Pete Bevacqua -- the former PGA of America CEO who oversees NBC’s golf coverage on the broadcast network, USA, Golf Channel and Peacock -- defended the PGA Tour as it faces a threat from LIV Golf.
“We don’t have our heads in the sand -- of course, we are following everything that is going on in the world of golf extremely closely,” he said. “We want a strong Tour, want the best players in the world to play week-in and week-out on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour.”
NBC, which owns Golf Channel and the GolfNow businesses, has more than a passing interest in making sure that the PGA Tour remains strong, even as many of its players have migrated to LIV.
Bevacqua: “We feel confident that the best players in the world are going to continue to compete on the PGA Tour and continue to try to make Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams and continue to play in the major championships in golf. That’s really where our bread has been buttered and where we have placed all of our golf chips for the foreseeable future.”
In this week’s SBJ, Austin Karp and I wrote about the PGA Tour’s ratings performance over the past five years, which has been relatively steady.
Bevacqua said he’s been happy with the PGA Tour’s performance on NBC, specifically citing Tony Finau, who recently won two tournaments in a row, and Rory McIlroy, who has become the Tour’s most vocal supporter in the face of the LIV threat.
“Putting aside the noise, golf is having a really strong season,” Bevacqua said. “We’re sitting here on the eve of the FedEx Cup, which promises to be amazing, going into a President’s Cup at Quail Hollow that should be wonderful. We’re excited about that.”
In our PGA Tour ratings story, we noted that this year’s Travelers Championship that was won by Xander Schauffele posted a 36% drop on CBS this year. I heard from Travelers, which pointed out that last year’s rating included an 8-hole playoff that ran into the “60 Minutes” timeslot. “If we compare the same time period of 3-6pm year-over-year, our 1.6 rating in 2022 compares closely with a 1.7 rating in 2021.”
