The NBC-Ryder Cup Backstory

Ed Sherman talks to NBC's Jon Miller about how the Ryder Cup became one of golf and sports' most coveted properties. Losing Major League Baseball coverage got the ball rolling.

The plan was to show three hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, and three hours on USA Network on Friday. It was big deal at the time.

In Jan., 1991, Operation Desert Storm happened. The economy suffered greatly. There were management changes at IBM and GM, and both companies walked away from the deal. In the spring of ’91, we had no advertisers and were facing big production costs.

Suburu was exclusive car advertiser for $500,000. We went to Wally Uihlein (the president of Titleist). He said nobody is going to watch a golf tournament in September. He offered us 25 cents on the dollar.

We ended up with major, major leakage. There was no way we came close to breaking even on it.

And then there was Kiawah and you have to hit the link to read the rest, but it's fascinating to think how quickly the Ryder Cup has risen as must-see TV.