PGA Tour on ABC
Encyclopedia
PGA Tour on ABC was a television program
that broadcast the main professional golf tours
on the American Broadcasting Company
(ABC) television network
. ABC initially broadcast the PGA Tour through 1978
and then from 1999
–2006
. From 1966
through 2009
, ABC was the broadcast home of the British Open.
since 1966
. From 1966
-1994
, the network broadcast the U.S. Open
. In 1991
, coverage of the Skins Game
moved to ABC Sports, after NBC
got the rights to Notre Dame football
. They also covered the PGA Championship
through 1990
and LPGA
Kraft Nabisco Championship
from 1991
–2005
. From 1999
-2002
and 2004
-2006
, ABC broadcast the Bob Hope Classic.
During the third round of the 1997
Tour Championship
(November 1, 1997), ABC employees staged a one-day boycott due to an employee being disciplined for drawing an obscene cartoon of Disney
chairman Michael Eisner
(Disney had recently purchased ABC). ABC showed final round coverage of the 1996 Tour Championship in the broadcast window.
In 2004
, ABC cut away from the final round of the Buick Classic PGA Tour
golf tournament at 7 p.m. ET to show a rerun of America's Funniest Home Videos
. Three players were involved in a sudden-death shootout when ABC signed off. Again, this was only in the Eastern and Central time zones; West Coast
viewers stuck with ABC until the end.
-2005
, ABC broadcast Monday Night Golf
, a series of seven match play
golf
challenge matches that all involved World Number 1
Tiger Woods
. It marked the first time that live golf had been shown in prime time
during the week in the United States
. Monday Night Golf proved to be an initial success, drawing more viewers than the final round of the U.S. Open
, and being second only to the final round of the Masters Tournament in terms of golf broadcasts. Ratings
increased significantly for the second match, but they declined rapidly after that, and the event was finally cancelled after the 2005 edition.
, ABC's sister network ESPN
would have exclusive US rights to The Open Championship. This marked the first time in the television era that a major championship will not be aired on one of the country's major over-the-air broadcast networks
. ABC still airs a condensed recording of ESPN's coverage of the third and fourth rounds at 3:00PM, titled The Open Championship Today. ABC also reairs the final rounds of the Senior British Open Championship
and Women's British Open
. Perhaps confusingly, since September 2, 2006, ABC's programming has aired under the "ESPN on ABC
" brand (meaning that despite being aired on ABC, ESPN's on-air graphics, mic flags, theme music, and personalities would be exclusively used) brand, in instead of the traditional "ABC Sports" brand. This means that some events, such as British Open
, would be broadcast with ESPN branding during ABC coverage, even though another channel (in this case TNT
) owned the cable rights.
's "Love's Theme
" as the opening theme music for its live golf coverage.
Television program
A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...
that broadcast the main professional golf tours
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
on the American Broadcasting Company
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
(ABC) television network
Television network
A television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
. ABC initially broadcast the PGA Tour through 1978
1978 PGA Tour
The 1978 PGA Tour season was played from January 5 to November 5. The season consisted of 44 official money events. Tom Watson won the most tournaments, five, and there were seven first-time winners. The tournament results and award winners are listed below....
and then from 1999
1999 PGA Tour
The 1999 PGA Tour season was played from January 7 to November 7. The season consisted of 47 official money events. Tiger Woods won the most tournaments, eight, and there were nine first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The...
–2006
2006 PGA Tour
The 2006 PGA Tour was the last season of the PGA Tour before the major reorganization of the season brought about by the introduction of the FedEx Cup in 2007. After being challenged by Phil Mickelson in the first half of the year, when Mickelson won his second straight major at the Masters and was...
. From 1966
1966 Open Championship
The 1966 Open Championship was a golf competition held at Muirfield. The competition was won by Jack Nicklaus.-First round:-Second round:Amateurs: Shade , Cole , Townsend , Bonallack , Millensted , Smith , Falkenburg ....
through 2009
2009 Open Championship
The 2009 Open Championship was the 138th Open Championship, one of the four major golf championships, and was played from 16–19 July at the Turnberry Resort, in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the fourth time The Open Championship had been played at Turnberry...
, ABC was the broadcast home of the British Open.
Coverage overview
ABC had televised the British OpenThe Open Championship
The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
since 1966
1966 Open Championship
The 1966 Open Championship was a golf competition held at Muirfield. The competition was won by Jack Nicklaus.-First round:-Second round:Amateurs: Shade , Cole , Townsend , Bonallack , Millensted , Smith , Falkenburg ....
. From 1966
1966 U.S. Open Golf Championship
The 1966 U.S. Open Championship was the 66th U.S. Open played June 16-20 at Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. Billy Casper won the championship in an 18-hole playoff over Arnold Palmer .-Final leaderboard:-External links:...
