If you’ve found yourself complaining about the state of the PGA Tour’s broadcasts over the last several years, give yourself a pat on the back.
Your goals were never “misguided.” You weren’t “shouting into the void.” You helped to create real, actionable change on the PGA Tour; change that will arrive to Tour broadcasts this fall.
At least, that’s the latest according to Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, who gave his latest state-of-the-state press conference on Wednesday at the Tour Championship.
The final event of the PGA Tour regular season was an ideal time to announce a new slate of changes coming to the Tour for the commish. Given Monahan’s unenviable role of reporting no developments (again) in the PGA Tour’s negotiations for peace with the Saudi PIF, a few flashy toys were helpful, if not necessary, in settling an unhappy golf public. And what better topic to announce enhancements for than the quality of the TV broadcasts, which have plagued the Tour for years?
The headline is a new “pilot program” aimed at test-driving some new broadcast enhancements during Golf Channel’s Friday broadcasts from the Tour’s new “fall series.” The program, Monahan said, would rely off of feedback from fans in real-time to offer new ideas, and rate the effectiveness of their suggestions.
“On Thursday, we’ll show fans a traditional broadcast. Then on Friday, the presentation will adopt new features based on fan feedback,” Monahan said. “We’ll then survey fans to test their preferences, and that intel will help us further innovate the broadcasts with our fans more squarely in the driver’s seat.”
At face value, the announcement marks a considerable shift to how the PGA Tour does its business on television, but the reality is a little more complicated. The truth is that stakeholders across the sports world already rely heavily on audience feedback to help generate production decisions; the Tour’s decision just formalizes, and tremendously hastens, those efforts.
The Tour can afford to do this in part because Golf Channel telecasts during the fall season are already some of the smallest audiences of the year, a development expected to continue with the defenestration of the “FedEx Cup Fall” under the new pro golf schedule. If the Tour was hoping only to source feedback from the biggest of the diehards, well, those watching during Thursday and Friday afternoons in the middle of football season would certainly qualify.
“I think what we’ve heard from fans and what we’re working with our partners at Golf Channel to test, a couple of the themes that you may see us address, number one, being able to see more shots and potentially fewer putts,” Monahan said. “You’ll see a number of other broadcast innovations that we’ll continue to test as we go forward.”
The new program comes as questions grow louder surrounding the health of the Tour’s TV products. Ratings were down more than 15 percent for one of the Tour’s TV partners in 2024, an outcome with many possible explanations, among them decreased viewer interest in week-to-week golf in the wake of LIV’s intrusion into the sport. These developments aren’t cause for extreme concern at the PGA Tour, at least not immediately, but they’re a foreboding sign given the scale of the change that has swept through golf in the last several seasons. Efforts to improve the Tour’s broadcasts might not directly correlate to bigger audiences, but there’s little doubt a better viewing product would douse viewers’ recent distaste for the pro game.
Monahan said the Tour will also include feedback from Golf Channel employees as part of the new program. The project’s dates were not immediately available.
Article originally appeared on: Golf.com
Since I have been watching golf telecasts for 60 years I believe I can comment on the state of TV golf. The PGA tour can experiment with showing more shots, listening to player/caddie interactions, etc. but it will not change the viewing audience. I now watch the golf channel with the
sound off. The announcers are so boring, and mundane. The attempt at humor with ex PGA players diminishes the broadcast. There never seems to anything new or original with these announcers. It is basically the same commentary I have been listening to, in one form or another for 60 years. Very boring. In my opinion you need more announcers like Bones Mackay. He is so knowledgeable and interesting to listen to. Ex-PGA players that duff chips, or in the example of Paige Mackenzie, a female Brandel Chamblee. Lots of facts and statistics but one Brandel is enough. He was innovative something different when he came on the scene very good at what he does. Please no more Brandel’s. Especially when the two are on the same set. I have a difficult time listening to smylie Kaufman take of the players.
Please get announcers that know the game and can be interesting without trying to entertain us with comedy. David Faherity was the master, once again because he was an original. Stop trying to
find his replacement. Please stop telling us what the announcers think the players are thinking. Or how important this shot is like were are idiots, or course if we are watching the telecast and can see a player is one stroke behind we can see the importance of the play on our own. At the end of
the tournament all the shots were important. You can show different technology during the telecast but until you change up the announcing you will never have the audience you deserve. I don’t mean new personalities, I am referring to new original content, not new announcers saying the same old boring crap.
#1 broadcast fix: stop spending 60 seconds showing pro golfers line up and finally putt 3 footers or less – honestly, no one cares! Only show if they miss it and it’s significant on the final round only. We want to see the play action – the hard shots, the gambles, and the recoveries. AND, cut to more shots more quickly, stop dwelling on the player’s reaction and caddy talks, unless significant. Let’s get on with the game…we already have slow play out there…stop bringing it to the telecasts…