Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply "Golf" or "NBC Golf") is an American

sports television The broadcasting of sports events (also known as a sportscast) is the live coverage of sports as a television program, on radio, and other broadcasting media. It usually involves one and more sports commentators describing events as they happen ...

network Network, networking and networked may refer to: Science and technology * Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects * Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks Mathematics ...

owned by the

NBC Sports Group NBC Sports Group is a division of NBCUniversal Media Group that is responsible for NBC Sports' media properties, encompassing the NBC television network's sports division as well as day-to-day operation of the company's sports-oriented cable netw ...

division of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

, a subsidiary of

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

. Founded in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

, it is currently based out of NBC Sports' headquarters in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

. The channel focuses on coverage of the sport of

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

, including live coverage of tournaments, as well as factual and instructional programming. It is the cable television rightsholder of the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

, and

PGA European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

, and also holds rights to selected

USGA The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

tournaments and the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

golf championships. Since 2016, it has also participated in NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics, focusing on its

competitions. Via the Golf Channel unit, Comcast also owns other golf-related businesses, including the course reservation service

GolfNow GolfNow is an online booking service for tee times at golf courses. Originally established in 2001 by Cypress Golf Solutions in Scottsdale, Arizona, US, it was acquired by Comcast via its Golf Channel unit in March 2008. Since Comcast's purchase ...

, online golf instruction provider Revolution Golf, and the World Long Drive Championship. Some of these associated properties operate from the network's former home of

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. , Golf Channel is available to approximately 59,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2012 peak of 85,000,000 households.

History

The idea of a 24-hour golf network came from media entrepreneur Joseph E. Gibbs of

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, who first thought of such a concept in 1991. Gibbs felt there was enough interest in golf among the public to support such a network, and commissioned a

Gallup Poll Gallup, Inc. is an American multinational analytics and advisory company based in Washington, D.C. Founded by George Gallup in 1935, the company became known for its public opinion polls conducted worldwide. Gallup provides analytics and man ...

to see if his instincts were correct. With the support of the polling behind him, Gibbs and legendary golfer Arnold Palmer then secured $80 million in financing from several cable television providers (including

Adelphia Communications Corporation Adelphia Communications Corporation was an American cable television company with headquarters in Coudersport, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1952 by brothers Gus and John Rigas after the pair purchased a cable television franchise for US$300. ...

, Cablevision Industries,

Continental Cablevision Comcast MO Group, Inc. (formerly MediaOne Group, Inc.) is a telecommunications company created by US West Inc. in 1998 following US West's acquisition of Boston-based Continental Cable. The company combined Continental with Wometco/GTC, which U ...

, Newhouse, and the

Times Mirror Company The Times Mirror Company was an American newspaper and print media publisher from 1884 until 2000. History It had its roots in the Mirror Printing and Binding House, a commercial printing company founded in 1873, and the ''Los Angeles Times'' ...

) to launch the network, which was among the first subscription networks developed to cover one singular sport. Announced in February 1993, the launch date was targeted for May 1994; and it was launched on January 17, 1995, as The Golf Channel with a ceremonial flip of the switch by co-founder

Arnold Palmer Arnold Daniel Palmer (September 10, 1929 – September 25, 2016) was an American professional golfer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most charismatic players in the sport's history. Since embarking on a professional career in ...

. The first live tournament the channel televised was the

Dubai Desert Classic The Dubai Desert Classic is a European Tour golf tournament held on Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. In 1999 and 2000 it was held at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, all other editions have been held at Emirates ...

, held January 19–22. Originally a premium channel with limited subscribers, it retooled in September 1995 to be part of basic-tier pay TV to reach more viewers, and ratings rapidly increased. In 1996,

Fox Cable Networks Fox Networks Group (FNG), formerly known as Fox International Channels (FIC), was the television networks division of News Corporation and later 21st Century Fox that operated from 1993 to 2021. It oversaw the production, broadcasting and distrib ...

acquired a minority stake in the channel for $50 million. From 1999 to 2001, Golf Channel held part of the

's cable rights for early-round coverage. To boost their availability, Golf Channel reached an agreement with

Fox Sports Networks Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by the Walt Disney Company on M ...

