturday at The Annika.
Lydia Ko needed a tissue before leaving Golf Channel’s booth on Saturday at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. They were grateful tears after she watched the likes of Pat Bradley and Meg Mallon welcome her into the LPGA Hall of Fame.
The tribute ended with heartfelt words from older sister Sura.
“You know, I’m so grateful to be able to know these amazing people, and to think of me so highly, I’m very thankful,” Ko told Golf Channel’s Morgan Pressel and Grant Boone.
“Golf, the results, the 22 wins, medals, they’re great; these kind of relationships are things that are going to be with me forever. Not that I’ll lose my memory one day, but if I do, these are the moments that I’ll remember.”
Ko, 27, shot a 5-under 65 in round three of The Annika to climb into the top 20. She earned the 27th point needed to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame at the Paris Summer Olympics. Soon after, she won the AIG Women’s British Open at St. Andrews for her 22nd career LPGA title.
Ko became the 35th player to enter the LPGA’s Hall and only the 25th player to earn 27 HOF points. Nine women were inducted as honorary members (eight LPGA founders and beloved entertainer Dinah Shore).
Lydia Ko celebrates her gold medal at the medal ceremony at the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games at Le Golf National. (Katie Goodale-USA TODAY Sports)
And it wouldn’t be a Ko show without a “youngest to” accolade. At 27 years, three months and 17 days, she’s the youngest to get into the Hall under its current criteria.
“Golf has given me so much not only by results,” she said, “but some of the relationships that I’ve made. Golf is actually a strong bond even between my husband and I. It’s crazy.
“I don’t know when my end is going to be, but I know that I’m closer to then than when I was 15 or when I first came on tour.
“I’m excited, but excited to give it my best and my everything until the very end. It’s definitely a love/hate relationship. Looking back, I think there is more to love for sure.”
A replacement for Wadkins will be announced at a later time.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Lanny Wadkins is winding down his 13th season of serving as the lead analyst for Golf Channel’s coverage of PGA Tour Champions this week at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club in Phoenix. It will also be his last full season.
“I’ve had my run,” Wadkins, who turns 75 next month, told Golfweek in a phone conversation. “It’s time.”
Wadkins will retire after working one final telecast at the season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai on the Big Island of Hawaii in January, which also coincides with the Tour’s transition to having the TV broadcast team call PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour events from its new studio that was built next to the Tour’s Global Home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. [A test run of how this will work next season is being conducted this week for the first time.]
Wadkins, who won 21 PGA Tour titles over the course of his playing career, including the PGA Championship, and was a former U.S. Ryder Cup captain, has known for a couple of years this move was coming and it would require him to fly to Jacksonville 15+ weeks a year to be part of the broadcast team with host Bob Papa (and occasionally John Swantek) and fellow commentators such as John Cook, John Mahaffey, Billy Ray Brown and Phil Blackmar.
“I think that telecast is going to be losing something for all the positives that they can come up with,” Wadkins said. “I think the personal interaction with the players is one of the best things you can do. I know, for example, when I call the tournament in Hawaii, I have breakfast every morning with various players and you get them in a surrounding like that you’re able to get more info from them on what’s going on with their games, who they’re working with, how they’re hitting it, and what they’re trying to achieve, everything else.”
This week, Wadkins is in Phoenix but he noted cost-cutting means he doesn’t even call the action from a booth anymore.
“I’m going to call this tournament, which is arguably the biggest on the Champions Tour, and I’ll sit in the compound, a little 10-by-10 windowless room, and call it off monitors. You know, they’ve just taken it in that direction,” he said.
Wadkins said he found flying from his longtime home in Dallas to Jacksonville between 15 to 20 times a year to sit in a studio less appealing. Papa already has moved his family to Ponte Vedra Beach, and Swantek is a longtime resident of the area. [An on-course reporter still will be at each tournament.]
A framed Phoenix Gazette newspaper from 1992 is part of a display case for Lanny Wadkins at Phoenix Country Club. (Golfweek)
“They want most of the people that are going to work there to move there otherwise, I mean, for me, for example, they would still be paying for a plane ticket in there, a hotel and per diem and, you know, they’re not saving money on me not living there if I was doing the telecast. So, that seems to be the bottom line in the thinking. I just hope the product doesn’t suffer, that’s my concern,” Wadkins said. “A lot of times, we’d be in the same hotel that most of the players were staying so we’d see them at the bar. And you know, I think that interaction is crucial to getting info that can improve the telecast. It doesn’t always come from me, but it may come from Papa or Cookie or whoever, but only having, you know, a walker on site, it sounds like a really lonely life just being the only person on site, nobody else there, you know, that’s gonna be kind of weird.”
Talent for PGA Tour Champions coverage is chosen by PGA Tour Entertainment not Golf Channel. A replacement for Wadkins will be announced at a later time, and Wadkins will be honored at the tour’s annual awards ceremony at Hualalai.
