Whit Watson from Media Credentials and Golf Channel
This podcast episode delves into the evolving landscape of professional golf, notably focusing on the imminent transition of leadership within the PGA Tour, specifically the appointment of Brian Rolap as the new CEO. The discussion highlights the implications of this change, particularly in relation to the competitive pressures exerted by LIV Golf and the evolving dynamics of sponsorships in the sport. Whit Watson and I engage in a thorough analysis of the current state of golf, underscoring the significance of enhancing player engagement and maintaining the integrity of the game amidst these challenges. We also reflect on the broader ramifications of recent developments, including the financial strategies employed to secure the future of the PGA Tour. This episode serves as a critical examination of the intersection of golf's tradition and its modern challenges, offering insights that are essential for understanding the path forward in this illustrious sport.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Snell Tour Golf
- Snell Golf
- Golf Channel
- PGA Tour
- NFL
- Budweiser
- Honda
- Wells Fargo
- Weston Kia
- Birdie Ball
- Columbia Edgewater
- French Lick Resort
- Peacock
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcript
It's time for Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores a golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass for the hackers, new sweepers and turf spankers.
Speaker A:Here's Jeff.
Speaker B:Everybody.
Speaker B:Welcome to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:We are proudly part of the Golf News Network and a bunch of stations around the west segment is brought to you by, of course, Painted Hills Natural Beef and Snell Tour Golf.
Speaker B:I should say it properly, Snell Golf Tour caliber balls to every player at an affordable price.
Speaker B:Go to snell.com well, I was on his show about a month or so ago, and this isn't quid pro quo deal because Whit has been on this show a couple times before.
Speaker B:But it's my pleasure to welcome back Whit Watson from Golf Channel Media Credentials, his podcast, which was the show I'm on.
Speaker B:He does a lot of other things, like we all do.
Speaker B:If you work in the media business and you're kind of an independent, we'll talk about some of those.
Speaker B:But welcome back.
Speaker C:Pleasure to be here.
Speaker C:I was out doing one of those extra things earlier today.
Speaker C:We were just talking about the fact that down here in Florida, it's, it's downright nasty out there right now.
Speaker C:It's, it's upper 90s.
Speaker C:It is that time of year.
Speaker C:So a little rough on the golf game.
Speaker C:You know, it's hard to find a reason to get out.
Speaker C:But, yeah, I'm good.
Speaker C:I'm glad to talk to you again and thank you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker C:Back when we did it, I thought it sounded great.
Speaker C:You know, I, I love hearing backstories of how people got here.
Speaker C:And we kind of got deep into that as, you know, how you got started.
Speaker C:And because everybody has a funny, weird story about how they got started in the industry.
Speaker C:And that's kind of what the podcast, the Media Credentials podcast is supposed to be, is a collection of those stories.
Speaker C:So I thought that was really fun.
Speaker C:That was a lot.
Speaker B:I had a ball.
Speaker B:And if you don't, we're going to get the directions on how to get there a little later in the show.
Speaker B:But you should listen to Wits podcast.
Speaker B:It's there, it's a variety of people.
Speaker B:It's not just talking about the backswing or anything like this.
Speaker B:It covers all areas of sport.
Speaker B:A lot of golf in there.
Speaker B:And it's very interesting.
Speaker B:Of course, he does a very good job on interviewing people.
Speaker B:You wouldn't be sitting at the desk at Golf Channel once in a while if you didn't so there you go.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, and the.
Speaker C:You've done this a million times, too.
Speaker C:You know, the key is you can go in with a plan, but then if someone says something that's interesting, you've got to be listening to the answers.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:So if you want to change directions and follow on something that person said, being a good interviewer is being a good listener.
Speaker C:I always learned that, and I've always believed that.
Speaker C:And I learned a long time ago.
Speaker B:I was told when I was a kid that God gave you two ears in one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you speak.
Speaker B:I'm not sure I've ever really adhered to that wit, but I tried to.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker B:Let's.
Speaker B:Let's talk about golf.
Speaker B:We've got a new commissioner coming in next year, and I don't know, and maybe you know this because I haven't read everything about this.
Speaker B:Is that because he needs to fulfill his obligations, maybe his contractual obligations?
Speaker B:Or is it Jay doesn't want to leave?
Speaker B:Or what's the backstory on that?