(FSN) to air

simulcast Simulcast (a portmanteau of "simultaneous broadcast") is the broadcasting of programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultaneously) ...

s of the coverage. In 2002, Golf Channel lost its rights to the main PGA Tour, but gained rights to the developmental

Buy.com Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. T ...

Acquisition by Comcast

In 2001, Fox sold its 30.9% stake in Golf Channel, as well as its stake in Outdoor Life Network, to minority owner

as part of a larger transaction by Fox to acquire Comcast's stake in

Speedvision Speed was an American sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as aut ...

. In December 2003, Comcast acquired the remaining 8.6% stake of Golf Channel it did not already own from the

Tribune Company Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

, giving it full ownership. In January 2007, Golf Channel became the exclusive cable broadcaster of the PGA Tour as part of a new 15-year contract, replacing

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

USA Network USA Network (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...

. The contract included early-round coverage of all official money events, and 13 events per-season carried exclusively by the network. By then, Golf Channel had carriage in 75 million homes. It also simplified its branding, dropping the article ''The'' from its on-air name. Concurrently, Comcast also launched Versus/Golf HD, a

1080i In high-definition television (HDTV) and video display technology, 1080i is a video display format with 1080 lines of vertical resolution and Interlaced video, interlaced scanning method. This format was once a standard in HDTV. It was particular ...

high definition channel featuring programming from Golf Channel and sister network Versus. Golf Channel programming was broadcast during the daytime hours, and Versus programming was broadcast during the evening and primetime hours. This arrangement ended in December 2008, when both networks launched their own 24-hour high-definition simulcasts. In March 2008, Comcast acquired the online golf reservation platform

. It was re-located to Golf Channel's headquarters in Orlando.

Merger with NBC Sports

In January 2011, Comcast acquired a 51% majority stake in

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

from

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

. As a result of the re-alignment of Comcast's existing properties into NBC Universal, Golf Channel and sister sports network Versus were subsumed by a restructured

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

division. On-air synergies between NBC's existing production unit began to take effect in February 2011 at the WGC Match Play Championship, when NBC's golf telecasts took on the Golf Channel branding as "

Golf Channel on NBC Golf telecasts have aired on NBC since 1954, with some of its earliest telecasts having included the 1954 U.S. Open, and the first televised coverage of the Ryder Cup in 1959. Presently, NBC televises around 8 PGA Tour events per-season, al ...

", in a similar manner to ESPN's co-branding of sports output on ABC. NBC Sports personalities could now appear on Golf Channel, and former NBC Sports senior vice president Mike McCarley took over as the network's new head. The network also adopted an amended logo featuring the

NBC peacock The NBC, National Broadcasting Company (NBC) has used several corporate logos over the course of its history. The first logo was used in 1926 when the radio network began operations. Its most famous logo, the Peafowl, peacock, was first used in ...

. In December 2013, Golf Channel unveiled a new logo, implemented in May 2014 to coincide with the 2014 Players Championship. The new logo replaces the "swinging G" emblem that had been used since the network's launch with a

wordmark A wordmark or word mark is a text-only statement of the name of a product, service, company, organization, or institution which is used for purposes of identification and branding. A wordmark can be an actual word (e.g., Apple), a made-up term ...

alongside the NBC peacock. The new logo was meant to provide a unified brand across Golf Channel's associated properties and services. That month, it also partnered with Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio to feature audio simulcasts of its studio programming. In 2014, Golf Channel acquired rights to the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship. In 2015, it also began to broadcast the

NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships The NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship, played in the month of May, is the annual competition in women's collegiate golf for individuals and teams from universities in Division I. Golf was one of twelve women's sports added to the NCAA cha ...

. In 2017, Golf Channel extended its rights to the tournaments through 2029. On June 8, 2015, it was announced that NBC Sports had acquired rights to

The Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

beginning in 2017 under a 12-year deal; after former broadcaster

opted out of the final year of rights, NBC began coverage in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

instead. Early round coverage is aired by Golf Channel, which marked the first time ever that Golf Channel had ever broadcast one of the four

Men's major golf championships The men's major golf championships, commonly known as the major championships, and often referred to simply as the majors, are the most prestigious tournaments in golf. Historically, the national Open golf tournament, open and amateur championshi ...

