PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp is once again tapping into his deep media connections to enhance coverage of the tour, with a portion of the upcoming FedExCup Playoffs now landing on ESPN’s main channel. ESPN will carry an additional 12 total hours of the playoffs across the three events that weren’t previously on linear TV: The FedEx St. Jude Championship, the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship.
ESPN will have live coverage of the FedEx St. Jude Championship on Thursday and Friday (Aug. 13-14) from 9-11am ET. At the BMW Championship the following week, it will have Thursday-Friday coverage from 10am-noon ET. And at the Tour Championship the week after, it will have weekday coverage from 11am-1pm.
“Having ESPN kind of lean into PGA Tour golf at its core is a good thing, and that really is the premise of this whole thing,” PGA Tour EVP/Media Norb Gambuzza said.
ESPN last had regular PGA Tour coverage in 2006, the year before the tour’s deal with Golf Channel kicked in alongside the debut of the FedExCup Playoffs. But this won’t be the first occasion since then that ESPN has carried the tour.
When Brooks Koepka made his return to the tour earlier this year at the Farmers Insurance Open, the PGA Tour Live coverage on ESPN+ was simulcast on ESPN’s main channel for a portion of play on Thursday and Friday. Those windows were for three hours each.
ESPN had strong numbers for its two windows at the Farmers Insurance Open, averaging 393,000 viewers. That week’s CBS and Golf Channel windows also saw year-over-year increases.
“That sentiment across sports has just become much more positive and just more part of the way media companies collaborate on their rights deals,” Gambuzza said of the rights partners working together. “That is a topic where years ago it was more difficult to get one partner to push to another or to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to be here.’ But from a property standpoint, we just want the fans to know where to go and how to consume it. So, I think we’re making progress in that regard.”
The postseason coverage on ESPN this year also will be a simulcast of the PGA Tour Live feed, but the tour and ESPN plan on adding more bells and whistles than what were included at the Farmers. Expected enhancements include extra cameras and drones, enhanced audio and 3D course and hole modeling. The tour also is in discussions with the network to have ESPN personalities host the windows on site from PGA Tour Studios in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Alongside the linear windows, PGA Tour Live will continue to have full-day coverage across all three events.
ESPN has continued to lean in on golf coverage. It carries weekday play at both the Masters and PGA Championship and has broadcast TGL over its first two seasons. ESPN has been seen by sources as the front-runner to retain TGL rights in 2027 and beyond. Pat McAfee has also been a heavy promoter of golf, having the likes of Scottie Scheffler, Cameron Young and Nelly Korda on his show as guests. In fact, as Gambuzza and Rolapp were walking the halls of ESPN’s Bristol campus last week, McAfee was live interviewing U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark.
All that comes within the context of the PGA Tour’s upcoming rights deals. The current agreements run through 2030, but with the vast structural changes coming in 2028, the tour is expected to renegotiate those agreements.
