Will Tiger Boycott Golf Channel Interviews Over Brandel?

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Ed Sherman has a roundup of the Brandel-Tiger-cavalier-with-the-rules situation and wonders if this could mean a Tiger boycott of Golf Channel interviews in lieu of the hoped-for trial.

This, even though the original offense appeared on golf.com, where they still have not acknowledged Mark Steinberg's rebuttal to the Chamblee column suggesting possible legal action.

Woods, though, will be looking to get even, and that could put the Golf Channel in the line of fire. There’s not much he can do to get back at Golf.com. The magazine and site weren’t getting any exclusive interviews anyway.

Woods, though, does appear regularly on interviews during tournaments with the Golf Channel. Chamblee’s main work is with the Golf Channel.

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Woods might pull an interview boycott with the Golf Channel–at least at the events where Chamblee is on site as an analyst, which are quite a few. It would be a way for the Woods camp to make Chamblee feel the heat.

The World Challenge at Sherwood should provide an opportunity to find out, as NBC/Golf Channel is the tournament's longtime partner. Would he not do an interview Thursday and Friday, and then sit in the NBC booth as he traditionally does on the weekend?

Or perhaps this will be an opportunity for Tiger Marching And Chowder Society Co-Chairs Kelly Tilghman and Notah Begay to intervene?

PGA CEO On Ryder Cup Re-Up: "When we start to talk about our strategic mission to serve our members...you don’t have to look further than the Golf Channel to understand that they really are that daily voice of golf"

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I've sobered up after the drinking game gone bad that was today's PGA of America/NBC conference call to announce a Ryder Cup rights extension to 2030.

Considering the USGA pre-empted this year's PGA Championship to rush their Fox Sports broadcast deal in a woefully unsuccessful attempt to generate a few more cents per FSN1 subscriber, I had budgeted for three shots in the "jabs at the USGA-Fox deal" Jello-shot game.

Before a question could even be asked, I was already sounding like Foster Brooks.

First off, was Ted Bishop, PGA President.

Through this partnership, viewers will enjoy a wave of new programming and special coverage that includes Ryder Cup preview shows, vignettes, features, reports and points updates on NBC and Golf Channel; a Ryder Cup documentary series on both networks; live practice round coverage for the first time ever, and the Ryder Cup Captain Selection Show on the Golf Channel.

Live practice round coverage! I'm still trying wrap my head around that, but I have a feeling it'll go something like this:

Lerner: "Let's bring our Golf Channel Insider Tim Rosaforte in here. Tim? What kind of match is that Mickelson, Bradley, Spieth and Mahan are playing?"

Rosaforte: "Lernie, I saw J-Spieth today at The Gleneagles Hotel gift shop buying his first razor and talked shop with him for about 30 minutes. He told me Philly Mick was in the mood for a little Let It Ride action, with 50 points for a bogey, ten for a par, 100 for a birdie and 500 for an eagle at a hundred bones a point. Butch Harmon just texted me that the Bradley-Mickelson pairing is up 250 points with three to go."

Lerner: "Tim, keep us posted on how that turns out, please. Brandel, did you shop for your first razor in a four-star hotel gift shop? Is that a good idea?"

And you know what's really sad? I'll watch every second of it.

Okay, back to the drinking game better known as, the teleconference subtly reminding you why the USGA Really Messed Up. The Bishop again:

Finally, from my standpoint, it became apparent to me on the night that we announced that Bethpage would host the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup, that this exciting extension was going to take place.

September the 17th was truly a great day for the PGA of America. It’s been hard to contain our excitement.

We had very productive conversations with Commissioner Finchem and certainly respected the President’s Cup last week, and that’s why we’re doing this announcement this week. So thanks to all involved.

Zing!

The deal was sealed three weeks ago, the ink's dry, but somehow everyone involved was able to sit on it until an opportune time to announce. So much for sound organizational practices and protecting the shareholders of publicly traded companies! Well, to the USGA, some of us are just clueless about this.

Pete Bevacqua, PGA CEO:

Finally, I’d like to echo Ted’s sentiments by congratulating our friends at NBC for their unwavering commitment to the PGA of America, to our PGA professionals and to the game of golf, and particularly to Mark Lazarus and to Jon Miller. I’ve known Jon for well over a decade, and on a personal and professional level I’m so excited to know that we’ll be working together for the foreseeable future.