. On May 3, 2016, NBC announced that Golf Channel would air the bulk of the men's and women's golf tournaments for the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, covering up to 300 hours of the tourney, with 130 of those hours live. In 2016, Golf Channel acquired the World Long Drivers Association, organizer of the World Long Drive Championships; coverage of its events were subsequently added to the network. In 2017, Golf Channel acquired Revolution Golf, an online provider of golf instructional materials. January 14, 2018, broadcast technicians represented by IATSE went on strike affecting tournament coverage for the Sony Open in Honolulu, Hawaii, Web.com from the Bamahas and Diamond Resorts Invitational in Orlando. Ten days later the striking workers returned to work after a new contract was ratified on January 24, 2018. In February 2019, Golf Channel announced a new subscription service known as GolfPass. The service will feature a variety of content, including a streaming library of archive content, instructional content, as well as special offers (such as credit for free round of golf per-year, and a premium tier offering additional discounts).

Rory McIlroy Rory Daniel McIlroy (born 4 May 1989) is a Northern Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He is a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking and has spent over 100 weeks in that position du ...

will also be involved in the service, hosting new instructional content for GolfPass, as well as an autobiographical web series. In February 2020, it was reported that Golf Channel would consolidate its television operations with the remainder of NBC Sports at its facilities in

, in a move expected to occur over the next 12 to 18 months. The GolfNow and GolfPass services will continue to primarily operate from Orlando. With the move to Stamford, Golf Channel also ended its long-time morning show ''Morning Drive'', replacing it with the new midday show ''Golf Today'' from Stamford beginning January 4, 2021. In 2021, amid the renewal of NBC Sports' rights to the circuit, and the upcoming shutdown of long-time sister network

NBCSN NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television television channel, channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Lif ...

(the former Versus), NBCUniversal began to put a greater emphasis on Golf Channel's rights to the PGA Tour. That November, it was announced that early-round coverage of the Open Championship, U.S. Open (which moved to Golf Channel after NBC re-acquired the rights to USGA tournaments in 2020), and their women's counterparts, would move to

in 2022. At the 2022 Players Championship, Golf Channel adopted a special logo used on-air during PGA Tour telecasts and studio programming, which is co-branded with elements of the PGA Tour logo.

Programming

Event coverage

Golf Channel is the pay television rightsholder of the

, broadcasting live coverage of early rounds, and early window coverage of weekend rounds prior to network television coverage. Some events (particularly, late-season events such as the former Fall Series, and additional events) are broadcast in their entirety by the network. Golf Channel airs primetime encores of each round during PGA Tour events, including network television broadcasts from NBC or CBS where applicable. If the schedule permits, Golf Channel may also provide coverage produced by CBS if weather delays force golf coverage to run past the scheduled window using CBS production staff and graphics. Golf Channel also broadcasts coverage of

PGA Tour Champions PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior PGA Tour and the Champions Tour) is a men's professional senior golf tour, open to golfers age 50 and over, administered as a branch of the PGA Tour. History and format The Senior PGA Championship, f ...

and

Korn Ferry Tour The Korn Ferry Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either not yet reached the PGA Tour, or who have done so but then failed to win enough FedEx Cup points to stay at that level. ...

events. Outside of events organized by the PGA Tour, Golf Channel also carries coverage of the

European Tour The European Tour, currently titled as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons, and legally the PGA European Tour or the European Tour Group, is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European ...

, and

Asian Tour The Asian Tour is the principal men's professional golf professional golf tours, tour in Asia except for Japan (which has its own Japan Golf Tour). It is also a full member of the International Federation of PGA Tours. Official money events on ...

. Golf Channel was the cable broadcaster of two of the men's majors, including the U.S. Open and other

championships (since June 2020) and the

Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...

(since 2016, including their women's and senior men's events). In November 2021, it was announced that early round coverage of the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, the U.S. Women's Open, and the Women's British Open, would move to

beginning in 2022. Since 2016, it participates in NBCUniversal's coverage of the Summer Olympics by covering its golf competitions. It has also carried coverage of the

Ryder Cup The Ryder Cup is a biennial men's golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States, with hosting duties alternating between venues in Europe and the United States for each edition. The cup is named after the English businessman S ...

and

Solheim Cup The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named after the Norwegian- American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving forc ...

alongside NBC, and the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's golf championships. Since its integration with NBC Sports, Golf Channel has been infrequently used as an overflow channel for non-golf programming, including two games of the

2018 Stanley Cup playoffs The 2018 Stanley Cup playoffs was the playoff tournament of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the 2017–18 season. The playoffs began on April 11, 2018, after the regular season, and they concluded on June 7, 2018, with the Washington Capi ...