Speaker C: at he wanted to be done after: Speaker C:It was his decision.
Speaker C:So I suppose.
Speaker C:And the.
Speaker C:Brian Rolap is the new hire and he's the CEO.
Speaker C:He's not the commissioner yet, he's the CEO.
Speaker C:I think the assumption is that he'd be the successor, which is interesting because Rolap, when he was at the NFL, which was his last job for the last 20 years, was widely viewed as being the heir in waiting to Roger Goodell.
Speaker C:So the NFL's loss is the PGA Tours gain.
Speaker C:The guy's only 52 years old.
Speaker C:I mean, he's a relative youngster and, and comes very highly recommended.
Speaker C:I mean, everything I've read about him is that he understands that the players and the game are the thing, but he also understands how to handle himself in a boardroom and that you have to have partners and sponsors and you've got to maximize revenue.
Speaker C:And he touched on that.
Speaker C:His press conference was Tuesday at Travelers of a TPC River Highlands in Connecticut.
Speaker C:And it was an outdoor, like, quick quotes kind of flash area.
Speaker C:It wasn't like a sit down on a dais.
Speaker C:You know, it was only 12 minutes long.
Speaker C:I just listened to the whole thing.
Speaker C:And he's not giving a whole lot of way yet.
Speaker C:He hadn't been there long enough yet.
Speaker C:You know, he gets asked about live golf and the PIs, and he.
Speaker C:He hasn't been in those meetings yet, so there wasn't a whole lot to glean.
Speaker C:But you can tell that he's engaging, he's quick on his feet.
Speaker C:A lot of the media and you've been in these situations when you bring in a new coach or a new player, the media would stand up and, you know, someone would say, I'm Jason Sobel, PGA Tour Radio.
Speaker C:And he would say, hey, Jason.
Speaker C:You know, and the people he did know, he would address them by their first name.
Speaker C:And that's the little things that make a good commissioner in waiting.
Speaker C:Yeah, in this case.
Speaker B:So I don't think he was.
Speaker B:I don't think Roger Goodell is ever going to go anywhere.
Speaker B:I think he's like, any dies, they're just going to prop him up in the corner in the office or something.
Speaker B:Who knows?
Speaker C:He's.
Speaker C:He's 67.
Speaker C:I was a little surprised when I read that.
Speaker C:I didn't realize he was 67 years old.
Speaker C:And I don't know.
Speaker C:I mean, Tim Fincham was in his 70s when he decided to step down.
Speaker C:Bud Selig was, I want to say, close to 80 by the time he stepped down as a Major League baseball commissioner.
Speaker C:So theoretically, Goodell could have 10 more years.
Speaker C:And without speculating, who knows, maybe Brian Rolap looked at the clock and said, you know, this is an opportunity to jump out and do something on my own, because otherwise I could be in this job for the next 10, 15 years.
Speaker C:And for a guy that age, you're still making your bones, you still want to do something, and it's a hell of an opportunity.
Speaker C:I mean.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker C:One and a half billion committed by the Strategic Sports Group, made up largely of NFL owners that Rolap already knows very, very well.
Speaker C:And another 1.5 billion potentially committed.
Speaker C:I mean, I wouldn't.
Speaker C:He said multiple times, JT during his presser that I just couldn't say no.
Speaker C:I couldn't walk away from this.
Speaker C:I'd regret it if I did.
Speaker C:And sure, I think anybody would have done the same thing.
Speaker B:Do you think Jay's just tired?
Speaker B:I mean, Fincham never got beat up like Monahan did.
Speaker C:No, he didn't.
Speaker C:And I've read for those who don't follow golf closely, if you're not, like, in the golf bubble, there's a.
Speaker C:There's a lot of.
Speaker C:I don't know what the word is, animosity or ambivalence or.
Speaker C:Jay's not a real popular figure.
Speaker C:And I really can't put a finger on why.
Speaker C:From some of the stuff I read from columnists, from opinion makers, it was that, you know, he didn't really commit to a clear vision.
Speaker C:He wasn't terribly comfortable in front of a camera or a microphone.
Speaker C:There were concerns about the way that he handled Liv at the outset.
Speaker C:There are some people that say going nuclear on Live from day one, in retrospect was a mistake and that he underestimated them every step of the way.
Speaker C:He may be tired.
Speaker C:Remember, he took some personal time after that agreement.
