Golf Channel's Early Season Numbers Up

Here is a little ratings copy and paste job on some interesting For Immediate Release material.

But knowing the number of key demo viewers are watching golf should make your day...

GOLF CHANNEL POSTS FOUR STRAIGHT QUARTERS OF INCREASING VIEWERSHIP GROWTH
 
First Quarter Up 15% on Golf Channel & 28% on NBC vs. 2015
 
ORLANDO, Fla. (March 30, 2016) – Golf Channel continues to build upon its momentum with four consecutive quarters posting year-over-year growth.  Golf Channel’s first quarter in 2016 was up +15% vs. 2015 for viewership, building upon last year’s increasing growth in second quarter of +3%, third quarter of +8%, and fourth quarter of +13%. For 24-hour Total Day (6AM-6AM), 110,000 average viewers per minute were tuned into Golf Channel in the first quarter, representing the 15% year-over-year increase, as well as a 19% increase with people 25-54 (31,000), according to data released by The Nielsen Company.
 
NBC’s PGA TOUR coverage is off to a strong start in 2016 with average viewership +32% and people 25-54 +31%. Through 12 broadcasts, NBC is averaging 2.64 million average viewers and 657,000 people 25-54.*
 
Golf Channel’s first quarter highlights include:

·       Golf Channel’s live golf coverage peaked in first quarter with 1.8 million average viewers on Sunday afternoon during the semifinals of the WGC-Dell Match Play and coverage averaged 1.1 million viewers, the best at this event since 2008.

·       PGA TOUR live coverage on Golf Channel is +4% YOY (483,000 average viewers), +9% with P25-54 (101,000 average viewers)
 
·       Golf Channel’s primetime is +27% (151,000 average viewers), driven in part by the sixth season premiere of Feherty interviewing Jordan Spieth, which is now the most-watched episode of the critically acclaimed series (436,000 average viewers, Live+3 Day).

·       Live coverage of the European Tour was up 65% and LPGA Tour was up 3%.

·       Golf Central saw its strongest first quarter since 2013, up 29% with average viewers and 30% for people 25-54 vs. last year.

·       Morning Drive was up 27% with people 25-54 vs. 2015.

WGHOF Moves Age Minimum To 50, Adds Nicklaus As Voter

This seems like a wise move all around, or one prompted by Tiger (eligible) saying he was not ready to be inducted in 2017.

Either way, two positive moves to improve the World Golf Hall of Fame, bolstered only if other living members under the age of 75 actually turn up for the '17 ceremony in St. Augustine (the old guard has been phenomenal about showing up).

For Immediate Release:

World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum Names Selection Commission Co-Chairs for 2017 Induction Class

Jack Nicklaus Joins Fellow Hall of Fame Member Co-Chairs

Age Change to Induction Criteria also Announced

St. Augustine, FLORIDA (March 30, 2016) – The World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum today announced 18-time Major winner Jack Nicklaus will join fellow Hall of Fame Members Nancy Lopez, Gary Player and Annika Sorenstam as Co-Chairs of the Selection Commission for the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Selection Commission will elect the Class of 2017 which will be inducted Monday, May 8, 2017, the week of THE PLAYERS.

Lopez, Player and Sorenstam will return for a second term, while Nicklaus will replace Arnold Palmer and join the process for the first time.
 
“Being elected into the World Golf Hall of Fame, especially with the inaugural class (of 13) in 1974, was one of the unquestioned highlights of my career,” said Nicklaus. “It was a sign of respect and validation for the hard work I put into a game I have always loved and considered the greatest game of all. To now have the opportunity to join the Selection Commission, including my friends Nancy Lopez, Annika Sorenstam and Gary Player—all great players, wonderful people, and all highly respected in our game—gives me the opportunity to perhaps make someone else’s career and life very special with this honor. The Commission is an esteemed group of global leaders in our game, and I am honored to have the opportunity to help them advance the World Golf Hall of Fame and its tremendous work. And it should be a lot of fun along the way.”
 
“We are honored and excited to have Jack Nicklaus join the Selection Commission,” said Jack Peter, President of the World Golf Hall of Fame & Museum. “From his storied playing career to his current contributions to the game, he certainly has a firm grasp on the sport’s pulse and will be an incredible asset to the Selection Commission. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Palmer for helping us transition to our new Induction process. He has been, and continues to be, one of the Hall of Fame’s most engaged and insightful supporters.”
 