(due to programming conflicts with

and

CNBC CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...

), and as part of NBC's " Championship Sunday" effort to televise all matches on the final matchday of the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

soccer season.

News and analysis

*'' Golf Central'' *''Golf Today''

Factual and reality

*'' Feherty'' *''Golf's Greatest Rounds'' *''The Conor Moore Show'' *''Golf Road Trippin' with James Davis'' *''Better Off with Hally Leadbetter'' *''On Tour On Course''

Instructional

*''Golf Channel Academy'' *''PGA Tour Champions Learning Center'' *''Playing Lessons'' *''School Of Golf'' *''The Golf Fix''

Notable personalities

Golf Channel uses a number of people for tournament, news and instructional programming.

Current personalities

Hosts / Reporters

* Tom Abbott *Matt Adams *Cara Banks *Grant Boone *Steve Burkowski *Jordan Cornette * Kira K. Dixon *

Terry Gannon Terrance Patrick Gannon (born November 1, 1963) is a sportscaster for NBC Sports, Golf Channel and Peacock, currently announcing golf, gymnastics, figure skating, and college basketball. Gannon played basketball for North Carolina State Unive ...

*Damon Hack * Dan Hicks *Rex Hoggard *Anna Jackson *Ryan Lavner *Rich Lerner *Todd Lewis *Eamon Lynch * Jimmy Roberts *Amy Rogers *Brentley Romine * Steve Sands *George Savaricas * Whit Watson

Analysts

* Notah Begay III *

Amanda Blumenherst Amanda Blumenherst (born November 4, 1986) is an American professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. She was a three-time National Player of the Year at Duke University and won the U.S. Women's Amateur title in 2008. In 2013, sh ...

Billy Ray Brown William (Billy) Ray Brown (born April 5, 1963) is an American former professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour in the 1980s and 1990s. He is currently a on-course reporter for Golf Channel and commentator for CBS Sports. Early life Brown ...

* Curt Byrum * Brandel Chamblee * Kay Cockerill * John Cook * Brendon De Jonge *

Graham DeLaet Graham Norman DeLaet (born 22 January 1982) is a former Canadian professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour. He currently works as a golf analyst for The Sports Network (TSN) in Canada. Early life and amateur career DeLaet was born in Weybu ...

* Emilia Doran *

Brad Faxon Bradford John Faxon Jr. (born August 1, 1961) is an American professional golfer. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour. Early life and amateur career Faxon was born in Oceanport, New Jersey and raised in Barrington, Rhode Island. He attended F ...

* Jim Gallagher Jr. *

Tripp Isenhour John Henry "Tripp" Isenhour III (born April 6, 1968) is an American professional golfer. Isenhour was born in Salisbury, North Carolina. He played college golf at Georgia Tech and turned professional in 1990. Isenhour played on the Nationwide To ...

Peter Jacobsen Peter Erling Jacobsen (born March 4, 1954) is an American professional golfer and commentator on Golf Channel and NBC. He has played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He has won seven events on the PGA Tour and two events on the Champion ...

*Julia Johnson * Smylie Kaufman *

Kevin Kisner Kevin James Kisner (born February 15, 1984) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. Early life Kisner was born in Aiken, South Carolina and attended South Aiken High School. He played college golf at the University of Geor ...

* Colt Knost * Jim "Bones" Mackay *

Paige Mackenzie Paige Mackenzie (born February 8, 1983) is an American professional golfer who played on the LPGA Tour. Early years Born and raised in Yakima, Washington, Mackenzie is a 2001 graduate of Eisenhower High School, where she was selected as a first ...

Paul McGinley Paul Noel McGinley (born 16 December 1966) is an Irish professional golfer who has won four events on the European Tour. At the 2002 Ryder Cup, he famously holed a ten-foot putt on the 18th hole in his match against Jim Furyk at The Belfry which ...