Speaker C:The Forgotten what it's called.
Speaker C:It's been two years now.
Speaker C:I forgot the name of it.
Speaker C:The.
Speaker C:The verbal agreement they made, the.
Speaker C:The agreement to agree, which my dad, the lawyer, says is not an agreement.
Speaker C:You know, he took.
Speaker C:Monahan, took personal time, and he later said it was like, yeah, mental health time.
Speaker C:Like, I was physically exhausted from the whole process.
Speaker C:So I guess this isn't that big of a surprise.
Speaker C:And the jury's out as to what his legacy will be.
Speaker C:You know, he created the pip, which, as I read on one newsletter this morning, was the most unpopular $100 million bonus pool ever created.
Speaker C:But then he came up with signature events, and the players who get into those events don't hate them.
Speaker C:But I don't know what his legacy is going to be, other than the fact that I think LIV shapes it quite a bit.
Speaker C:Actually, now that I think about it, I think Liv is going to shape what they write about him 20 years from now.
Speaker B:These sponsors are what keep you going when you're doing public events.
Speaker B:And I know that some of them felt they got the short shrift on the deal on that.
Speaker B:Some tournaments, too, that had been 20, 30 years as a substantial stop on the tour.
Speaker B:And all of a sudden, no, you're not.
Speaker B:And then a big sponsor.
Speaker B:Pick one.
Speaker B:You know, Acme Corp.
Speaker B:Says, well, if we're not going to do that, we're not going to do it anymore, period.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:So that's.
Speaker C:Well, I'll pick, right?
Speaker C:I mean, I'll pick a couple that walked.
Speaker C:Honda walked away.
Speaker C:Wells Fargo walked away.
Speaker C:These were companies that had been tied to the PGA Tour for decades.
Speaker C:At one point, Honda was the longest continually sponsored event on the tour.
Speaker C:And they said, goodbye, hey, we gotta.
Speaker B:Get out of here for a minute or two, do a little business.
Speaker B:But Whit and I will be back tickling your ears in just a couple minutes.
Speaker B:Hey, everybody.
Speaker D:J.T.
Speaker C:Here.
Speaker D:You know, every week on Grilling at the Green, we bring you a travel tip, and that is brought to you by the Westin dealerships.
Speaker D:I've known those guys since I was a kid.
Speaker D:And they have one way of doing business.
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Speaker D:Check out Weston Kia on Southeast Stark in Gresham, Oregon.
Speaker B:Welcome to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:Today we have got Whit Wat media.
Speaker D:Credentials, Golf Channel, espn, a whole list of things.
Speaker B:And it's always fun to talk to Whit.
Speaker C:If you think about the timeline, he, you know, the signature events were designed as a way to try to compel the best players on the PGA Tour to stop considering liv.
Speaker C:And when Liv began to lose some names that mattered and the guys that really matter are, you know, Bryson DeChambeau, Brooks Koepka, kind of John Rahm.
Speaker C:These are the ones that I think people really would like to see come back and play on the PGA Tour, at least have them in the same fields.
Speaker C:You know, he couldn't match the money, obviously.
Speaker C:So he goes to the sponsors, to your point, who've been in the PGA Tour for 20, 30 years, and he's asking them for more money for increased purses with a lesser product.
Speaker C:With 20 guys that could be out there that aren't.
Speaker C:So you're delivering less of a product and you're asking for more money.
Speaker C:Well, no wonder the sponsors balked.
Speaker C:And that's why this SSG investment was kind of a lifesaver for the tour, because that enabled them to not have to go beg sponsors for more money, at least not for the time being, and still run something that is akin to a PGA Tour that we all are accustomed to.
Speaker C:But at some point, SSG is going to want return on investment.
Speaker C:People like Arthur Blank and John Henry, they didn't become billionaires by making dumb decisions.
Speaker C:They're going to expect money out of this.
Speaker C:And now we have this gentleman, Brian Rolap, who among his other titles, is going to be the chairman of PGA Tour Enterprises.
Speaker C:So this thing that's been proposed as a joint project between the PGA Tour and LIV and Yasir Al Rahmayan from the public investment fund.
Speaker C:Reportedly he wanted to be the CEO of this new entity.
Speaker C:That was one of the demands that the PIF was making and one of the biggest hurdles that made the PGA Tour ball.
