The Wacky World Of Golf: Predictions For 2020

Considering the madness witnessed in 2019, a few possibilities for 2020…

Distance Report Delayed Again – After PGA Tour distance averages show a one-yard decline through the first four weeks of 2020, the USGA and R&A decide (again) to delay their highly-anticipated distance insights study. “This year’s slight drop in no way means are players are less athletic, it should be noted,” Tweeted Commissioner Jay Monahan. “We praise the governing bodies for recognizing that the game is thriving and growing, especially with a younger demographic drawn to the aspirational joys of annually spending $550 on a driver to gain five yards off the tee.”

Load Management - A crowded schedule means the dreaded NBA phrase du jour of 2019 will come to golf in 2020. Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods open as 2-1 favorites as the most likely to employ the phrase. Bryson DeChambeau, opens at a surprising 6-1. Explains oddsmaker Jeff Sherman, “Load management to Bryson is what ‘growing the game’ is to most players.”  

DeChambeau Admits He Bulked Up Too Much - After not breaking 70 on the entire West Coast Swing, Bryson DeChambeau reluctantly admits his 30-pound off-season bulk-up has made a mess of his game. “The idea was right, but the type of proteins my team chose were all wrong,” DeChambeau said after firing his nutritionist, physio, West Coast chef, Trackman-carrier and upper-body masseuse. “In order to lose the pesky muscle, DeChambeau will skip the Florida swing and restrict his exercise to walks from the couch to his kitchen, where his new chef will feed him a protein-free diet.

Live Under Par Survives Another Year. The PGA Tour’s new CMO issues a full review of the most ridiculed slogan in all of slogandom. Rumored internal replacements emerge, including Fields Have Never Been Deeper, These Guys Are 18-49 Demo-Friendly Jocks, Never Laying Up From A Barstool, and finally, Chicks Dig Long, Dimpled (Golf) Balls. Said an internal source, “we still have a lot of Live Under Par T’s to move at this year’s Players before we can move forward with a new one.”     

TPC Sawgrass To Get “Woke” Makeover - Responding to the rise of Sweetens Cove as one of the most beloved courses on the planet, Commissioner Monahan confirms a PGA Tour Policy Board decision to remodel the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse and entrance drive. Despite rumored cost overruns for the new Tour headquarter building, architect Norman Foster is hired to provide a re-imagined clubhouse by moving the entire 60,000 square foot operation underground, with only a double-wide and overgrown “TPC Sawgrass” sign above ground. The TPC’s recently renovated “driveway”, complete with tight turf and Disney World-inspired street lights, will be returned to a swampy dirt road hearkening to the course’s roots. However, players voted against a restoration of Pete Dye’s design to a more natural look, citing the possibility of unfair lies and the potential for white pant stains.  

Tiger Woods Wins The Masters Again. After winless West Coast and Florida swings, Woods cruises to a five-stroke win as a group of fearless, win-loving young players fold down the stretch. Woods reaches the 13th green in two with a long-iron after the club unveils a new tee stretching the hole to 595 yards. Chairman Fred Ridley announced earlier in the week that the USGA and R&A helped pay for the new tee in an effort to not undertake further equipment regulation. 

FedEx Fedup – Company CEO Fred Smith complains on a conference call with investors gets attention. Instead of addressing Amazon’s potentially fatal move into his business, he questions the bizarre positioning of FedEx’s hometown event, the WGC FedEx St. Jude. It is played in July as players focus on The Open Championship but also just prior to a fantastic two-day pro-am in Ireland that will include Tiger Woods. A bevy of players decide not to play the FedEx St. Jude after committing a year in advance to J.P McManus’ pre-Scottish Open pro-am. Smith groaned that an offer to fly the players to Ireland in a FedEx cargo plane the Sunday night prior was met with derision. “These guys are beauties,” the CEO told analysts who were more interested in whether Smith will have an answer to Amazon eating into revenues.