The Selection Commission will review candidates in four categories: Male and Female Competitor, Veterans and Lifetime Achievement. Later this fall, the Commission will assemble to discuss the merits and vote on the 16 finalists. A candidate must receive at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected. The Class of 2017 will be announced later this fall.
 
Also announced today was a change to the qualifying age for enshrinement. Effective immediately, candidates must be at least 50 years of age at the start of the year in which selections are made, replacing the previous age requirement of 40. The exception would be if a player was at least five years removed from being an active participant on his or her respective Tour.
 
“We work very closely with our Hall of Fame Members to ensure all aspects of the Induction criteria are shrewd and judicious,” added Peter. “As players continue to elevate their fitness levels and continue to play at a high level for a longer period of time, moving the age requirement to 50 ensures that we are able to celebrate their careers at the proper time.”

The Class of 2017 will be inducted on May 8th, the Monday of THE PLAYERS, and the 2019 class will be honored at Pebble Beach the week of the men’s U.S. Open.

Update on 2016-03-31 03:36 by Geoff

**George Savaricus and I discussed on Golf Central.

Adam Scott Not Opposed To Bifurcating Equipment Rules

We'll put him down for reducing the driver head size. Since the scientists can only make a ball longer and not shorter, this may be an option.

From a very enjoyable Q&A with Brian Wacker at PGATour.com:

BW: If you were equipment czar of the game for a day, running the USGA and R&A, what would you change?
 
AS: I think it's possible that you could make an argument for having different equipment rules for us than the amateurs. I think that's almost logical to do that. I’d re-implement anchored putting because until I'm given facts that it actually is a game-improver, performance-enhancer, then I'm going to have to say I'd put it back in. Maybe driver head size is something I'd look at. That’s a massive difference now. When I was a kid, pulling the driver out of the bag was a concern, like you're going to have to make a great swing to hit a good drive. Now it's the go-to club. It's the most forgiving club we have. That's a huge difference in how you get off the tee to start a hole of golf.

And in the one-course-you-could-play-for-the-rest-of-your-life division, Adam picks...

 AS: I guess I'm torn. I could play Kingston Heath every day for the rest of my life in Australia, and the upside of that is in it's Australia and it's an amazing golf course. But I love Cypress Point. It's my favorite course in the world. I just love playing socially on those golf courses that are so much shorter and just less demanding length-wise for me, and then the people I play with can enjoy it. It's very hard to enjoy a round of golf when I play 90 yards from them. It's like we're on different courses. So those two, if I’m allowed to say two.

Barney Adams Suggests It's Time For A Tournament Ball

Ahhh...love when the great minds come to their senses!

Welcome, Barney, to the technophobic, anti-capitalist set of subversives who think major championship courses are a thing to be protected so that future generations can enjoy big events at the Merion's of the world.

Thanks to reader Chuck for longtime equipment industry leader Barney Adams' commentary calling on the USGA to introduce a tournament ball to protect classic venues and to generate interest in the U.S. Open that can't no longer sniff the ratings of the Masters, even when it's played in primetime.

Writing for GolfWRX, Adams says...

A shorter-flying ball brings dozens, if not hundreds of great venues back into play for our nation’s championship. The USGA can give all kinds of altruistic reasons, but the reason I use to justify is the media. Each venue is a repository for stories on how it will be played with a shorter ball that spins more. The stories, the build up, the after stories about next year’s course… one objective, the No. 1-rated major golf tournament.

Rory Reveals Awkward Truth: Par-3 Contest A "Hassle"

As much as we can appreciate the joy the Drive, Chip and Putt has brought to young lives, the Masters' other grow-the-game initiative took a bit of a hit with Rory McIlroy foreshadowing his plan to skip this year' Par-3 contest.

Speaking to The Guardian's Ewan Murray, the man who has famously had Caroline Wozniacki and Niall Horan as caddies and is as likely to enjoy the light pre-tournament mood as the next young star, says it's become a "hassle."

“It’s a bit of a distraction and the year I had my best chance at Augusta, 2011, I didn’t play the par-three contest,” McIlroy said. “So maybe the decision not to play it this year can work in my favour.”