Speaker C:And now in their statement, they're saying Brian Rolap is going to be the.
Speaker C:The CEO of BGA Tour Enterprises.
Speaker C:Well, what does that mean for live?
Speaker C:Are we done?
Speaker C:Is that it?
Speaker C:I mean, that's So a lot long winded answer, but a lot of things still to be determined.
Speaker C:And it does stem from money, unfortunately.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Is where the money comes from.
Speaker B:Well, I think too wit is that if you get somebody like Roloff in there and Monahan wasn't, wasn't comfortable as you said.
Speaker B:I mean, I don't know him, I've never met him, but I could just tell by his demeanor.
Speaker B:Okay, that being said, the new guy is used to dealing with the NFL owners.
Speaker B:We mentioned that.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:He's used to big time sponsorships because the NFL is huge, you know, 200 million a year from Budweiser or whatever, whatever, it doesn't matter.
Speaker B:And maybe this is a breather, if you will, between now and when he finally takes the reins that he can meet with these, some of these people and start to re craft some of their sponsorship agreements and packages and maybe make the tournaments, provide more to the sponsors again.
Speaker B:I mean if he's working at that level, he knows this stuff inside and out and maybe that's something he'll bring to the table.
Speaker B:Speculating on my part, but maybe he'll bring that to the table right away.
Speaker C:And I'll add on top of that that he was the NFL's chief media and business officer at one point, which means he oversaw all of the broadcast and digital rights.
Speaker C:So Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, all the new stuff that the NFL has done to get the product seen.
Speaker C:That was under Roll Apps Watch.
Speaker C:And there's in my experience, listening to people talk at Golf Channel.
Speaker C:The PGA Tour has always been very proprietary about the on air product.
Speaker C:They have very specific requests.
Speaker C:They are, you know, they, they, they kind of in terms of PGA Tour productions, which is the new, you know, the big building they built in Ponte Vedra, they stream their events, they have four streams a week.
Speaker C:And they're pretty confident in their abilities to do it.
Speaker C:They like the way they produce golf tournaments.
Speaker C:And there were times when Golf Channel, slash NBC and the tour didn't really see it the same way.
Speaker C:I can't speak for cbs, I've never worked there.
Speaker C:So I think this is also part of, part of the reason why this is a good hire is you got a guy that is accustomed to negotiating with broadcast and digital rights partners.
Speaker C:He's done this for the biggest league in America.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker C:So if he can't get the deal done to get a PGA Tour, then nobody can get it done.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:I mean that's, it's arguably the, I don't know, maybe second or third largest, most significant media rights deal on the planet behind maybe what the World cup and F1, the Olympics.
Speaker C:I mean, you know, there's not much bigger than being the NFL's media guy.
Speaker C:So I think the feeling is if he can't get it done, nobody can get it done.
Speaker C:And I expect to see a much larger role for PGA Tour productions.
Speaker C:I think they're in house stuff.
Speaker C:They're already producing the Korn Ferry Tour on their own.
Speaker C:They're already producing the PGA Champions on their own.
Speaker C:I think there's going to come a day when perhaps all of their tours, everything they do, and maybe even the LPGA as well, because they have this marketing agreement together, right.
Speaker C:Might come out upon a Vedra and whatever network it is that carries it.
Speaker C:And there's no guarantee it's going to be Golf Channel.
Speaker C:Golf Channel is going to get spun off by Comcast into a new business entity.
Speaker C:There's no guarantee it's going to be Golf Channel.
Speaker C:I think that.
Speaker C:I think personal opinion.
Speaker C:I think we're moving towards a day when the Tour has complete editorial control of the broadcast.
Speaker C:And I mean that like linear and digital, right?
Speaker C:And who knows where we're going to see it.
Speaker C:You know, you'll see it@PGA Tour.com you'll see it at ESPN plus, but you might see it on Amazon and you might see it on YouTube and you might see it on Netflix.
Speaker C:And because he's got that experience.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:We're going to take a break first.
Speaker B:We're going to hear from our friendly folks at Weston Kia.
Speaker B:And then Whit and I will be back in just a moment.
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Speaker B: From: Speaker C:Reported by Kia Corp.
Speaker E:When I was born just west of the river Mississippi Mud running in.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker E:On the road is where I found freedom.
Speaker E:Hotel rooms is where I found peace.
Speaker E:I spent my whole life running my world.