Mid-round interviews - One year after a failed attempt to allow for mid-round interviews, the PGA Tour copies the European Tour’s successful in-round chat model by transporting Sky Sports’ Tim Barter in to conduct them. The idea lasts one week after Barter tries to interview Patrick Reed following a possible rules violation and Reed’s caddie Kessler Karain threatens to physically harm the broadcaster.

Reed Wins Bobby Jones Award - After handling two more high-profile rules dust ups “like a gentleman,” the USGA announces that Reed has agreed to accept the Bobby Jones Award at the 2021 U.S. Open as long as wife Justine is also listed as co-winner.

Season Of (More) Championships - Bolstered by 2019’s Season Of Championships graphic depicting the Players, four majors and FedExCup as the beginning and end to the Season Of Championships, the PGA Tour allows sponsors to spend an additional $4 million to join the prestigious grouping. Only the John Deere Classic, which says it will lower its staggering annual $14 million donation to charitable causes in an effort to raise the tournament profile, accepts the opportunity.

At Least Two Longtime Golf Publications Will Cease Printing Issues - Yet,sophisticated golf journals are filling the printed void by ignoring any urge to appeal to demographics hostile to reading. Media executives search for solutions to this alarming trend.

TikTok Here We Come! - Despite concerns of spying, cyber security and unwanted harvesting of personal data, all of golf’s major organizations create TikTok accounts in 2020 to better reach the exploding youth audience that simply can’t get enough of golf coverage on the platform du jour. Oh wait, it’s already started.  2020 is here!

Happy New Year.

Plantation Course Returns From $12.5 Million Renovation: Will It Be Interesting Again?

For whatever reason—climate change altering wind patters, thatch build-up causing balls to run less or players simply not using the ground like they used to—Kapalua’s Plantation course grew increasingly less interesting to watch over the last decade. Granted, it’s peak in 2000 with this PGA Tour epic duel will always be difficult to top…

And there was this radar blip of old school shotmaking from Bubba Watson:

Now arriving on the back of New Year’s Day, the 2020 Sentry Tournament of (Mostly) Champions arrives with big names either sitting out by choice or due to injury, so extra focus will be put on the renovated Plantation Course.

Dave Shedloski reports for GolfDigest.com on early reviews noting the increased difficulty. But we’ll have to wait to tournament time to find out of players simply refuse to use the ground, or if conditions prevented some of the past charm provided by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw’s first major design.

Some greens also were expanded while others, like at the par-4 seventh and the par-5 15th, were reduced in size.

“The course is even more of a second-shot golf course than it was before,” said Rolfing, who watched closely from the time work started on Feb. 11 until the course reopened on Nov. 23. “There are more shelf areas. The PGA Tour wanted more hole locations. The greens were softened and you have some flatter areas, but those transitions are more severe. That puts a real premium on shot-making like it was more in the earlier days. There’s more strategy than before. You can’t just bomb it off every tee, either, because you want to set up that second shot.”

Major Championship Performers: McIlroy Tops The 20 Best Of The Decade

Thank you to Golf Channel’s John Antonini for taking the time to consider who the best players were of the last decade. Using a points system, it’s illuminating to see who performed best and how. Rory McIlroy peaking in the mid-portion, while Brooks Koepka landing second on the list with no success in the first half of the decade.

Check out the list here and note in the second ten how many major winners did not enjoy much success beyond their victories.

Antonini also explains how McIlroy tops the list despite not winning a major since 2014.

Why Rory? Because even though he missed the cut at Royal Portrush, he was a successful major performer throughout the decade. His four wins tied for the most in the decade with Koepka. His 18 top-10 finishes were the most of any player. And he was the only player to have at least one top-10 in a major in every year from 2010-19. Although Rory didn’t win a major after the 2014 PGA, he did have 10 top-10s over the second half of the decade, including a runner-up finish at the 2018 Open. Ultimately, that’s what set him apart. McIlroy was there at the beginning of the decade and was still a star at the end.  

