The televised golf season raises a few serious questions

When new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp took to the lectern for the first time, he hinted that big change was imminent.

“I think there’s a lot of focus on creating events that really matter,” Rolapp said. “The competition should be easy to follow. The regular season and postseason should be connected in a way that builds a championship tour in a way that all sports fans can understand.”

RolApp was offering his first look at his integrated concept for the PGA Tour – one that included a new name for Pro Golf: To be depressed.

There’s a lot we don’t know about what the rolapp vision will look like. Will it include the continuation of the PGA Tour Fall season, which falls directly outside the definition of rolApp, but continues to add events and title sponsors signed to various annual agreements? What about regular season matches? Is the visit of the future of the quota welcome few players, or not decided?

Three months after those first words from Rolapp, however, we know one thing about the lack of Pro Golf: It will give us a lot more television.

On Monday morning, the golf channel released the rosters of the first-time draw teams Golf golf games – Primetime, first-come, first-served golf specials featuring teams led by Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy. This page Games Games will be played three weeks after returning Skin gamea primetime, made-for-TV drama between Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Keegan Bradley and Tommy Fleetwood. Those two events will set the stage for golf’s comeback – lastly PrimeTheme, a made-for-TV product, has a second season of the simulator golf league called Tgl, which will begin on December 28. And those are the TV golf titles known as The gameor a new golf tour dedicated to the re-presentation of golf on TV, Liv.

Everywhere you look, someone is selling golf on television, and those sales pitches look as low and small as championship golf holes.

The main concept that approaches each of these new golf items is one of rolapp, where the person who holds the rights to the rights of the Nfl news, knows well: Money in sports works through television. The best way to make a Buck, if you are Golf Channel or TGL or i A game of skinsflying on a large network in large quantities. But the hunter is responsible build Money on television in these events is a little ironclad: that people, golf fans who are often beleaguered by the usual golf sout, will be able to watch.

In a way, it’s easy to understand why this new era of silly golf appeals to someone of RolApp’s supremacy. In the NFL, RolApp learned the importance of a 20-week but never-ending season. He realized that non-traditional football content (high bowl, draft, draft, free agency, Training Camp, Presoason, Presoason, Presoason) can save months of being games. He learned that television was a vessel for introspection with the aim of eliminating attention grabbing.

But this new idea for golf is looking for something it doesn’t usually worry about: attention from the wider world of the sport.

This is a proven concern The game Slow slide from the “golf event” that shows golf “: even if the best players are on television, and even if they play in the most sold format, there is no guarantee that the fans will care enough to watch. And even if the fans agree to watch, there is no guarantee that they will do something go ahead Viewing from year to year (like any events in the football calendar of the nations).

None of this means that the people behind these events should not suffer. TGL was a success that far exceeded most expectations in its inaugural season, and it returns for two years with good reason for optimism. It goes without saying that the game’s money making on television depends on the people who watch it, and when it comes to TV golf supplements, the audience is far from guaranteed. (The Tour, it should be noted, has the power to refuse such advances under its media rights laws, and often collects money to obtain media rights.)

Another way to make sure people are watching is to provide a sense of scarcity – to make those at home feel like they’re missing out -I Watching. This is RolApp’s opinion, however it is seen. But in the winter of 2025, what does the real deficit look like?

It looks like golf made for TV – lots of it.