Speaker E:It's gonna be, it's gonna be.
Speaker E:It's gonna be a long way home.
Speaker E:It's gonna take, it's gonna.
Speaker D:Hey, everybody, it's jt.
Speaker D:You know, I talk about Painted Hills all the time and we always say beef the way nature intended.
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Speaker D:Put a big, bright smile on your face and whoever's at your dinner table will have a big, bright smile on their face.
Speaker D:And you can thank me for that later.
Speaker D:Just go to paintedhillsbeef.com and find out more.
Speaker B:You won't regret it.
Speaker B:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:I'm jt.
Speaker B:We're talking with Whit Watson today.
Speaker B:Don't forget the Standard Portland Classic is coming up August 14th through the 17th at Columbia Edgewater.
Speaker B:And I know Whit knows that course and he likes that course.
Speaker C:I love that golf course.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:It is a great, great course.
Speaker B:And the river is right there across the street, and it's just.
Speaker B:It's just gorgeous.
Speaker B:And wits podcast media credentials.
Speaker B:I was fortunate.
Speaker B:He invited me about a month ago to be on that show.
Speaker B:Had a lot of fun with it.
Speaker B:So let's.
Speaker B:We'll do it a couple times.
Speaker B:But how do people find you on.
Speaker B:On media credentials?
Speaker B:Can they just go to YouTube and search it or what?
Speaker C:They can.
Speaker C:There is a YouTube channel you can search for media credential on Apple, Spotify, just about everywhere that you normally get a podcast.
Speaker C:The direct way would be go to whitwatson.com W-H-I-T-W-A-T-S-O-N.com where I've got like a bio and clips, examples of my work, and I've got a whole page that's just dedicated to the podcast.
Speaker C:And it goes back about a little over two years now.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And the idea was to, as we talked about earlier, was to platform people that work in sports media whose stories you may not know.
Speaker C:So my initial, my initial thought was like, I want to get the camera guy, I want to get the audio guy, I want to get the executive producer.
Speaker C:And I've had all of those kinds of roles, but I've kind of also expanded into just people I want to talk to.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Like, sure.
Speaker C:People I think are interesting.
Speaker C:And I just spoke to Brendan Sweeney, who is the director of golf media relations and player development at French Lick Resort in Indiana.
Speaker C:And I've known him forever.
Speaker C:And just in emails and phone calls and stuff, I thought, this guy's got really cool stories.
Speaker C:I should just put him on.
Speaker C:And he was terrific.
Speaker C:And at the end, I'm like, by the way, French Lick is not paying me for this.
Speaker C:This is not an endorsement.
Speaker C:I just thought the guy was funny.
Speaker C:And he was a really, really good.
Speaker C:Turns out he caddied at Medina as a kid.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I was like, talk about burying the lead.
Speaker C:So I redirected him on a question to our point about interviewing, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, timeout.
Speaker C:You caddied at Medina.
Speaker C:Let's get back to that, you know.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker C:It's been a lot of fun to hear stories like that.
Speaker B:Well, you've got some great stuff on there.
Speaker B:And again, I want to thank you for including me in your show.
Speaker C:Please.
Speaker B:We had.
Speaker B:We had a lot of.
Speaker B:A lot of good conversation on that.
Speaker B:We had a few laughs, too.
Speaker B:Um, everybody in this, the civilians, as I call them, that aren't in our line of work, they've all read about the Golf Channel spin off.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:How do you think that that's.
Speaker B:I mean, nobody knows it's a crystal ball deal, but, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:We've been in the business long enough to know when somebody says that, it's never good at the end, at least in my experience.
Speaker B:So what's your take on it?
Speaker C:That's a great question.
Speaker C:And I'm certainly not close enough anymore to know.
Speaker C:But just looking at it on paper, it seems like Comcast is separating their business units that are for sure profitable.
Speaker C:And the ones they know, they can expand and the ones that may need a little help and the ones that Golf Channel makes money.
Speaker C:Let me say that first, even with.
Speaker C:Even with cord cutting, even with people dropping cable, Golf Channel is still profitable.
Speaker C:But some of the other entities there, we all know what people are predicting for the future of cable television.
Speaker C:And a lot of their cable channels are in this new company called Versant, which is going to be.
Speaker C:I'm not really sure how this works.
Speaker C:I'm not a business guy, but it's a separate business unit.