Tiger At 44: Stats And A Reminder That When Healthy, Playing A Stellar Course, He's Still The Best

Tiger’s 44th birthday shares the perspective spotlight with the equally amazing Lebron James among the elites born December 30th (there’s Sandy Koufax too). And it’s always a nice chance to consider the state of Woods, which some years this decade has been a dreary exercise in wondering what if?

Not 2019!

What a sensational and bizarre year, as presented in four acts here by Bob Harig at ESPN.com. As amazing as the Masters win was—it was predictable to some—act four this fall may actually give us more to chew on. Harig writes of Woods’ August 20th knee surgery and the resulting renaissance:

The results were remarkable. Woods, who hadn't played competitive golf since the BMW Championship and only began practicing about a month before his trip to Japan for a skins game and the Zozo Championship, opened the tournament with three straight bogeys but still bounced back to shoot 64. He shot 64 in the second round and went on for a 3-shot victory, the 82nd of his PGA Tour career to match the record set by Sam Snead.

He was then in contention until the final holes at the Hero World Challenge, finishing fourth, before leading the U.S. team to victory at the Presidents Cup, where he looked like the best player among the 24, going 3-0 in his matches.

The only thing I’d add of the Presidents Cup effort: placed on a firm, fast course eliciting heightened precision, Woods demonstrated that he is still better than everyone else. If his body cooperates and the schedules align to give him opportunities to shine, he will win a lot more.

We’ll have time to consider 2020’s major venues later, so in the meantime enjoy Justin Ray’s 44 Woods stats at the 15th Club. Just a teaser:

42. Tiger won his 82nd career PGA Tour title this fall at the ZOZO Championship in Japan. Across his 82 victories, fellow players in those fields have been born from a span of 1922 (Doug Ford) to 1999 (Devon Bling).

41. Woods has won 18 World Golf Championship titles in his career, twelve more than any other player. Dustin Johnson, who has six, could win every WGC contested through the 2022 FedEx St. Jude Invitational, and he would still be one behind Tiger.

40. Woods’ 82 PGA Tour wins since the beginning of the 1996 season are more than the next two players’ totals on the list combined. Phil Mickelson (39) and Vijay Singh (31), Hall of Famers in their own right, have combined for 70 in that span.

39. Woods is the only player in history to win the U.S. Junior Amateur, U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open in his career. He has won each three times.

38. Tiger is a combined 14-1 in playoffs in his PGA and European Tour careers. The only player to beat him was Billy Mayfair at the 1998 Nissan Open.

Pebble's (1929) 7th In Living Color: "Bring it back"

When the photos of Pebble Beach’s 7th were shared via my Golden Age of Golf Design book and initially online, the reaction was typically immediate condemnation of the unmaintainable nature of its original “imitation sand dunes.” Those were created by Chandler Egan, Joe Mayo, Robert Hunter and a team of artisans trying to reverse the Pebble Beach narrative from one of artificial to natural when the course underwent massive change for the 1929 U.S. Amateur (where Egan reached the semi-finals at age 45).

Today, the chorus is nearly unanimous: “bring it back” say the commenters on this fascinating post by the Pebble Beach official account showing what the old hole would have looked like in living color. The post does not credit the source, but whoever it was did a sensational job.

