It’s not the Open Championship or U.S. Open, but the American Century Championship continues carrying its weight as one of NBC Sports’ most important golf events every year. This week’s annual celebrity tournament at Lake Tahoe — now in its 37th year — started as nothing more than a programming replacement during MLB’s labor strike in 1990.
And early on, its creator, Jon Miller, struggled to find attendance and sponsors. But the tournament has hummed along over the years thanks to the support of big-name celebrity players and American Century, now in its 28th year as title sponsor.
“When Jon started this thing, we were lucky to drag people off the streets to come watch,” said Gary Quinn, NBC Sport’s VP/ partnerships and GM of owned properties. “And now we’re pushing 90,000 in attendance.”
Quinn wasn’t there from the beginning but joined not long after. It’s now been 32 years since he first worked on the event.
The cog of the tournament has been American Century, whose title sponsorship runs through 2030. “They have really shared the vision that we’ve had to try and make sure that we’re always pushing each other to make it better,” Quinn said. “They’ve been just terrific in the amount that they invested in, not only with us as the title sponsor, but what they do to activate on site.”
Including American Century, the ACC has 13 official sponsors: Caesar’s Tahoe Resort, Corona, Discover Boating, Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority, MasterCraft, Patron, Performance Golf, Sentient Jet, Smucker’s, Trex Decking and Turtlebox.
Also helping has been the celebrity field, which has consistently had many of the same names participating over the years. Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts — who have participated in the event for the past 15 years — wrote a theme song, “Tahoe Nights,” and gave it to NBC in perpetuity.
Among the athlete participants this year are Stephen Curry, Tony Romo, Charles Barkley and three Gold medalists from the U.S. hockey team: Matt Boldy, Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk. Quinn said NBC works to add 10-15 names every year to keep the field fresh.
The tournament’s final round typically has turned in at least 1 million viewers on NBC. Last year averaged 1.0 million viewers, preceded by 913,000 (2024), 1.5 million (2023) and 1.4 million (2022).
Coverage begins Friday at 3pm ET on Peacock and NBCSN, followed by weekend rounds on Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm on NBC/Peacock.