Speaker C:Somebody else is running it, but Comcast still has a hand in it.
Speaker C:It's a way of redeploying assets and kind of shielding one from the other in terms of stock prices and things like that.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And so you figure there's, like, there's an A group and a B group, and they're.
Speaker C:They're.
Speaker C:I feel like the spin off is because of concerns or trying to figure out ways to expand the business of the B group.
Speaker C:That's the best answer I can give you.
Speaker B:No, I think that's.
Speaker B:That's reasonable there, because like you said, they make money.
Speaker B: make money, but that's only a.: Speaker B:And you look over here, and that's a 5.4% return.
Speaker B:And that's the way they look at it.
Speaker C:And at one point, Peacock was $8 billion in the red as recently as last year.
Speaker C:I don't know what the numbers are now.
Speaker C:They say subscriptions are up.
Speaker C:But that, I know, was driving a lot of decisions at Comcast as it regards to their sports divisions.
Speaker C:Not just sports, but I mean sports and entertainment.
Speaker C:Because Peacock is not just sports, but trying to make that work.
Speaker C:You know, everybody's trying to catch up to Netflix.
Speaker C:Netflix was 10 years ahead of everybody else in this regard.
Speaker C:And so, you know, there was Paramount plus was created and Peacock was created and, you know, and Hulu and all these other.
Speaker C:All streaming, trying to play catch up to what Netflix figured out a long time ago.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:And there's a lot of impetus, there's a lot of incentive on Comcast park to make Peacock work.
Speaker C:And I think that this split has a lot to do with that.
Speaker B:I do, too.
Speaker B:And I think, you know, pardon my French, but it's always a good way to piss people off, too.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:When you do something like Peacock and you're watching and they don't air on this, I get it, but they're.
Speaker B:You're watching Yellowstone, which you had to subscribe to Paramount.
Speaker C:To Paramount plus, right?
Speaker B:Yeah, Paramount Plus, Right.
Speaker B:But you're.
Speaker B:You're watching it on USA Network or NBC, whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
Speaker B:You're watching it and then you want to where the next episode is.
Speaker B:Well, the next episode dropped, but you got to have a subscription to watch it.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, how much is that?
Speaker B:Well, it's 8.95amonth or whatever it is.
Speaker B:And it's not the price, it's the inconvenience for about half the viewing audience out there who doesn't want to be bothered with a bunch of more subs, charges, subscription charges every month.
Speaker C:So I'll tell you something.
Speaker C:Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker B:No, I'm just.
Speaker B:I'm just saying that that is, that is something that I know because I get asked those questions because I'm in the media and it's like not going to pay for 95 or whatever.
Speaker B:It's like I have nothing to do with it.
Speaker C:Right, right.
Speaker C:Yeah, I think it was very telling.
Speaker C: very half hour starting about: Speaker C:Excuse me, for Westwood One Sports, Westwood One Radio.
Speaker C:And I do it in this room watching that TV on, you know, a Kodak, a Codex, a unit they send me that I can plug into my wall.
Speaker C:And it sounds, you know, broadcast quality.
Speaker C:And then.
Speaker C:And so the first, the early coverage of the U.S.
Speaker C:open last week on Thursday was on USA Network.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:They've been shifting some sports products to USA over the years.
Speaker C:USA originally was a sports network.
Speaker C:That makes sense.
Speaker C:Friday's early round coverage, starting at whatever it was, 9 o' clock in the morning of the United States Open, was only on Peacock.
Speaker C:Rather than put it on Golf Channel, rather than shift that coverage and push the audience both of those days to Golf Channel, which has the word golf in the title, they put it on USA Network.
Speaker C:And Peacock.
Speaker C:Now that tells me something.
Speaker C:That is not a minor decision and that is not something to go.
Speaker C:Ah, it's not that big of a deal.
Speaker C:It is that big of a deal.
Speaker C:There's a reason behind that.
Speaker C:I don't know what it is because I'm not in those boardrooms, but the fact that you had to have a Peacock subscription to watch early coverage on Cut Day at the US Open at Oakmont, that gives you an idea of how Comcast views Peacock and how desperately they want people to start turning to that streaming service the way they would turn to a cable television network.
Speaker C:And that's where we are, you know, the US Two years ago, the idea of a major championship airing on streaming only coverage on a Thursday or Friday was unheard of.