On a non-zinger note, it was nice to see a TV guy like NBC's Mark Lazarus suggest that the venues matter:

Mark Lazarus:  Our philosophy with all sports that we televise is to tell stories, to make viewers feel a sense of caring about the participants and about the venues. Some of these wonderful historic venues that the Ryder Cup and the Senior PGA Championship will visit are really extraordinary in regards to that.

And the Golf Channel as a partner, as opposed to, oh, I don't know say Fox Sports 1, Bevacqua said without prompting:

Pete Bevacqua: And, Mark, if I can just add to this, what was such an attractive component of the continuation of this relationship for us is if you look at the Golf Channel as the broadcast voice of golf on a daily basis in America, and the PGA of America is really the tangible connection between the game, and quite frankly everybody who plays it in this country, what we can do together to promote the game and to attract new golfers into the game is really one of the most exciting components of this relationship.

Oh come on Pete, Fox Sports 1 has great potential to be on every golf course television in America. Just as soon as anyone can find it on the dial.

Regarding NBC's total lack of freshness and innovativeness, the PGA of America will tolerate Tommy Roy. The guy the USGA didn't think was cutting it before their partner tried to offer him a job.

Ted Bishop:  Well, I think that it would go beyond just one thing. It’s a combination of things, and it goes back to the great history that we’ve had, and the confidence that we have in our partner like NBC to deliver the quality of production and to create the storylines and the drama that have really seen the Ryder Cup emerge into arguably one of the greatest sporting events since we entered into this marriage with NBC back in 1991 at Kiawah.

When you look at NBC’s ability to produce golf telecasts, who knows whether Tommy Roy will be around in 2030, but he just does a phenomenal job. I think that the PGA of America cares greatly about the quality of the product and the production.

I don’t think that when it came to the Ryder Cup, there was anybody that we would feel more comfortable with in entering into a long-term agreement, based on what they’ve done in the past, what we expect in the future in terms of their innovation, and their ability to be always on the cutting edge of the production aspect of golf than NBC.

And about strengthening those ties to Golf Channel, something the USGA just couldn't put a dollar figure on, the PGA fully understood the importance of having them on board. Bevacqua, piling on:

When you start talking about some of the exciting programs that we have like Get Golf Ready, it’s one thing to talk about those during a golf telecast, but it’s another to be able to talk about those on a daily basis on the Golf Channel and across the spectrum of what NBC offers. So you can start talking to women on shows that women traditionally watch, and you can start talking to children on shows that children traditionally watch. You start to talk beyond the converted, and start to preach the message of golf and the benefits of golf beyond the converted. We think that is critical, and something that NBC can deliver like no one else in the industry.

Ted, would you like to pile on, I mean, add to that?

I think that the thing that is exciting about this deal is to look at the magnitude of what the potential is for that type of exposure for PGA members through the partnership that we’re going to have with the Golf Channel. I mean in some ways this is almost like having our own TV network, to a degree, and we’ll be able to promote and do things that we’ve never been able to do in the past. When you’re looking at tangible member benefits — and the PGA of America exists firsts and foremost for members — this really epitomizes something that is hugely important to our members.

I felt it was important to better understand the timing of the discussions and in the interest of the markets, to get to the bottom of sitting on this announcement so as to not take away from someone else's special week.

I was wondering if anybody can give us a little bit of an idea on when these discussions started. Also, I’m just wondering if there were any organizational practice issues related to sending on that announcement.

Pete Bevacqua:  I can tell you that I started having conversations about the future of the Ryder Cup certainly internally with Ted and his fellow officers and our staff almost from the moment I started in November of 2012, and soon thereafter began to have those conversations with Jon Miller, who I said I’ve known for well over a decade.

NBC and the Golf Channel are such an obvious partners for the Ryder Cup. As Ted alluded to, the job that they’ve done for decades – it’s one of those situations that you’re always lucky when it’s just an astonishingly easy decision. Add all of the additional content, and the celebration of the PGA Professional primarily through the Golf Channel, it’s really what just made an easy decision even easier.

In terms of sitting on the news — as Ted mentioned — we felt like we had a deal roughly in principle on the evening of the (Bethpage) announcement. It was just what worked best for the PGA of America, certainly what worked best for NBC, and quite frankly what worked best in the overall golf environment.

One quick follow-up –  what’s the status of the Friday coverage? Is that continuing on ESPN?

Mark Lazarus:  ESPN sub-licenses that currently from NBC. We have some contractual obligations for discussions with them. We will honor those commitments and that’s a story still to be told.