Wadkins may be hanging up his headset but he plans to stay active in the game with his design work.
“I’ve got six projects going on right now for Invited so I’m covered up. I’ve got two guys working for me. We’re having a very successful run and I’m really enjoying that,” Wadkins said. “And I can control my schedule better too, which is nice. I got grandkids on the way and things like that, so, you know, all the other things in life that you get to do. Think about it: I’ve been traveling 25 weeks a year or more since I’ve been 21 years old. So that’s well over 50 years. So that’s a lot of road time.”
Lanny Wadkins watches as a putt for birdie fails to drop during the 1993 PGA Championship.
He’s getting to go out on his terms after a 13-year run with PGA Tour Champions following six seasons as lead analyst on CBS Sports’ coverage of the PGA Tour, which ended on a sour note.
“It’s a business that they don’t really train you. They just throw you in there and see if you can do it. I think it took me a couple years to get my footing with CBS, for example. I think that’s why the end there was so kind of sharp because I think I had gotten my footing. I remember the last PGA Championship, which was the last telecast of the year that Jim Nantz and I did in those six years and Jimmy looked at me and said, ‘You were right on the money. You and I have hit our stride. We’re going to be great going forward.’ And a month later, it ended, and I still had three years left on my contract. So, weird business, you know, it’s hard to say what’s happening.”
But Wadkins knows one thing: he enjoyed broadcasting the senior circuit immensely.
“It kept me in the game and I’ve been around guys I’ve known my whole life,” he said.
Asked what he’ll miss most, Wadkins said he is going to miss the people and then complimented everyone from his broadcast partners to his producer. Then he remembered one more thing he’ll miss: martini night with Papa, Cookie and Billy Ray.
“We all like the same vodka, so it was a lot of fun for a while,” Wadkins added.
What night was Martini night?
“Oh, whatever night we’re all there together,” he said. “We weren’t picky.”
“It certainly changed for the good, all positive.”
NICHOLS HILLS, Okla. — The constant movement of golf carts between shots. The humming sound of generators strategically placed at different spots on the course. Camera crews running on the fairways between players preparing to hit their shots.
Those are all common sights and sounds at professional golf events, but in the last decade they’ve become more commonplace in college golf, especially the Division I level.
The D-I college golf national championships were broadcast on Golf Channel for the first time in 2014, with the men having a year in the spotlight before the women got their camera time a year later. Ever since, the sport’s footprint has grown and continued to do so. This fall, more than 180 hours of college golf is being shown on Golf Channel, including live events five straight weeks in October.
“It certainly changed for the good, all positive,” Oklahoma men’s coach Ryan Hybl said. “I mean, we have way more folks that are willing to come out and watch us. I think it’s only a positive. I certainly think that the pressure has been escalated, which is not a bad thing.”
A TV tower is shown in the background of the 2024 NCAA Golf Championships at Omni La Costa’s North Course in Carlsbad, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
For certain programs, like Oklahoma, playing on TV has become commonplace. The national championship is a place teams look forward to the air time, but at many top tournaments in the fall and spring, cameras are darting around following the future stars of the professional games and giving players their first glimpse at what it’s like to play with a bit of added pressure.
Last week, the Jackson T. Stephens Cup featured, at the time, the top-ranked men’s and women’s programs in the country competing at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club: the Oklahoma men and Arkansas women. Just this fall, it was the Razorbacks second time being on camera, in addition to their home event, the Blessings Collegiate, earlier this month.
“It gives great exposure to our golf program,” Arkansas women’s coach Shauna Taylor said. “It really gets us, you know, for us, specifically, at blessings collegiate we can showcase our home, and that’s that’s so valuable for us for three days to show Blessings.”
Maria Jose Marin, a standout sophomore for Arkansas, has gotten used to cameras following her in recent months. She captured medalist honors at the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in August, before making a run into the semifinals. The next month, she competed at the LPGA’s Walmart NW Arkansas Championship, made the cut, and after completing her final round was playing at the Blessings Collegiate the next day.
Fast forward to last week, she led the Razorbacks to a team title at the Jackson T. Stephens Cup, their third win of the fall. Two of those came on TV.
“That’s huge for her and huge for our program and our brand and their exposure and our exposure,” Taylor said. “It’s priceless.”
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons is interviewed after winning the NCAA Championship at Grayhawk Golf Club on May 24, 2023 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The growth of college golf on TV has also been boosted by top amateur events also getting their share of air time. The Augusta National Women’s Amateur has provided an avenue unlike any other for the top female amateurs to have their stories told and build their brands. The USGA has done a good job of showcasing its junior and amateur events to audiences, and players continue to make their names winning some of the country’s most prestigious events.