Speaker C:That's never going to happen.
Speaker C:It happened five days ago.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, I can sit here and look at the screen.
Speaker B:I'm looking at you on, because I have a couple other ones and I can watch like off the USGA website, featured deal type thing.
Speaker B:And then there's, of course, we've done it with ESPN too, where you had to have a pay for stuff there and this and that.
Speaker B:I, I think it becomes, not just the money, but it becomes cumbersome for people with to, okay, I mean, Golf Channel to NBC, Golf Channel to cbs.
Speaker B:That's not a big deal.
Speaker B:You know, it's noon on the west coast, three on the East Coast.
Speaker B:We're gonna switch.
Speaker B:It happens every weekend.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker C:Everybody, everybody got used to it.
Speaker C:It wasn't that big of a deal.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But then you're over here and you're going, well, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that.
Speaker B:And it's like, oh man, I went outside and mowed my lawn.
Speaker C:Right, right.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker C:And this week, as we speak, getting ready for the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, they're doing featured group coverage, which I believe is a first for them.
Speaker C:They've got Grant Boone and Judy Rankin, two very dear people who are doing featured groups, I believe, all four days, in addition to everything that airs on Golf Channel, NBC, etc.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's all good, but it's all good.
Speaker C:It's not going away.
Speaker C:But to your point, you know, for a certain demographic, old guys, me, I'm not gonna skip around with five remotes to get to the right streaming service.
Speaker C:You know, like, I'm a, I'm a huge Orlando City fan in mls, my hometown team, all the games are on Apple.
Speaker C:Plus, I hate that because I have to go find the right remote to go find Apple.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:And I can't flip back and forth between the match and something else I want to watch.
Speaker C:And that I fully admit, as my kids remind me, makes me the old man yelling at clouds.
Speaker C:I get it.
Speaker C:My kids, both of them graduated from college, they never owned a television.
Speaker C:They never paid for cable in all of their undergraduate years.
Speaker C:They watched everything online.
Speaker C:So I get it.
Speaker C:But I still feel like it is an overload.
Speaker C:It's a lot to ask to have people try to follow you around from week to week to see the product they want to see.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:We're going to take another break.
Speaker B:I'm going to be back with Whit Watson.
Speaker B:I love these stories he tells.
Speaker B:Anyway, we'll be right back right after this.
Speaker D:Hey, everybody, JT here.
Speaker D:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try Birdie ball.
Speaker D:Go to birdieball.com, check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those, and they work great.
Speaker D:Birdieball.com.
Speaker B:Welcome back to.
Speaker B:I almost said Barbecue Nation.
Speaker B:That's my other show.
Speaker B:That's the other one, the grilling at the green here.
Speaker B:Don't forget, we do have the Standard Portland Classic coming up at Columbia Edgewater August 14th through 17th.
Speaker B:Actually looking at streaming a show from there.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:An update show, kind of recap show in the, in the deal.
Speaker B:So we'll see what that is right there.
Speaker B:And this show, as you know, airs on Golf Newsnet and all that.
Speaker B:But do you think we're in a good place in the golf world right now?
Speaker C:I think we're in a good place in the recreational golf world.
Speaker C:I think that the, it's been pretty well documented that participation and rounds and spending are up.
Speaker C:The fact that we could still do it during the pandemic made a huge difference in the recreational game.
Speaker C:I think I feel like the PGA of America and the LPGA Tour, to name two, have done really great jobs with their outreach programs, trying to get more young players involved, especially the.
Speaker C:The lpga, trying to get young women interested, involved.
Speaker C:And they, they work really hard.
Speaker C:And I've had their social.
Speaker C:Their digital media manager, Sarah Kellum has been on the podcast and on the radio show, and I know what her schedule's like.
Speaker C:They really work at it, professionally speaking.
Speaker C:I used to think that the PGA Tour and liv, we're going to have to resolve it and put something together where everybody's back on the same golf course.
Speaker C:The fact that up until this point, so many LIV players have had qualifications for majors, and the fact that we've been able to see brooks Koepka, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Jon Rahm at major championships has kind of dulled the fans fervor for getting the two tours back together.
Speaker C:Because for at least four weeks a year, the most important four weeks of the year for a fan, you can see all these guys in the same place.
Speaker C:And it adds a little salt to it to say, let's see how John Rahm is going to play.