ESPN's current deal ends after the 2014 Ryder Cup. Could Golf Channel or NBC Sports Network be in line to pick up Friday coverage, perhaps with some NBC thrown in too?

And it was all about the money, except it wasn't.

Pete Bevacqua:  From PGA of America perspective, the Ryder Cup is one of the critical financial engines that helps the PGA of America, quite frankly, do everything we do for golf and for our members. So the financial elements of a financial broadcast deal are always super critical. But for us, every bit is important. And I think Mark’s thought was what we can do around the partnership with NBC and Golf Channel. When we start to talk about our strategic mission to serve our members and to grow the game, you don’t have to look further than the Golf Channel to understand that they really are that daily voice of golf in this country. The PGA of America needs to be tied into that voice in our opinion.

As for the seeming absurdity of tying the rights up until 2030 when Jordan Spieth will be 37...time for another shot! That's, a shot of hooch...

When you think about that, and what we can do with the NBC and the Golf Channel again on a consistent basis, it made this a pretty straight-forward process because we trust this partner. We have an unbelievable track record with them.

Knowing we can continue to work side-by-side with them through 2030 to continue to elevate the Ryder Cup, continue to elevate the PGA Senior Championship, and quite frankly the everyday role of the PGA of America – there’s just tremendous value in that, well beyond the dollars.

Well beyond the dollars. Precisely not the USGA's motto.

"Golf Channel Posts Most-Watched Third Quarter Ever"

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In a nutshell, they're up 10% over last year and 32% over the third quarter two years ago.

But in the interest of archiving these things...

For Immediate Release:

ORLANDO, Fla. (October 8, 2013) – Golf Channel’s momentum in 2013 continues to roll as third quarter secures the most-watched third quarter in network history.  This is after marking first quarter as the most-watched quarter ever and second quarter posting the most-watched second quarter ever. These increased viewership numbers have Golf Channel positioned to set a most-watched year ever for the third consecutive year.
 
Golf Channel averaged 112,000 viewers per minute, which represents a +10% year-over-year increase compared to third quarter 2012, +32% vs. third quarter 2011 and +51% vs. third quarter 2010, according to data released by the Nielsen Company (24-hour Total Day 6AM-6AM).
 
Third quarter drew nearly 26 million unique viewers. Additionally, August set a most-watched August record (138,000 average viewers per minute), which was +59% year over year.  July and September both set their month’s second most-watched mark (95,000 and 105,000 average viewers per minute, respectively).
 
As the 2013 PGA TOUR season wrapped in the third quarter with the FedExCup Playoffs, the 2013/2014 season begins this week at the Frys.com Open.  Golf Channel will be the exclusive home of the PGA TOUR, as well as the conclusion of the LPGA Tour and Champions Tour seasons for the remainder of 2013.
 
The record numbers throughout 2013 are built off Golf Channel’s viewership momentum in 2012, which drove Golf Channel’s status as the fastest-growing network on U.S. television since joining the NBC Sports Group (among networks serving 80 million or more homes throughout that span).
 
HIGHLIGHTS FROM GOLF CHANNEL’S THIRD QUARTER:

·Most-watched Open Championship week since the event was moved to exclusively cable coverage in 2010
·Most-watched PGA Championship week ever
·PGA TOUR’s FedExCup Playoffs leads to second most-viewed Playoffs’ coverage on Golf Channel with 12.4 million unique viewers
·The new Web.com Tour Finals delivered 167,000 average viewers (+97% year over year) vs. comparable events on 2012 Web.com Tour
·With first-ever telecast of Scottish Open on GOLF CHANNEL ON NBC in July, European Tour coverage is pacing to deliver its most-watched year ever
·Second most-viewed LPGA Tour’s Solheim Cup with more than 5.4 million unique viewers
·MORNING DRIVE is +48% vs. third quarter 2012 and +15% year-over-year
·GOLF CENTRAL is +15% vs. third quarter 2012 and +11% year-over-year
·Golf Channel’s instruction series, led by SCHOOL OF GOLF WITH MARTIN HALL, GOLF CHANNEL ACADEMY, and THE GOLF FIX WITH MICHAEL BREED, are +22% vs. third quarter 2012 and +13% year-over-year

State Of The Game Podcast 28: Judy Rankin

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Judy Rankin is a 26-time winner on the LPGA Tour, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame as a player, and if there was ever a golf broadcasting wing, she'd be inducted again for her eloquence, class and succinct appraisals that set the standard for on-course reporting.