-1994
1994 U.S. Open Golf Championship
The 1994 United States Open Championship was the 94th U.S. Open. The event was held from June 16-20 at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. Ernie Els won his first major championship by winning in a playoff, in spite of a bogey-triple bogey start, over Colin Montgomerie and Loren Roberts....
, the network broadcast the U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
. In 1991
1991 PGA Tour
The 1991 PGA Tour season was played from January 3 to November 3. The season consisted of 44 official money events. Billy Andrade, Mark Brooks, Fred Couples, Andrew Magee, Corey Pavin, Nick Price, Tom Purtzer, and Ian Woosnam won the most tournaments, two, and there were 14 first-time winners...
, coverage of the Skins Game
Skins Game
A skins game is a type of scoring for various sports, most notably golf but also for curling and bowling.-LG Skins Game:There was an annual skins game for male professional golfers which takes place in November or December each year after the end of the official PGA Tour season. It is recognized by...
moved to ABC Sports, after NBC
PGA Tour on NBC
Golf Channel on NBC is the branding used for broadcasts of golf on the NBC network. The network's coverage has traditionally focused on the main professional golf tours in the United States, alongside other major tournaments...
got the rights to Notre Dame football
Notre Dame Football on NBC
Notre Dame Football on NBC is a presentation of the Notre Dame football television package on NBC. The television network broadcasts all Notre Dame home games.-History:...
. They also covered the PGA Championship
PGA Championship
The PGA Championship is an annual golf tournament conducted by the PGA of America as part of the PGA Tour. It is one of the four major championships in men's professional golf, and is the golf season's final major, usually played in mid-August, customarily four weeks after The Open Championship...
through 1990
1990 PGA Championship
The 1990 PGA Championship was the 72nd PGA Championship held from August 9-12 at Shoal Creek Golf and Country Club in Birmingham, Alabama. Wayne Grady won his first major championship by three strokes over Fred Couples.-Final leaderboard:-External links:*...
and LPGA
LPGA
The LPGA, in full the Ladies Professional Golf Association, is an American organization for female professional golfers. The organization, whose headquarters is in Daytona Beach, Florida, is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly golf tournaments for elite female golfers from...
Kraft Nabisco Championship
Kraft Nabisco Championship
The Kraft Nabisco Championship is one of the four major championships on the LPGA Tour. It was founded in 1972 by Dinah Shore and has been classified as a major since 1983...
from 1991
1991 PGA Tour
The 1991 PGA Tour season was played from January 3 to November 3. The season consisted of 44 official money events. Billy Andrade, Mark Brooks, Fred Couples, Andrew Magee, Corey Pavin, Nick Price, Tom Purtzer, and Ian Woosnam won the most tournaments, two, and there were 14 first-time winners...
–2005
2005 PGA Tour
-Awards:*PGA Player of the Year: Tiger Woods*PGA Tour Player of the Year : Tiger Woods*PGA Tour Money Winner : Tiger Woods*Vardon Trophy: Tiger Woods*Byron Nelson Award: Tiger Woods*Rookie of the Year: Sean O'Hair...
. From 1999
1999 PGA Tour
The 1999 PGA Tour season was played from January 7 to November 7. The season consisted of 47 official money events. Tiger Woods won the most tournaments, eight, and there were nine first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The...
-2002
2002 PGA Tour
The 2002 PGA Tour season was played from January 3 to November 4. The season consisted of 49 official money events. Tiger Woods won the most tournaments, five, and there were 18 first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The following...
and 2004
2004 PGA Tour
The 2004 PGA Tour season was played from January 8 to November 7. The season consisted of 48 official money events. Vijay Singh won the most tournaments, nine, and there were 10 first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The following...
-2006
2006 PGA Tour
The 2006 PGA Tour was the last season of the PGA Tour before the major reorganization of the season brought about by the introduction of the FedEx Cup in 2007. After being challenged by Phil Mickelson in the first half of the year, when Mickelson won his second straight major at the Masters and was...
, ABC broadcast the Bob Hope Classic.
During the third round of the 1997
1997 PGA Tour
The 1997 PGA Tour season was played from January 9 to November 2. The season consisted of 45 official money events. Tiger Woods won the most tournaments, four, and there were six first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The...
Tour Championship
The Tour Championship
The Tour Championship was historically the final event of golf's PGA Tour season. Since 2007, it has been the final event of the FedEx Cup, the competition for the first official championship trophy for the PGA Tour season. From 1987 to 1996, several courses hosted the event...
(November 1, 1997), ABC employees staged a one-day boycott due to an employee being disciplined for drawing an obscene cartoon of Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
chairman Michael Eisner
Michael Eisner
Michael Dammann Eisner is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 until 2005.-Early life:...
(Disney had recently purchased ABC). ABC showed final round coverage of the 1996 Tour Championship in the broadcast window.
In 2004
2004 PGA Tour
The 2004 PGA Tour season was played from January 8 to November 7. The season consisted of 48 official money events. Vijay Singh won the most tournaments, nine, and there were 10 first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The following...