View this post on Instagram

The color restoration of this previously black and white photo provides a glimpse into what it might have looked like to stand on the 7th tee in the early days of Pebble Beach. Chandler Egan created these extensive man-made bunkers, designed to mimic sand dunes, around many of the course's greens in preparation for the 1929 U.S. Amateur Championship. The artificial dune bunkering proved difficult to maintain, however, and eventually gave way to more defined and manicured bunkers. • • • • #mypebblebeach #attproam #arnoldpalmer #pebblebeach #pebblebeachgolflinks #pebblebeachgolf #pebblebeachgolfcourse #golf #golfaddict #golfcourse #golfheaven #golfisfun #golfisgreat #golfislife #golflife #golflifestyle #golfstagram #ilovegolf #instagolf #top100golf #whyilovethisgame #colorized #colorizedhistory #historic #historical #historicgolf

A post shared by Pebble Beach Resorts (@pebblebeachresorts) on Dec 21, 2019 at 2:51pm PST

We examined the issues with restoring this look earlier in 2019 when Pebble Beach hosted the U.S. Open:

0:01 4:41

"Can ‘fanboys’ and traditional golf journalists coexist on the golf beat?"

You know the great philosopher Clemenza once said these little wars have to “happen every five years or so -- ten years -- helps to get rid of the bad blood” and just like he said way back when, it’s been “ten years since the last one.”

The Presidents Cup afforded another old v. new media, and rather curiously, I’m now included in the old part as a former new media guy because I write complete sentences (most of the time). If you are not on Twitter—consider yourself blessed—Alan Shipnuck toes the middle line like the artist he is in trying to explain what all has been going down, why the game’s leading governing bodies are favoring the new efforts to cover events and best of all, avoid the bot/groupee onslaught of defensive messages.

He writes:

But the protagonists are fun-loving guys and the nation of Stoolies has a blast tagging along for all the hijinks. Old Man Media tells the reader what happened; hopefully they add broader context like why it happened and what it all means. Barstool tells its viewers and listeners how it felt to be there. They are two entirely different missions, but they should be complementary.

The Barstool audience is too vast to ignore, especially for the USGA and PGA of America, which have only one or two big tournaments a year and lack media operations as advanced as the PGA Tour’s. It’s why they were the first folks to credential Barstool. For years the Tour tried to ignore Barstool, but at this most recent Presidents Cup, the Barstool guys were all over Royal Melbourne. It will be interesting to see how much access they get going forward. If history is a guide, it will be a lot, and Old Man Media will have to endure it.

Wishing Tim Rosaforte Well In Retirement And Admiring What He Did For Players

Tim Rosaforte interviewing Tim Finchem in 2008

Rosie and I didn’t get off to the best of starts. I can’t imagine what it was? Could have been the Yul Brynner blog references. Which, he mentioned a time or two. Or could have been when we had a minor manspat over his references to The Riv, The Foot and The Beach, for which he later signed a hat that I still keep here on the estate.

As I got to work with Tim Rosaforte at Golf World, I became a great admirer of his reporting skills. I’ll never forget sitting next to him at St. Andrews in 2010 as he worked two phones making long distance calls to South Africa. All in an effort to find out any little nugget on Louis Oosthuizen as he closed in on a surprising Open Championship win.

Those little insights would shape the impressions viewers and readers had of players. No one else in golf media was doing what Tim did by introducing us to players thrust into the limelight, or filling out the backstory of those we thought we knew. That kind of reporter is still valued in other sports but may be a dying breed in golf. Whether the world’s finest golfers genuinely appreciated how much Rosie’s reporting rounded out fan perception of them, I don’t know. I suspect most appreciated his efforts judging by how many returned his calls or texts.

In recent years, as players turn to social media to break news, I’ve begun to have my doubts about the appreciation factor for what a reporter like Tim did to make a player relatable, and therefore wealthier. I’s those little insights into a player’s upbringing, his “team”, his workout schedule, or how he likes his coffee, that tend to humanize the player just a bit more. Cranky agents of the golf world, don’t forget that.

There were also those seemingly insignificant stories Tim would share in Golf World, Golf Digest or on Golf Channel that aged in complex and mysterious ways. Say, Greg Norman taking Andy Mill to Augusta National for a birthday golf trip. The level of humanizing with that one was ultimately not Tim’s fault because at the time he just filled out the details and shared what he thought fans would enjoy learning.