But now, unlike in the past, the top amateurs don’t go into the shadows during the fall and spring when they’re in college. They remain on TV, representing their colleges.
“People really tune in. People really look forward to it,” Stanford coach Anne Walker said. “I don’t ever remember people being able to really follow the individuals within the sport. You could follow a team, but it was harder to really track on the individuals and the individual stories and what their journey had been. These stories just keep pouring into people’s homes, so you can really follow your favorite players now.”
Walker coached the greatest female amateur of all-time, Rose Zhang, whose fame and popularity was without a doubt bolstered by her success playing on television, whether it was her pair of individual wins at the national championship, the Augusta National Women’s Amateur victory, a pair of trophies in USGA events and more.
Rianne Mikhaela Malixi being interviewed in the award ceremony during the final match of the 2024 U.S. Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla. on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2024. (Kathryn Riley/USGA)
College golf also fits into an early-week time slot when the professional game isn’t playing, giving those looking for live action an avenue to watch the top amateurs in the world. For those players who capitalize on that opportunity, the sky’s the limit for how it can propel them into the future.
Walker used the example of the Caitlin Clark effect in the WNBA this year, resulting in record crowds and viewership numbers. Even Walker said she was drawn to the sport after not paying much attention to it in the past.
Yet TV gave the sport and Clark a platform to grow, and it skyrocketed. College golf has done the same, and there’s still room to grow.
“We need to have really compelling individual stories to draw people into golf, and then once we get them in, then they will be compelled to follow teams, and then they’ll be compelled to follow college golf and LPGA golf,” Walker said.
Thomas showed his talking head skills late Wednesday night – or was it early Thursday morning?
Some day – mark my words – Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas are going to be in the booth together doing commentary. It may be on some still-to-be created app or the next Netflix but give it 30 years and when those guys are finally done collecting baubles on the senior circuit (if there still is a senior circuit), they’re going to take TV commentary next level.
Thomas showed his talking head skills late Wednesday night – or was it early Thursday morning? The Golf Channel televised the Zozo Championship from 11 p.m.-3 a.m. ET and for those who stayed up for first round coverage, they were treated to Thomas joining the booth with the underrated jack-of-all-trades George Savaricas and former Tour pro Graham DeLaet, who has been cutting his teeth as an analyst for PGA Tour Live and is the go-to-guy for Canada’s TSN.
After shooting 4-under 66 at Narashino Golf Club, Thomas touched on a wealth of subjects. While showing the highlights of his round, Savaricus asked Thomas about his switch back to a mallet putter this week.
“It’s great, it’s Old Faithful. I’ve had a lot of success and won a lot of tournaments with this putter,” Thomas said. “It’s a familiar, familiar feeling.”
We learned that No. 11 is a hole he’ll take par and run and some other course strategy stuff that will be useful to know while enjoying the next three rounds. Then Thomas was asked about his struggles last year and how he’s bounced back and he gave some great insight into the mental game of a major champion and former world No. 1.
“This game is so hard and can really take so much out of you and beat you up some but you’re also never as far it seems,” he said. “Is it the chicken or the egg? Was I hitting it bad and not playing well because my mental game wasn’t good or was it vice-versa?”
He continued: “I always tell people that I’m sorry, but golf is my job and if I’m not playing good golf it’s pretty hard for me to be happy. I understand everyone has different outlooks, but it’s like you need to be out there and enjoy it, but it’s like, buddy, would you be happy if you were sucking at your job? So, no, I’m not going to be happy.”
Justin Thomas will soon be a dad
Before things got too deep for late-night TV and went off the rails, Savaricas lightened the mood by bringing up the fact that Thomas was about to be last member of the Spring Break club – following in the footsteps of Spieth, Smylie Kaufman and Rickie Fowler – to become a dad. Thomas and his wife, Jillian, are expecting their first child, a daughter, in November.
“On the flight home, once this tournament is over, it’s going to become pretty real for me,” admitted Thomas, who likely is making his last start for the foreseeable future.
When Savaricus asked which of the guys he’d be most likely to ask for some advice on doing diapers, Thomas cracked, “Next question.”
“I’d ask all of their wives,” he added.
“Well played,” Savaricus said.
So about Rickie Fowler’s hair
The camera cut to Fowler weighing his next shot and Savaricus did a splendid job of setting Thomas up for his best analysis of all.
“How about Rickie’s flow now? He’s really letting it go in back,” Savaricus noted.
Hey, at 2 a.m., this is the stuff the viewer has been waiting for, am I right?
“I’m not a real big ‘Mullet Rick’ fan,” Thomas said. “I like the short hair Rickie. It’s wild, he looks about 5-8 years younger when he has his hair short. He always has something – it’s the stache, it’s the hair – but it’s Rick, you know, you’ve got to love him for whatever it is.”