, ABC cut away from the final round of the Buick Classic PGA Tour
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
golf tournament at 7 p.m. ET to show a rerun of America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos is an American reality television program on ABC in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick physical comedy arising from incidents, accidents and mishaps...
. Three players were involved in a sudden-death shootout when ABC signed off. Again, this was only in the Eastern and Central time zones; West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
viewers stuck with ABC until the end.
Monday Night Golf
From 19991999 PGA Tour
The 1999 PGA Tour season was played from January 7 to November 7. The season consisted of 47 official money events. Tiger Woods won the most tournaments, eight, and there were nine first-time winners. The tournament results, leaders, and award winners are listed below.-Tournament results:The...
-2005
2005 PGA Tour
-Awards:*PGA Player of the Year: Tiger Woods*PGA Tour Player of the Year : Tiger Woods*PGA Tour Money Winner : Tiger Woods*Vardon Trophy: Tiger Woods*Byron Nelson Award: Tiger Woods*Rookie of the Year: Sean O'Hair...
, ABC broadcast Monday Night Golf
Monday Night Golf
Monday Night Golf was a series of seven match play golf challenge matches that ran from 1999 to 2005. All the matches involved World Number 1 Tiger Woods, and were run by his representatives IMG, and broadcast on ABC Sports...
, a series of seven match play
Match play
Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; this is as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes...
golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
challenge matches that all involved World Number 1
Official World Golf Rankings
The Official World Golf Ranking is a system for rating the performance level of male professional golfers...
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods
Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...
. It marked the first time that live golf had been shown in prime time
Prime time
Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast programming during the middle of the evening for television programing.The term prime time is often defined in terms of a fixed time period—for example, from 19:00 to 22:00 or 20:00 to 23:00 Prime time or primetime is the block of broadcast...
during the week in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Monday Night Golf proved to be an initial success, drawing more viewers than the final round of the U.S. Open
U.S. Open (golf)
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open golf tournament of the United States. It is the second of the four major championships in golf, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour...
, and being second only to the final round of the Masters Tournament in terms of golf broadcasts. Ratings
Audience measurement
Audience measurement measures how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic on websites...
increased significantly for the second match, but they declined rapidly after that, and the event was finally cancelled after the 2005 edition.
ESPN in the picture
Following the 2009 British Open2009 Open Championship
The 2009 Open Championship was the 138th Open Championship, one of the four major golf championships, and was played from 16–19 July at the Turnberry Resort, in Ayrshire, Scotland. It was the fourth time The Open Championship had been played at Turnberry...
, ABC's sister network ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
would have exclusive US rights to The Open Championship. This marked the first time in the television era that a major championship will not be aired on one of the country's major over-the-air broadcast networks
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
. ABC still airs a condensed recording of ESPN's coverage of the third and fourth rounds at 3:00PM, titled The Open Championship Today. ABC also reairs the final rounds of the Senior British Open Championship
Senior British Open Championship
The Senior Open Championship, or simply The Senior Open is a professional golf tournament for men aged 50 and over. It is run by The R&A, the same body that organises The Open Championship. Prize money won in the event is official money on both the Champions Tour and the European Seniors Tour...
and Women's British Open
Women's British Open
The Women's British Open is a leading event in women's professional golf and the only tournament which is classified as a major championship by both the Ladies European Tour and the LPGA Tour. Since 2007, it has been called the Ricoh Women's British Open, for sponsorship reasons...
. Perhaps confusingly, since September 2, 2006, ABC's programming has aired under the "ESPN on ABC
ESPN on ABC
ESPN on ABC is the brand used for sports programming on the ABC television network. Officially the broadcast network retains its own sports division; however, for all practical purposes, ABC's sports division has been merged with ESPN, a sports cable network majority-owned by ABC's parent, The...
" brand (meaning that despite being aired on ABC, ESPN's on-air graphics, mic flags, theme music, and personalities would be exclusively used) brand, in instead of the traditional "ABC Sports" brand. This means that some events, such as British Open
The Open Championship
The Open Championship, or simply The Open , is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. It is the only "major" held outside the USA and is administered by The R&A, which is the governing body of golf outside the USA and Mexico...
, would be broadcast with ESPN branding during ABC coverage, even though another channel (in this case TNT
Turner Network Television
Turner Network Television is an American cable television channel created by media mogul Ted Turner and currently owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner...
) owned the cable rights.
Theme music
In the mid 1970s all the way to the late 1980s, ABC Sports used Barry WhiteBarry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
's "Love's Theme
Love's Theme
"Love's Theme" is an instrumental piece recorded by Barry White's Love Unlimited Orchestra and released in 1973. It is one of the few instrumental and purely orchestral singles to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States, in early 1974...
" as the opening theme music for its live golf coverage.