Judy kindly spent more than hour with the State of the Game podcast to talk about her career, the LPGA Tour, golf broadcasting and of course, the state of the game.

You can listen via MP3 here. Or to past shows the same where via this page. And the iTunes option for all past shows, or this week's episode to listen/subscribe.

Must Read Digest Story: The Fox & The Peacock

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Ron Sirak has written a lengthy, Michael Lewis-style inside look at the USGA-Fox Sports partnership and my only quibble is that the November Golf Digest story was not long enough. I highly recommend reading it before reading the analysis below.

While the average reader probably doesn't care about the insider moves analyzed here (scrolling is your friend), anyone with an interest in business, golf, common sense and television coverage of our beloved sport will find the revelations both fascinating and sad.

My kneejerk reactions:

  • USGA President Glen Nager will go down as the most obtuse leader in the history of the USGA. We learn he's been obsessing about the Masters drawing a higher rating than the U.S. Open and becoming the premier event in golf. His reaction is to then steer the USGA television contract to a network that has little chance of drawing a higher rating, especially when the price tag paid will require a longer broadcast and more commercial inventory, factors which should drive down the rating.
  • The money people tied to this deal think that driving up the rights fee is a great thing for golf. Yet there is never any suggestion the USGA required an investment in technology to enhance the quality of the broadcast? Or reducing commercial time, which the Masters and The Players have proven as the best way to make for a great viewing experience. The extra money derived from the deal will merely go to some investment account and fans will watch more commercials on a network that has never televised golf. 
  • Fox Sports was in the minds of those handling this much earlier in the process than we realized, with Sirak reporting that the USGA met with Fox representatives for the first time April. 
  • The role of USGA Executive Director is now very much secondary to the 2-year lame duck presidency post. In this case, the lameduck president is someone who not only does not appear to understand some very basic things about a golf telecast, but who also may have fudged the truth in the story (more on that later). Current ED Mike Davis very much works for President Nager, and based on this story, the ED job may even be less influential in the organization than someone like television contract negotiator Sarah Hirschland who steered the USGA to Fox Sports. This is definitely a change for the USGA which used to be a golf organization first, but which comes out of this story sounding like a corporation where golf is just the widget in question.
  • The people who stuck the USGA with this deal for 12 years will be gone by the start of the deal, or within a year or two of Fox Sports taking over. As Sirak portrays them in this story, none are lifers who love golf or care about the hard core fan, but instead are obsessed with some mythical "broader audience" that only Fox Sports knows how to tap. (Meanwhile, brace yourself for yet another year of Fox Sports drawing a record low World Series number unless the Dodgers and Red Sox meet.)

My only real quibble with the story was the lack of connection made between the timing of the announcement and Fox Sports 1's negotiations with cable companies over its subscriber fee. While most of us thought the USGA was announcing the agreement during the PGA Championship to stick it to the PGA of America for not supporting the anchoring ban, subsequent reporting and common sense suggest the rush to announce the deal was all about help Fox Sports 1 landing more money per-subscriber.  Armed with the USGA deal on August 7th, Fox Sports 1 was not able to get past $0.23 per subscriber for its August 10th launch, which is less than the Golf Channel currently gets.

In other words, the rush to sign the deal yielded nothing for Fox Sports and a whole lot of resentment toward the USGA.

Here are some of the highlights of the story, starting with Nager's mesmerizing quote about what drove him to push for a new broadcast partner. (And this for those of you who didn't go to law school).

"I told them that if you went back to the '70s and looked at TV ratings and other indicia of what makes a championship great, the U.S. Open was considered the premier major championship in golf," Nager says. "And that if we looked at indicia today, the Masters is considered the No. 1 major in golf. I said I wanted to work with a media partner that had a proposal to elevate the U.S. Open and the other USGA championships and the USGA as a governance organization." (The weekend rating of the 1973 U.S. Open beat the Masters, 9.0 to 8.4. The next year, the Masters edged ahead and began widening the gap after that.)

The only indicia I see where the U.S. Open competes with the Masters in the rating department is with 4 minutes of commercials an hour and a slightly shorter telecast. That ingenious standard stems from a year-to-year deal like the Lords of Augusta have, something Frank Hannigan explained in his letter on this topic. Glen Nager just tied the USGA up for 12 years with Fox Sports, meaning there is no incentive from competitors to offer such a broadcast.