Rickie Fowler at the 2024 Zozo Championship at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
This segment with Thomas easily was the highlight of the late night-early morning coverage, and further proof that Thomas, who was great working with Charles Barkley and company on the broadcast of The Match, has a future behind the mic when he’s ready to hang up the spikes.
He even delivered one more line worthy of chuckles. As he signed off, DeLaet said what every man is supposed to say to a soon-to-be papa: “You’re going to be a great dad.”
“Aah,” Thomas said as if he was touched by the comment. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock will tee up more than 100 hours of competition coverage.
Did you know Jim “Bones” Mackay has been involved in every Presidents Cup since it started in 1994? As either a caddie or broadcaster, Bones has seen every just about everything at the biennial match-play competition.
The 15th Presidents Cup is a four-day affair with competition beginning Thursday, Sept. 26, but the TV and streaming coverage of the biennial duel between the U.S. and the International squad starts Monday at Royal Montreal with Golf Channel’s Golf Central Live From the Presidents Cup.
It’s the beginning of 50 hours of studio coverage of the event on Golf Channel. In all, NBC, Golf Channel and Peacock will serve up more than 100 hours of competition coverage over seven days. There will also be streaming coverage on NBCSports.com as well as the NBC Sports app.
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Seven college golf tournaments will be on TV this fall.
NBC Sports announced its college golf schedule for fall 2024, featuring more than 180 hours of broadcasting on Golf Channel and Peacock.
Events kicked off this week with the Folds of Honor Collegiate, and the final of seven broadcasts this fall will be Nov. 11-13 at the SWA Showcase at Cedar Crest in Dallas.
There will be an extra 30 hours of college golf coverage this fall compared to last fall and compared to the spring, a bonus for fans of the sport. And coverage kicked off Monday from the Folds of Honor Collegiate in Michigan.
The Folds of Honor will be live from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. ET and again from 4:30-7:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday to wrap up coverage. Up next, Golf Channel heads to Blessings Golf Club in Arkansas, where coverage will be live Sept. 30-Oct. 2 from 4:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. ET.
Then, coverage heads to New Mexico for the inaugural NB3 Collegiate Match Play, where two days of coverage will be shown. On Tuesday, Oct. 8, the broadcast will be from 5:30-8:30 p.m. ET and on Wednesday, Oct. 9 from 4:30-7:30 p.m.
Next is the St. Andrews Collegiate in Scotland, where coverage will be from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. ET from Oct. 14-16. After that, it’s time for the Jackson T. Stephens Cup at Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, where live coverage will happen from 5-8 p.m. ET on Monday, Oct. 21 and 4-7 p.m. ET on Oct. 22-23.
Then to close the year, the SWA Showcase at Cedar Crest will be live from 2:30-5:30 p.m. ET from Nov. 11-13.
The 2024 Solheim Cup is back, just a year after the most recent competition. Normally a biennial event, the Solheim Cup went back-to-back years in order to return to an even-year schedule.
The U.S. leads the overall standings 10-7-1, with the first tie coming in 2023, but Europe retained the Cup having won it in 2021, as well.
The 2023 captains, Catriona Matthew for Europe and Stacy Lewis for the U.S., return to their roles in 2024 with the shorter-than-normal turnaround.
Course: Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia
Par: 72
Yardage: 6,903
Series
The United States holds a 10-7-1 advantage. The two sides tied in 2023 which allowed Europe to retain the Cup. The U.S. has not won the Cup since 2017.
For the third time since being reinstated, there will be men’s and women’s golf at the Olympics.
For the third time since being reinstated, there will be men’s and women’s golf at the Olympics.
With gold medals and national pride on the line, there are 60 men and 60 women heading to Paris. The American contingent is made up of Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa as well as Nelly Korda, Lilia Vu and Rose Zhang.
Each competition will be a 72-hole, stroke-play tournament with gold, silver and bronze medals awaiting the top three finishers in each.
Le Golf National, host of the 2018 Ryder Cup, will host both competitions.
The men’s golf competition is up first, Aug. 1-4, then the women go Aug. 7-10. Golf Channel and USA have the TV coverage with Peacock streaming it all.
Men’s competition, final round, 2 p.m. ET, USA, Peacock
Dutch golfer Lauren Holmey poses at the Publicis terrace with La Defense district and Arc de Triomphe in the background in Paris on March 29, 2024, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games. (Stefano Rellandini/AFP via Getty Images)
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The third women’s major championship of the year is here.
The 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is set to kick off Thursday at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is the second oldest LPGA major championship, beginning in 1955. Originally being played as the LPGA Championship, in 2015 it was renamed the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship after a partnership was announced between the PGA of America, the LPGA and KPMG.
This will be the second time this major championship will be played at Sahalee Country Club. It was first played at the venue in 2016 and won by Brooke Henderson.