Here is the GolfChannel.com item on Tim hanging up his IFB and maybe getting to consolidate his phones into one. A well-deserved retirement is in order after relaying stories about golfers both brilliant and boring, bombastic and banal. Rosie never judged them, just asked the right questions and shared the best details in making our interest in golfers that much more complete. Congratulations on a great run Tim, you deserve plenty of days whapping it around the links and hanging with the grandkids!

Tim and Geoff at the 2008 U.S. Open.

Golf Place Remains Scotland's Most Expensive Street, As It Should Be

Despite incoming golf balls, tourists galore, hotels and parking problems, Golf Place remains Scotland’s most expensive street for the third year in a row. Oh, but it does overlook the Old Course at St. Andrews. So there’s that.

From the Scotsman.

A street in St Andrews has been named the most expensive in Scotland for the third year running.

An average property in Golf Place, near the famous Old Course, costs £1.877 million, according to Bank of Scotland research.

Another nearby street in the town also makes it into the top 20 most expensive, with a house in The Scores costing £1.092 million on average.

Scores, schmores! Who needs those water and ancient ruins views when you can look at the Old Course?

Worldwide Leader Watch: Will PGA Tour Learn From USGA's Mistake?

In writing about the near-completion of the PGA Tour’s next rights deal, John Ourand writes in his exclusive Sports Business Daily piece:

ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live, includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally.

While we have no idea what the deal terms look like, what the coverage windows might entail and what the PGA Tour’s goals are for their streaming coverage, news that ESPN is relegated to bidding on pre-network coverage and PGA Tour Live begs this question: will the PGA Tour learn from the mistakes of the USGA?

The PGA of America left Turner for ESPN to handle the first two rounds of the PGA Championship starting in 2020 and the Masters first two rounds remain on ESPN. When the USGA signed on with Fox and Fox Sports 1 for its exclusive coverage, it essentially said goodbye to a pair of the world’s largest media companies in Comcast and Disney while welcoming in another.

Even rival executives shake their head to this day at the stupidity of cutting off ESPN, which, even with fewer homes and ratings declines since 2013 when that decision was made in Far Hills, remains immensely powerful. They can decide how much to cover and promote a sport while still establishing the sports conversation. The USGA has presumably learned their lesson after falling off the relevancy cliff by shunning two hugely powerfully companies with their deal. So will the PGA Tour find a way to invest ESPN in the PGA Tour, or go with a unproven entity in Discovery’s GolfTV Powered by the PGA Tour?

Even their rivals have to be hoping the PGA Tour learns from the USGA’s mistakes for the betterment of American professional golf coverage.

One More Look At Key Stats From 2019

In the October Golfweek (not online), I looked at ten of the more intriguing stats from the PGA Tour season with help from ShotLink. One of those eye openers appeared in Golf Channel’s five “mind-blowing” stats from 2019, embedded below.

Since it’s natural this time of year to want to reflect on the season, I think you’ll enjoy Justin Ray’s 15th club rundown of best stats from 2019. He covers a wide range from the mens and women’s games

A couple that I enjoyed:

– Iron play proved to be pivotal again at Augusta National: Woods led the Masters field in strokes gained approach on his way to victory. Over the last five years, players to lead the Masters in that statistic have finished 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 1st.

It’s never too early to start factoring that into your 2020 Masters prognosticating.

And this was sensational for Scottish golf…I think. Then again, if it’s been this long maybe not…

– Before Robert Macintyre won the European Tour Rookie of the Year title, he laid claim to some remarkable Scottish golf history at The Open Championship. Bob finished tied for sixth at Royal Portrush, becoming the first Scottish player to finish top-ten in his Open debut since Andrew Kirkaldy… in 1879!

And Golf Channel’s for those more video inclined.

Tiger Woods Meet Peter Hay: Pebble Beach's Par-3 To Get Overhaul

The addition of a good par-3 has not become essentially at some of the world’s best golf courses, and while this embrace of fun and short shots should have happened ages ago to “grow the game”, it’s still important news when a place like Pebble Beach jumps in.