Genius.

Sandy Tatum, who negotiated previous USGA deals and is a former USGA President who knows his stuff, touched on the contradiction in Nager's fantasy of a "premier" event clashing with exhorbitant rights fee:

"I would judge this as a transforming event," Tatum says of the FOX deal. "The challenge is very significant. How are they going to be able to justify the money they spent without increasing the commercial clutter of the telecast? That will destroy the telecast."

The story outlines the cultural change within the USGA that led us to this mess. Not surprisingly, Walter Driver's name comes up but so does Jim Hyler, the president immediately preceding Nager. And then there are the folks who steered and spun the current Fox Sports deal:

On Sept. 1, 2011, Joe Goode, a 15-year veteran at Bank of America, was named as managing director of communications and made a member of the senior management team. This was a tipoff of what was to come: The USGA was loading up leadership that did not come from the world of golf but was more experienced in the business world.

A week later, Hirshland left Wasserman Media Group for the USGA. And a month after that, the USGA nominated Nager to take over as president in February 2012, a spot most thought would go to Jay Rains. (Rains, considered close to Fay and NBC, was removed as vice president in 2011.) Nominated to the Executive Committee was Stevenson, who in 2007 sold his sports marketing and TV consulting firm, OnSport, to Wasserman.

The story explains the surprise appearance made by Arnold Palmer during NBC's 30 Rock presentation to the USGA group, which my sources say ended in a standing ovation for The King. There was also this terribly embarrassing moment for the USGA's legal firm considering the overall tone of the story, which suggests Fox was very much in their hearts all along, if not the choice from the outset.

Palmer gave an impassioned appeal that he believed it was in the best interest of the game to keep the package with NBC/GC. One of the lawyers from Proskauer asked for Palmer's autograph.

Casey Wasserman, head of the Wasserman Media Group that consulted on the deal (and full disclosure, who I have worked for at the Memorial Tournament the last two years), is cited as having been part of the process. His comments to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts at the annual Allen & Company gathering in Sun Valley are in dispute, but either version does not give a good impression of how the USGA/Wasserman side viewed the seemingly strong presentation of the incumbent.

Asked if Casey Wasserman told Roberts the USGA deal was going to go to auction—a move that would have altered NBC/GC's negotiating strategy. Jordan, the Wasserman executive, says: "That is absolutely not true. That sounds like sour grapes to me. I know Casey had a conversation with Brian, and he told him, 'You need to get serious about this, or you'll lose it.' "

Personally, I wouldn't be throwing around the term "sour grapes" in the same sentence as Brian Roberts, one of the most powerful men in media and corporate America. And second of all, the quote Dean Jordan does attribute to his boss Wasserman also doesn't look great when NBC, at least at this point in Sirak's version of events, has made such a huge offer that ESPN has already backed out. ESPN!

Now, here's where it becomes apparent that the USGA's representatives either (A) have no class (B) were set on Fox Sports, (C) were in a hurry to help Fox Sports 1 get a higher subscriber fee, or most likely (D) options A, B, C.

All bids were to be in by 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5, and NBC/GC upped its offer to a little more than $80 million and expanded its plan for massive promotion of the U.S. Open.

There was silence for 48 hours.

Then shortly after 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 7, NBC's Lazarus got a phone call from Nager breaking the bad news. FOX, which had never televised golf in the United States—though Sky Sports, also owned by News Corporation, does golf overseas—had the exclusive rights to the U.S. Open and the rest of the USGA properties for 12 years beginning in 2015. "The board made its decision on Wednesday morning, and our president informed NBC sometime Wednesday," Hirshland confirmed.

"Deals like this don't happen this quickly," says one former USGA staffer.

"Only four or five people knew what our offer was," says an NBC official. "When you're a longtime incumbent, you get some sort of hometown prerogative. Would we have matched? I don't know. They chose not to give us the opportunity. FOX ended at $93 [million a year], NBC just north of $80 [million]."

"With the benefit of hindsight, we're not sure the process was handled in the way that it was presented to us," says NBC spokesman Greg Hughes.

So (A) the USGA gets an extra $13 million a year by going with Fox, yet loses Golf Channel as a promotional partner (we don't need no stinking core audience!) and worse, appears to have had little integrity in the process when the spokesman is suggesting something fishy took place. 

When you are a non-profit rulemaking body integrity is kind of important, no?

