PGA Tour to Stream Events Across Twitter

Post by Sports Writer Derek Clements

WE ALL know that something has to be done to address the decline in the numbers of people playing and watching golf. Heaven alone knows, we have all talked about it for long enough, coming up with plenty of solutions along the way, some of them just plain bonkers, others eminently sensible.

But there's the problem. It has become the subject of a talking shop, where ideas are bandied about. "Oh, that might work...." "Yes, that's a winner...." "Do you know what? I think that is a great idea...." 

Round and round in circles we go, but still nothing gets done. Most of us agree that slow play is a killer - there are plenty of suggestions as to how we can tackle the issue, but nobody seems to be prepared to bite the bullet. 

Viewing figures for PGA Tour and European Tour events are falling, with the exception of the likes of the Ryder Cup. Sky's coverage of The Open Championship at Troon last year was simply sensational, but the satellite broadcaster is still nowhere close to rivalling the number of viewers who watched golf on the BBC. 

So take a bow the person at the PGA Tour who decided to live stream more than 70 hours of golf from 31 tournaments this season. The first event to be the subject of the new arrangement will be the CareerBuilder Challenge from California which starts on January 19 and features a certain Tiger Woods in the field, and concludes at the season-ending Tour Championship.

The PGA Tour said the live coverage would typically be from the first 60 to 90 minutes of play at tournaments on a Thursday and Friday morning.

“Twitter and the PGA TOUR have been working together on Twitter Amplify for many years now, and the programme has been a tremendous success for both companies,” said Rick Anderson, chief media officer of the PGA Tour.

“Streaming PGA Tour live programming to Twitter’s global audience, as well as the millions of users who follow @PGATOUR and hundreds of PGA Tour player accounts, will provide new and innovative ways for sports fans to engage with our premium OTT offering.”

The social media network already has live streaming agreements in place with the four major American sports leagues – the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League.

This is a great idea. It is free, it is easily accessible and it is certain to whet the appetite of lots of people who have never seen the game on Sky. Let us hope that other tours decide to follow this initiative. Who knows where it could take us? The point is that if we don't try these things then we will never know. Better to have tried and failed, than not to try at all, surely?