* Frank Nobilo * Arron Oberholser * Craig Perks *

Morgan Pressel Morgan Pressel (born May 23, 1988) is an American professional golfer and golf commentator who played on the LPGA Tour. In 2001 U.S. Women's Open, 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. She wa ...

* Mel Reid * Mark Rolfing *

Karen Stupples Karen Louise Stupples (born 24 June 1973) is an English former professional golfer who played primarily on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and was also a member of the Ladies European Tour. Amateur career Stupples was born in Dover, Kent. She start ...

* Johnson Wagner *John Wood

Notable former personalities

* Brian Anderson *

Billy Andrade William Thomas Andrade (born January 25, 1964) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Champions Tour. He was previously a member of the PGA Tour, where he was a four-time winner. Early life Andrade was born in Bris ...

(2010–2012) *Lara Baldesarra (2012–2013) * Adam Barr * Michael Breed * Ryan Burr (2012-2020) * Donna Caponi-Byrnes *Lisa Cornwell (2014-2020) * Robert Damron *

Beth Daniel Beth Daniel (born October 14, 1956) is an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1979 and won 33 LPGA Tour events, including one major championship, during her career. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fa ...

(2007–2010) * Charles Davis *

Casey DeSantis Jill Casey DeSantis (; born June 26, 1980) is an American former news journalist who has been the First Lady of Florida, first lady of Florida since 2019, as the wife of List of governors of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis. Born and raised in Ohi ...

Steve Duemig Steve Duemig (November 26, 1954 – May 16, 2019) was an American sports media personality and had a daily local sports talk show on AM 620 WDAE in Tampa since 1996 which has been the #1 rated sports talk show in the area, and worked for AM 910 ...

David Feherty David William Feherty (born 13 August 1958) is a Northern Irish-born former professional golfer and current golf broadcaster. As a touring professional he won five European Tour events, made the top 10 of the Open Championship twice (1989 and ...

(2011-2022) * Jerry Foltz (1999–2022) * Matt Gogel (2007-2021) * Jim Gray *Brian Hammons (1995–2015) *

Trevor Immelman Trevor John Immelman (born 16 December 1979) is a South African retired professional golfer and television commentator who has played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and Sunshine Tour. He won his sole major championship at the 2008 Masters Tourn ...

(2016–2022) * Kraig Kann (1995–2011) *

Jim Kelly James Edward Kelly (born February 14, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent two seasons with the Houston Gamblers o ...

*Peter Kessler (1995–2002) *

Gary Koch Gary D. Koch (born November 21, 1952) is an American professional golfer, sportscaster and golf course designer, who formerly played on the PGA Tour, Nationwide Tour and Champions Tour. Early years Koch was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana ...

(1996–2022) * Erik Kuselias (2011–2012) *

Justin Leonard Justin Charles Garrett Leonard (born June 15, 1972) is an American professional golfer. He has 12 career wins on the PGA Tour, including one major, the 1997 Open Championship. He currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He is one of only five ...

(2015–2022) * Ann Liguori *

Nancy Lopez Nancy Marie Lopez (born January 6, 1957) is an American former professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1977 LPGA Tour, 1977 and won 48 LPGA Tour events, including three women's major golf championships, major championships. ...

Mark Lye Mark Ryan Lye (born November 13, 1952) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Early life Lye was born in Vallejo, California. Amateur career Lye attended San Jose State University, where he was ...

* Andrew Magee * John Mahaffey (2004–2019) *

Roger Maltbie Roger Lin Maltbie (born June 30, 1951) is an American professional golfer and on-course analyst for NBC Sports. Early life Maltbie was born in Modesto, California and grew up in San Jose. He attended James Lick High School where he was a teamm ...

(1991–2022) *Chantel McCabe * Win McMurry *

Johnny Miller John Laurence Miller (born April 29, 1947) is an American former professional golfer. He was one of the top players in the world during the mid-1970s. He was the first to shoot 63 in a major championship to win the 1973 U.S. Open, and he ran ...

(2011–2019) *Jennifer Mills (1995–2006) *

Peter Oosterhuis Peter Arthur Oosterhuis (3 May 1948 – 2 May 2024) was an English professional golfer and broadcaster. He played on the European circuit from 1969 to 1974, winning 10 tournaments and taking the Harry Vardon Trophy for heading the Order of Merit ...