Finally, if you come away from the story thinking President Nager had no imagination, think again. Picture the scene he paints as the deal was announced...

Nager was attending a PGA of America dinner in Rochester, N.Y., with many other golf dignitaries, when the news release hit. "Several people came over to congratulate me," Nager says. "One said it was the biggest thing to happen to golf since Tiger won the 1997 Masters."

That anyone in the golf's executive ranks thinks anything they do in the negotiating room equates to something like Tiger Woods winning the 1997 Masters, should probably be under Nurse Ratched's care.

That he expects us to believe people sought him out at a PGA of America dinner, much less congratulated him on a 12-year television deal announced on the eve of that organization's major, speaks to a certain emperor-not-wearing-anything-but-a-blue-blazer situation.

There was also this credibility blow to Nager and press release crafter Joe Goode:

The sentence in the USGA release that annoyed NBC and ESPN was this one: "The game is evolving and requires bold and unique approaches on many levels, and FOX shares our vision to seek fresh thinking and innovative ideas to deliver championship golf." Mike McQuade, who produces golf for ESPN, and NBC's Roy privately bristled at what they perceived as a knock on their ingenuity.

"We were disappointed that the USGA chose to disparage our production and the production of every media company [CBS, ESPN, Turner, Golf Channel, NBC] that covers golf instead of just being candid in choosing money over mission," says NBC's Lazarus.

Barely more than two hours after that press release about bold new directions went out, a former NBC executive now at FOX, David Neal, called Roy to talk about jumping to FOX. A close friend says Roy viewed the wording of the press release as "reprehensible" and told Neal thanks, but no thanks.

That's right, producer Tommy Roy, who couldn't be counted on to bring a bold, unique, fresh or an innovative approach for NBC's future USGA coverage, was offered the producing job by Fox Sports within hours of the deal's announcement.

Thumb's up to Fox Sports for recognizing Roy's quality work. There is hope for them yet.

The USGA? Not so much...

NBC sources say the 70 hours of coverage FOX will give the USGA's big three events is half that of what NBC/GC promised.

"False in every respect," Nager says. "The only one who would know that is us since we are the only ones who have both proposals. In terms of contractual commitments for our Opens—the men's, the women's and the seniors'—FOX proposed more, and for our amateur championships FOX proposed substantially more."

Of course, Nager would never actually show anyone the proposals and the parties involved will not violate confidentiality agreements to prove what they otherwise believe to be the truth. So we'll have to take Nager at his word.

After reading this story and the delusional dream of Nielsen superiority over the Masters, few will believe a word the USGA President says. The indicia suggest even fewer will take him seriously.

This Week In Golf Channel Ratings: 175,000 Average Viewers

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Son Of The Bronx posts the Golf Channel ratings for the week of September 16-22, which means the Monday finish of the BMW Championship helped make up for lackluster numbers for the Tour Championship later in the week.

Still, the network averaged 175,000 viewers compard to 97,000 the previous week.

The top 10 was led by the BMW spillover coverage on Monday, followed by Thursday and Friday of the Tour Championship. Nice to see so few people find the ResetCup interesting and the format so un-playoff-like, not that this would prompt the tour to admit the thing isn't finding an audience.

1 PGA TOUR: BONUS  Mon  10:00AM- 2:51PM  0.6  792,000

2 PGA TOUR  Fri  1:00PM- 6:00PM  0.6 734,000

3 PGA TOUR  Thu  1:00PM- 6:00PM  0.5  664,000

4 PGA TOUR  Sat  10:00AM-12:00PM  0.4  507,000

5 PGA TOUR Sun  12:00PM-12:55PM 0.3 483,000

6 GOLF CENTRAL-POST Thu  6:00PM- 6:30PM  0.2  326,000

7 GOLF CENTRAL-POST  Mon 2:51PM- 4:00PM 0.3 304,000

8 GOLF CENTRAL-POST  Fri 6:00PM- 6:30PM  0.2  300

9 PGA TOUR  Thu 6:30PM-11:30PM 0.2  287

10 PGA TOUR  Fri 8:30PM- 1:30AM 0.2  228

And in the go-figure department, Friday's Champions Tour outdrew Sunday's coverage, both tape-delayed.

12 CHAMPIONS TOUR Fri 6:30PM- 8:30PM 0.2 189,000

14 CHAMPIONS TOUR  Sun 7:00PM- 9:45PM 0.1 172,000