ESPN Comes Out Swinging on Golf

For a network that opted to stay out of the rights game for the PGA tour a couple of years back, ESPN certainly has a strong hand in the game.

ESPN, which has been covering the Professional Golfers’ Association’s U.S. Open Championship (and the women’s equivalent) and the biennial Ryder Cup competition alongside NBC for years, jumped into the sport’s first major when it televised the first two rounds of this year’s Masters Tournament from Augusta National.

Now, ESPN wants to add the British Open to its bag. The total sports network has pitched a seven-year deal that could be worth as much as $175 million for all four rounds, plus international and digital rights, starting with the 2010 Open. If successful, the tourney would become the first of golf’s four majors to be televised entirely on cable in the States. Moreover, it would end broadcast brethren ABC’s 50-year ties to the event, and knock Turner off the tee: TNT’s seven-year deal with the Open organizer, the R&A, ends with the conclusion of next year’s event.

For its part, an ESPN spokesman would only say the programmer is in negotiations for the Open championship, the lowest rated of the sport’s majors, owing to the time differential to the U.K.

Turner Sports president David Levy said TNT, which holds the rights to golf’s final major, the PGA Championship through 2011, is still negotiating with the R&A.

“We love the Open, but this company has always been financially astute. If things don’t make sense financially, we might have to pass,” he said. “We’d like to think we have a relationship with the R&A and they value our production, promotion and on-air talent.”

Levy also said Turner, which has built a strong portfolio of new-media properties linked to the National Basketball Association, NASCAR, the PGA tour and PGA of America, remains interested in digital rights to the event.

While the British could change hands soon, The Golf Channel has added a number of top-level events to its lineup. The Comcast-owned network recently picked up the Thursday-Friday rights to the biennial President Cup’s competition for 2009 at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco and at the Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia in 2011.

Golf also gained the rights to encore the action, in which a U.S. team squares off against the best non-European golfers, in primetime.

“The Presidents Cup will be a great complement to our schedule,” said Golf president Page Thompson. “As the exclusive cable home of the PGA Tour and the only place to watch The European Tour in the United States, our viewers are very familiar with both top U.S. and international players. They certainly will appreciate and enjoy the opportunity to watch many of the international stars they’ve come to know compete against the biggest names in America in one of the most prestigious match-play events in the world.”

Golf viewers will also get a gander at the top up and comers when it exclusively airs the U.S. Amateur, formerly on NBC, from Aug. 20-24. The event, featuring the network’s Emmy Award-winning AimPoint technology, will mark the first time that Pinehurst No. 2, one of the sport’s famed courses, is showcased entirely in high-definition.

Speaking of HD, Golf executives are hopeful that a dedicated enhanced feed of the service will roll out this fall. Currently, Comcast splices Golf and its competition service Versus on one HD feed.