(1995–2014) * Phil Parkin (2006–2015) * Dottie Pepper (2005–2012) *

Ahmad Rashad Ahmad Rashad ( ; born Robert Earl Moore; November 19, 1949) is an American sportscaster and former professional football wide receiver. He was the fourth overall selection of the 1972 NFL draft, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals. He was known ...

(2013) * Tim Rosaforte (2007–2019) * Charlie Rymer *Kristina Shalhoup * Val Skinner (2002–2013) *Holly Sonders (2011–2014) * Stephanie Sparks (2000–2013) *

Kathryn Tappen Kathryn Tappen is an American sportscaster. Tappen works on NBC Sports Group's coverage of the Notre Dame Football, ''Football Night in America'', NHL Network's NHL Now, Golf, as well as the Summer and Winter Olympic Games among others. Early ...

(2022) * Brian Tennyson *

Lauren Thompson Lauren Thompson (born July 29, 1982) is an American television personality, print model and voiceover actor who worked for Golf Channel, mostly as a co-host on "Morning Drive", (from 2010 to 2020) the channel's daily morning show. She has been a h ...

(2008–2020) * Kelly Tilghman * Ted Tryba * Bob Valvano *

Scott Van Pelt Scott Van Pelt (born July 9, 1966) is an American sportscaster and sports talk show host employed by ESPN. He is a long time anchor of key editions of '' SportsCenter'' on ESPN, served as the co-host of '' SVP & Russillo'' alongside Ryen Russi ...

(1995–2000) *

Lanny Wadkins Jerry Lanston "Lanny" Wadkins Jr. (born December 5, 1949) is an American professional golfer. He won 21 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including one Men's major golf championships, major, the 1977 PGA Championship. He ranked in the top 10 of the Of ...

Viewership

For the month of October 2013, Golf Channel averaged a daily viewership of 84,000.

International version

Canada

The Golf Channel is also available in Canada on most cable and satellite providers, as it is authorized for carriage as a foreign cable television service by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

. While it mostly airs the American feed, live events coverage is subject to blackouts due to TSN holding many of its broadcasting rights domestically. Contrarily, the Canadian feed carries coverage of some events (particularly early round coverage of The Open Championship) whose rights are not owned by a Canadian network (TSN only holds rights to NBC's network coverage of the Open), but became unavailable in the country due to their move to USA Network and/or Peacock.

Poland

Golf Channel Poland ( Polish Golf Channel Polska) is licensed version of the network owned by MWE Networks launched on March 18, 2017.

Golf Channel UK

A British version of the channel called Golf Channel UK was operated by sporting goods retailer

JJB Sports JJB Sports plc was a British sports retailer. On 24 September 2012, shares in JJB Sports were suspended, and the firm called in administrators. On 1 October 2012, it was announced that Sports Direct had purchased part of the business, includ ...

, and was available on the

BSkyB Sky UK Limited (formerly British Sky Broadcasting Limited (BSkyB)), trading as Sky, is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television, broadband internet, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers ...

satellite service. It broadcast many of the programs seen on the U.S. channel, but was unable to attract a viable audience as it offered few live golf tournaments; the channel shut down on December 31, 2007. Since the acquisition of

Sky plc Sky Group Limited is a British media and telecommunications conglomerate owned by Comcast and headquartered in London. It has operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Sky is Europe's largest media co ...

by Comcast in late-2018, NBC Sports properties have begun to increase their collaboration with

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

for expanded coverage of relevant events; Golf Channel and Sky Sports Golf trialed on-air talent sharing and co-productions at the 2019 Players Championship.

Golf Channel Latin America

The Latin American version of the Golf Channel was launched in 2006 as a

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

joint venture, and was acquired from

by former DirecTV executives Jason Markham and Evan Grayer together with Inversiones Bahia in 2018. The channel broadcasts professional tournaments from the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Latinoamérica, European Tour and LPGA Tour with Spanish-speaking journalists, as well as Golf Central and other English-language shows. In 2019,

Discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

bought the channel, but continues to license the brand and service marks for Golf Channel from Comcast.Discovery acquires Golf Channel Latin America
- Golf Digest, December 18, 2019

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Golf Channel Golf in the United States Golf on NBC Golf on television English-language television stations in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1995 Companies based in Orlando, Florida Sports television networks in the United States