The Olympic Golf Will Really Be On Golf Channel A Lot!

Doug Ferguson previews NBC/Golf Channel's upcoming schedule of big-time golf--The Open, Olympic Golf, the Ryder Cup and because he's a nice guy, even mentions the FedExCup Playoffs and their football-dented ratings--and says it doesn't get any bigger than this.

Ferguson writes in his AP notes column:

There won't be another summer like this one from the number of big events to two premier tournaments that the networks have never broadcast.

''We're fortunate enough to have a deep, talented bench,'' said Mike McCarley, president of Golf for NBC Sports Group. ''We've got a 12-week stretch of The Open Championship, the Olympics, the FedEx Cup playoffs and the Ryder Cup. It will be the busiest time we've ever had.''

It all gets started at Royal Troon in Scotland for the British Open, which NBC and Golf Channel acquired a year early from ESPN. Golf producer Tommy Roy and Golf Channel executive producer Molly Solomon began making trips to the Ayrshire Coast late last summer. Expect to see more graphics involving wind (the best defense of any links course) and a deeper sense of history of a championship that dates to 1860.

The Olympic viewing schedule was released and if you were worried about missing anyone in the 60-player fields, do not worry: 8 1/2 hours of coverage each day with 9 hour broadcasts set for the final rounds of both men's and women's competitions.

While those viewing windows will lead to lower Nielsen numbers, they shoud accumulate nice total audiences and more importantly, give golf fans nothing to complain about in the witholding/tape delay department. At least, that's my working theory.

For a quick update on the course, Brian Wacker talked to Gil Hanse about the test event.