The Peter Hay Golf Course has been around since 1957, a vision of a longtime professional at Pebble Beach who worked with Jack Neville on the delightful pitch and putt. But time has passed by the course and so the Pebble Beach Company’s decision to enhance the course adjacent-ish to the first hole.

Monterey Peninsula ambassador Alan Shipnuck reports that Woods is still working through the details but will emphasize the amazing views U.S. Open spectators enjoy when entering the event over Peter Hay’s course.

Besides trying to keep up with other big name golf-focused resorts and upgrading what was not very well maintained, it sounds like the vision is not entirely centered around profit, a frequent vibe at Pebble Beach that can be a deterrent to enjoying such a special place.

Peter Hay — named for one of Pebble’s first head pros, who was a champion of junior golf — has always been and shall remain free for kids 12 and under to play. (Teens paid $10 and adults $30.) As the only par-3 on the Monterey Peninsula it is an important portal for beginners and families. Pricing has not yet been announced but Perrochi says, “We know this golf course serves many different constituents. Obviously the goal is to attract more resort guests, but Peter Hay will remain the home of junior golf on the Peninsula.”

Captain America, No More: Where Does Patrick Reed Go From Here?

Team events have boosted careers and killed plenty of others. They can be cruel that way. They can also let someone like Ian Poulter buy Ferraris like you and I buy bananas.

Patrick Reed seems destined for poster child status as the most buoyed and most exposed by inclusion in a Ryder or Presidents Cup. Where does this combination of hardworking, supremely talented enigma and embarrassing rule-breaker go from here?

Beats me. I never would have guessed he’d be picked again for a Cup team after having the audacity to complain about getting saddled with Tiger Woods, all while playing horrifically at the 2018 Ryder Cup. But the Task Force and specifically, Woods, gave him another shot at the 2019 Presidents Cup. A singles win didn’t make up for his dramatic and turbulent presence.

Some of the best writers in the business took a crack at trying to figure out where Reed—who plenty of fans and writers think deserves time away from the game for his Hero World Challenge cheating—goes from here.

Eamon Lynch at Golfweek wonders who will have the courage to bench “Captain America”.

It’s like you always say: you make birdies, you don’t hear much.

Investing in Captain America comes at a cost, of course. Everyone understands that accounting. Longtime allies will melt away. Reputations built on probity will be blemished. Men of character will sit on the sidelines while one with none takes the field. But payment for that will be due someone else. Captain America’s end, when it comes, won’t be amid the raucous cheers and backslapping that defined his victories. It will be a somber affair, decided in some nondescript office when powerful men, an eye trained on their disillusioned core supporters, say simply, enough.

GolfChannel.com’s Ryan Lavner notes that Reed is now on his own again after surviving the post-Hero backlash within “the protective cocoon of team play.”

No more captains and teammates shrugging off his misbehavior for the sake of team unity. No more reporters being held at arm’s length. No more hiding behind a red, white and blue banner. It’ll be Reed, alone, facing fan criticism and absorbing daggers from his peers.

How Reed navigates the next nine months, until the 2020 Ryder Cup, will be an insight into the rest of his career – and to this point, he’s shown zero remorse or any interest in image rehabilitation.

ESPN.com’s Bob Harig thinks it may just be time for Reed the relentless world traveler to shut it down for a bit of reflection.

Not just because in Reed's nine events since the Tour Championship in August, he's played in nine different countries -- none of which is the United States. (Germany, the Netherlands, England, Japan, China, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, The Bahamas and Australia.)
No, perhaps it is time for some reflection, some introspection. Reed is a unique talent, a guy with plenty of moxie.

But his brashness has gotten him into trouble, and the way he doubled down on the rules incident without acknowledging remorse only served to make things worse. Seems the next few weeks, prior to the start of 2020, might be a window to sort some of that out, perhaps returning with a new perspective.