Speaker C:We have no idea.
Speaker C:He's been playing 54 whole scrambles for the last two years, you know, so I don't know that anybody feels like it needs to be done.
Speaker C:And as long as the public investment fund is willing to keep funding this league and with this announcement of a new CEO for the PGA Tour, I don't know that there's a rush to get a deal done.
Speaker C:And to answer your question, are we in a good place?
Speaker C:We're not as good as we could be if this hadn't happened.
Speaker C:But it happened.
Speaker C:And you've got two sides who now have a lot of funding.
Speaker C:The Saudis have a lot more.
Speaker C:Even with the SSG investment, public investment fund is they can just sit there and incinerate cash for as long as they want.
Speaker C:I mean, they can do this.
Speaker C:They can outspend everybody if they wish.
Speaker C:So is it good or bad for the game?
Speaker C:I don't know.
Speaker C:I just don't think it's going to change anytime soon.
Speaker C:So we're going to probably have to figure out a way to get used to it.
Speaker B:Either that or it's going to.
Speaker B:It's going to.
Speaker B:I don't know the right term to use with form a complacency in people's thought process where they just are kind of done and numb to it, and then they're going to go watch the Tour or they're going to watch live on Fox Sports or wherever, they got to get that sorted out.
Speaker B:You know, the production quality is great, but they got to find out a real home if people agreed.
Speaker B:People want to watch that.
Speaker C:And I have a soft spot for Liv because so many of my former Golf Channel colleagues went to work for them and they have really busted their tushes to make a really good television product.
Speaker C:You know, Keith Hirschland who produces it, Jerry Foltz is one of the analysts.
Speaker C:Some of the guys that work in the truck that you wouldn't know, Ethan Ritz.
Speaker C:There are a lot of people who are really talented that are really putting a lot into it.
Speaker C:And you know, going back to the complacency thing, I always, I've used this analogy and it might be wrong.
Speaker C:Back in the ESPN days, I used to host a motorsport show called RPM Tonight.
Speaker C:And right around the era that I was there, there was the open wheel racing split where there was cart and then there was a spin off called the Indy Racing League irl.
Speaker C:And Tony George, who owned Indianapolis Motor Speedway, formed his own racing circuit where they only ran ovals and they ran the cars and the models and the designs that he wanted.
Speaker C:And open wheel racing, which had a heyday like late 80s, early 90s, the Indy 500 was one of the top four or five TV events of the year in sports.
Speaker B:Sure, sure.
Speaker C:And then when it split, like nobody watched either one of them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:And you know, by the time the two leagues came back together, which took a long time, it took, I mean, the better part of, I don't know, a decade for it to get resolved.
Speaker C:Nobody watches open wheel racing anymore.
Speaker C:It's 14th or 15th in terms of popularity according to, you know, polls of sports fans, which, by the way, is right around where golf is.
Speaker C:And that's why I like the analogy, is that golf is a niche sport.
Speaker C:And asking an already limited audience to now make a decision and go find two different tours, that's a challenge.
Speaker C:That's a tall ask for sure.
Speaker B:Well, you know, golf is one of only a couple of sports.
Speaker B:I think tennis is similar that.
Speaker B:You know, we all know the attributes of golf.
Speaker B:You can play to till you can't walk anymore or whatever like that.
Speaker B:But if stuff gets too convoluted for people on the media, what are they going to do?
Speaker B:They're just going to go play golf and forget it.
Speaker B:You know, that's their.
Speaker B:The, they like to play.
Speaker B:They don't.
Speaker B:They don't care what, you know, Jon Rahm is doing or Sergio's having a fit, or, you know, if somebody got a penalty or whatever, they don't care.
Speaker B:They're they're going to go play golf anyway.
Speaker B:We're out of time for the regular show.
Speaker B:But real quick, again, how can they find you on Media Credentials?
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:The podcast is called Media Credentials.
Speaker C:You can listen to JT's episode, go to whitwatson.com W-I-T w-a T-S-O-N.com or search for media credentials, Apple, Spotify, iHeart, any place that you normally find podcasts.
Speaker C:That's where you can find it.
Speaker B:There you go.
Speaker B:And we will be back again next week with another edition of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker B:Until then, go out, play some golf, have some fun.
Speaker B:But most of all, be kind.
Speaker B:After Hours is coming up right after this.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserve.