Chairman Payne believes the evolution of the Par-3--which includes more cameos from kids and celebs and all televised on ESPN--can grow the game. But I have trouble imagining big Planned Parenthood donor Clifford Roberts agreeing. The Par-3 has gone from a cool chance for patrons to see old and new players in a relaxed pre-tournament setting, to a bit of a chaotic, disjointed, odd exercise interspersed with elements of the old Par-3.

To put the Par-3 in a different light: if any of the other major championships unveiled a similar pre-first round event, replete with kids running around the greens and celebrity pals chunking shots while dressed in a caddie suit, there would be calls to strip them of major championship status.

Nantz: "Bryson...has the capacity to utterly change golf"

CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz sat down for a Golf Digest My Shot with Guy Yocom and covered many Masters-related elements, including amateur Bryson Dechambeau's upcoming start. DeChambeau stopped by Nantz's house to talk Augusta, great Masters amateurs and to borrow DVD's of recent Masters.

Nantz feels Dechambeau "has the capacity to utterly change golf" and that a win by the amateur "would be a fulfillment of Bobby Jones' dream of glory going to the amateur."

Casey Reamer, the head pro at Cypress Point and a mentor to Bryson, asked if I would speak to him about the history of the Masters. It was an amazing two hours. He asked every question imaginable about every significant player in Masters history, with an emphasis on tales of amateurs such as Billy Joe Patton, Frank Stranahan, Ken Venturi and Charlie Coe. I have DVDs of all the recent Masters, and Bryson asked to borrow them, not for entertainment so much as to study hole locations, how putts break, where players were laying up on the par 5s. This young man is obsessed with winning the Masters as an amateur. His mind works in a unique, scientific way. It all reminded me of Bert Yancey and how he constructed clay models of the greens at Augusta and studied them. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see this young man contend.

Kosher China Golf Course Still Demolished In Anti-Golf Crusade

The course in question--Orient Shanghai--had been approved for creation, passed the Songjang EPA tests and even hosted the LPGA Tour.

Yet as a reminder that golf is symbolic pinata for the Chinese government, the course was demolished in dramatic fashion last week.

From an unbylined Golf Industry report:

Orient Shanghai, the long-time host venue of the Shanghai Classic on the China LPGA Tour, was constructed adjacent to the upper Huangpu river off the Dagang exit of the Shanghai-Hangzhou highway. Previously, temporary fish farms occupied the site that was prone to flooding in the rainy season.

While club officials declined to talk about the matter, the reason for its closing is that the Huangpu is Shanghai’s source of drinking water and golf is seen as a pollutant. The government wants to see farming on the land that the course occupied.

Even though it's been polluted by the Royal and Ancient?

But according to an environmental study conducted by the club, local farmers use 20 to 30 times more fertilizers and pesticides than Orient Shanghai in its course maintenance. The irony of the club’s closure is that it went through the full Environmental Protection Agency permitting process and passed every test required by the Songjiang district EPA. 

Golf in China...it sounded so good on paper, too.

Happy Easter! Commish Finchem "Likely" Retiring By End Of '16

AP's Doug Ferguson reports that PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem has signed a one-year extension but plans to retire by the end of 2016, pending Policy Board approval of Deputy Commish Jay Monahan.

Ferguson writes:

"For every organization there is a time,'' said Finchem, 68, who began his tenure in 1994 and is just the third commissioner in the PGA Tour's history. "I could probably go on another five or six years. But I don't think that is best for the organization. I don't consider myself old. But I'm getting old.''

Oh 68's the new 60 Tim, except for the people you pushed into retirement at 60!

Monahan was named the tour's COO this week, which many assumed was a sign of Finchem hanging on a few years more to finish off two or three pet projects.

Monahan, former of Fenway Sports, figures to be more in the vein of Adam Silver (NBA) and Rob Manfred (MLB), bringing a modern sports fan perspective and a lot less aloofness. But more gray hair!

Update on 2016-03-27 20:57 by Geoff

**Alex Miceli at Golfweek.com with extensive quotes from Finchem about his plans, with the suggestion he could do the job another 5-6 years, but that it's time and Monahan will bring a new energy.

"The only remaining thing, candidly, when we named him two years ago was relationships, honestly, because relationships take a while to transfer,” Finchem said of Monahan’s professional development upon being named deputy commissioner. “So we've been working hard on that for a couple of years. You all know Jay. Making a relationship is a slam dunk for him.”