Tripp Isenhour and I discussed Reed on Golf Central, considering whether he will ever be picked again. I was not about to play the never card given the events of Paris last year.

CBS, NBC, Golf Channel Have Scooped Up Majority Of Next PGA Tour Contract Through 2030

John Ourand predicted the outcome just hours before reporting exclusively for Sports Business Daily on the PGA Tour’s next TV rights deal, which looks very similar in many respects to their current arrangement.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Any baseball fan can tell you how the discombobulated structure of network and playoff games takes something away from the simplicity of knowing where to find a telecast. And while streaming, cord-cutting and other sports chip away at the number of viewers, golf has posted smaller declines compared to some sports, in part because final rounds are found on networks and the core audience knows where to find early round coverage.

That said, Ourand says deals haven’t been officially signed pending the resolution of “minor sticking points”. Left undecided is the provider of digital streams for PGA Tour Live coverage and other digital elements. But he still reports many exclusive details worth considering beyond the money stuff, which only PGA Tour VP’s care about as they look to upgrade their X3’s to X5 M’s this holiday shopping season.

Ourand says the annual value of the deal jumps from $400 million to $700 million. And….

CBS and NBC essentially will keep the same regular-season packages. The big difference will be seen with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. CBS and NBC will produce all three playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship, in alternating years. As part of the nine-year deals, NBC will carry the playoffs five times and CBS will carry them four times. Previously, NBC and CBS shared these rights, with NBC producing most of them each year.

I’m not sure of the reasoning behind this. Nor can I envision why fans will care.

An official announcement is not expected to come until early next year. The big hold-up is with digital rights, which are currently held by NBC Sports as part of PGA Tour Live and are still being negotiated. ESPN has made an aggressive play for the rights, which in addition to PGA Tour Live, includes tournament coverage before the networks go on air. ESPN+ would carry the digital rights. Discovery also has emerged as a serious contender for the digital rights and appears likely to share them with NBC Sports if they can manage to work out a deal. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally. After initial interest, it appears that Amazon has dropped out of the bidding. Sources said it was too difficult to handicap a favorite for the digital rights.

Again, this is pre-coverage on PGA Tour Live and remains a small part of the equation. More fascinating is that the PGA Tour Live broadcast window and role sounds about the same in the new deal as the old.

The Tour hired Evolution Media as counsel on its rights deals. CBS and NBC also emerge as winners, keeping rights to a property that generated a lot of interest among media companies. The deal answers a lot of questions about the new ViacomCBS, whose merger became official two weeks ago. Coming on the heels of its UEFA Champions League deal, this PGA Tour deal shows that CBS will be aggressive in getting sports rights. The deal shows how important the Tour is to Golf Channel -- and how important Golf Channel is to the Tour. As part of its offer, AT&T said it would turn Headline News into a golf-centric channel, but sources said AT&T never got close to a deal.

In the battle of media moguls, does this mean Brian Roberts closed out Randall Stephenson 6&5?

Left unsaid: how much AT&T’s debt issues and activist investor impacted willingness to introduced a new channel as the future becomes OTT/app-focused.

Also to be explained: what happened to anticipated interest from Fox, Amazon and ABC, or the to-be-created PGA Tour Network. Are the first three outlets cited saving their money for the NFL or did they decide golf just wasn’t for them.

The structure outlined appears to be a small victory for network and cable where a majority of golf fans still reside. However, we’ll hopefully learn of efforts addressed in the new deal to provide cord cutters the option to pay for this coverage via OTT services, and also of PGA Tour demands for certain production values.

Also unaddressed yet: what happens to LPGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry coverage rights?

And the most pressing question of all should settled soon: is the CEO mid-final round interview a thing of the past?

Ourand Predicts PGA Tour Broadcast Incumbents To Return, GolfTV Will Get Digital Rights

In his 2020 predictions column, Sports Business Daily’s media writer John Ourand says this about the PGA Tour television rights negotiations:

Incumbent broadcasters CBS and NBC Sports Group will renew their PGA Tour deals, including Golf Channel. What’s particularly interesting about this deal, though, will be the tour’s U.S. digital rights. After initial interest, talks with Amazon will not materialize, and ESPN+ will put in an aggressive bid. But the tour ultimately will decide to sell its digital rights to Discovery, which will make it part of its GolfTV business.

The latter portion of his prediction would be fascinating given the enticing possibilities of including Amazon and/or ESPN/Disney as a media partner given how established both already have become in the streaming world.

Of course it’s all a prediction at this point and news of deal particulars could drop any moment.

Which reminds me, a new Mandalorian drops Wednesday!

**Not long after this post went up, the Forecaddie reported the retirement of CBS producer Lance Barrow at the end of 2020. The longtime head of their golf team replaced the late Frank Chirkinian.

Ramifications Of 2019's Presidents Cup's Big Ratings: 141% Increase Since Korea

Of course naysayers will score a few points noting Tiger’s involvement, which still draws up to a million more eyeballs than most golf telecasts. And they won’t be wrong.

But consider what the Presidents Cup was facing this year in drawing an audience: late night finishes in the Eastern Time Zone, Christmas party and event season when people are less likely to be home on a Friday or Saturday night, and the Presidents Cup coming on the heels of a fall when cartoon reruns drew larger ratings than most of the PGA Tour’s fall events (especially non-Tiger Asia swing tournaments).

First, For Immediate Release:

MOST-WATCHED CABLE TELECAST IN PRESIDENTS CUP HISTORY

Saturday’s Final Day Singles Matches on GOLF Channel Featuring Playing

Captain Tiger Woods Sees 141% Increase vs. 2015 Final Day in South Korea 

Viewership Peaked at 2.15 Million Viewers Per Minute (11:15-11:30P ET)

as United States Team Was Completing its Come-From-Behind Victory 

ORLANDO, Fla., (Dec. 16, 2019) – Saturday’s Final Day singles matches at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia became the most-watched cable telecast in Presidents Cup history, according to Nielsen Fast Nationals. 

Airing live in primetime on GOLF Channel (6 p.m.-12:05 a.m. ET), the final day posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.742 million viewers per minute (+141% vs. ’15 Final Day), including 1.705 million viewers per minute tuning in to the linear telecast. Viewership peaked at 2.15 million viewers per minute (1.37 U.S. HH rating) from 11:15-11:30 p.m. ET as the United States team was completing its come-from-behind victory over the International team. Saturday also became the most-streamed Final Day in Presidents Cup history.

There was also this regarding Friday’s eleven hour telecast featuring two sessions. Note that viewership average over eleven hours of golf:

VIEWERSHIP: @PresidentsCup Day 3 matches TAD (Total Audience Delivery) averaged 841K viewers per min on @GolfChannel, +47% vs '15 Pres Cup in South Korea.
- Peaked 8:45-9 pm ET with 1.172 million viewers
- Most-streamed Presidents Cup day on record with 13.8 million live minutes pic.twitter.com/bf6sj9JF9S

— Golf Channel PR (@GolfChannelPR) December 14, 2019

Yet to come in as of this post: NBC’s numbers from the weekend showing the repeat of the sessions. Later in the week we should have a sense of total audience.

But we already know enough from such strong numbers in weird time slots to highlight a few things.

—Sports fans will watch for long spans or dip in for decent-lengths of time if it’s compelling, featuring elite players at a quality venue.

—Team events and match play continue to engage fans in ways that stroke play cannot.

—Never hurts to have a close match.

—The PGA Championship, played at night in Australia, in a winter month, and in Olympic years as many suggested, would have been a ratings success along with a “grow the game” extravaganza.