Golf Channel, formerly known as
The Golf Channel before the July 2008 dropping of
The, is an American
cable televisionCable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required...
network with coverage focused on the game of
golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
. Founded in
BirminghamBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
, the American
headquartersHeadquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The corporate headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
and studio are currently located in
Orlando, FloridaOrlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region...
. Golf Channel is available in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
a few nations in
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
and
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
through
cableCable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required...
,
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
, and
wirelessWireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long . When the context is clear, the term is often shortened to "wireless"...
transmissions. Worldwide, it is available in over 100 million households.
The network was launched on January 17, 1995.
Golf Channel, formerly known as
The Golf Channel before the July 2008 dropping of
The, is an American
cable televisionCable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required...
network with coverage focused on the game of
golfGolf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area...
. Founded in
BirminghamBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
, the American
headquartersHeadquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The corporate headquarters is the entity at the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
and studio are currently located in
Orlando, FloridaOrlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region...
. Golf Channel is available in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
a few nations in
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
and
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
through
cableCable television is a system of providing television to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through fixed optical fibers or coaxial cables as opposed to the over-the-air method used in traditional television broadcasting in which a television antenna is required...
,
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
, and
wirelessWireless communication is the transfer of information over a distance without the use of electrical conductors or "wires". The distances involved may be short or long . When the context is clear, the term is often shortened to "wireless"...
transmissions. Worldwide, it is available in over 100 million households.
History and programming
The network was launched on January 17, 1995. The idea of a 24-hour-a-day golf network came from media entrepreneur Joseph E. Gibbs of
BirminghamBirmingham is the largest city in the state of Alabama in the United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County and includes part of Shelby County. According to a 2007 estimate, the city had a population of 229,800 The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, as of the 2008 census estimates,...
,
AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
, who first got the idea for the channel in 1991. Gibbs felt there was enough interest in golf among the public to support such a network, and commissioned a
Gallup PollThe Gallup Poll is the division of Gallup that regularly conducts public opinion polls in more than 140 countries around the world. Gallup Polls are often referenced in the mass media as a reliable and objective measure of public opinion...
to see if his instincts were correct. With the support of the polling behind him, Gibbs and legendary golfer
Arnold PalmerArnold Daniel Palmer is an American golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955...
then secured $80 million in financing to launch the network, which was among the first cable networks developed to cover one singular sport. The first live tournament the channel televised was the
Dubai Desert ClassicThe Dubai Desert Classic is an annual professional golf tournament which takes place in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It has been part of the European Tour schedule since its inauguration in 1989, and was the first European Tour event to be staged in the Middle East...
, held from January 19 to 22, 1995.
Golf Channel features a range of golf programming, including
PGA TourThe PGA Tour is an organization that operates the main professional golf tours in the United States. It is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, a suburb of Jacksonville...
, European Tour, LPGA Tour,
Champions TourThe Champions Tour, a golf tour run by the PGA Tour, hosts a series of events annually in the United States and the United Kingdom for golfers 50 years of age and older. Many of the PGA Tour's most successful golfers have gone on to play on the Champions Tour.The Senior PGA Championship, founded in...
and
Nationwide TourThe Nationwide Tour is the developmental tour for the U.S.-based PGA Tour, and features professional golfers who have either failed to score well enough at that level's Qualifying School to earn their PGA Tour card, or who have done so but then failed to win enough money to stay at that level...
events. The channel devotes considerable time to news coverage of golf, including a nightly program,
Golf CentralGolf Central is The Golf Channel's news program. It was launched in 1995, in the same year as the network it airs on.A nightly half-hour show, Golf Central features news and highlights from the major golf tours and events of the world, in addition to on-site reports from tournaments.-Format:The...
. There are highlight shows of past tournaments, and a
reality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors...
competition show,
The Big BreakThe Big Break is the Golf Channel's reality television program. The show's premise is to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events on certain tours. The series debuted on October 6, 2003, and has become very popular, spawning nine subsequent editions The Big Break is the...
, whose premise is to help aspiring professionals gain exemptions into PGA Tour and LPGA events. In 2005, Golf Channel helped set up a special
match playMatch play is a scoring system for golf in which a player or team earns points 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...
event called Big Stakes Golf, in which teams of two paid a $100,000 entry fee to play in a special tournament where the winning team split a $3,000,000 first-place prize, the largest in golf history. In the end, mini-tour professionals Garth Mulroy and David Ping won the grand prize.
In 2007, Golf Channel embarked on its 15-year agreement as the exclusive cable television home for the PGA Tour. The network’s annual coverage will feature early-round coverage of the entire
FedEx CupThe FedEx Cup is a championship trophy for the PGA Tour. Its introduction marked the first time that men's professional golf had a playoff system. Announced in November 2005, it was first awarded in 2007 after a NASCAR-like points race. Tiger Woods is the current champion...
season, including the
World Golf ChampionshipsThe World Golf Championships are a group of four annual events for male professional golfers created by the International Federation of PGA Tours. All four are official money events on the European Tour and the Japan Golf Tour, and officially sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour...
,
The Tour ChampionshipThe 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...
and
The Players ChampionshipThe Players Championship is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour.Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, the inaugural event in 1974 was played at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta, Georgia before moving to the Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, Texas in 1975 and Inverrary...
, the PGA Tour’s crown jewel. In total, early-round coverage of 30 events will air on Golf Channel. Also included in the package will be 13 full, four-round events beginning with the season’s first three tournaments – Mercedes-Benz Championship,
Sony Open in HawaiiThe Sony Open in Hawaii is a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, and is part of the tour's FedEx Cup Series. It has been contested at the Waialae Country Club in Honolulu, Hawaii since the event's modern-day inception in 1965. Starting in 1971, the tournament was held in either January or...
, and the
Bob Hope Chrysler ClassicThe Bob Hope Classic is a professional golf tournament played each January in California's Coachella Valley. Part of the PGA Tour's early season West Coast Swing, this tournament is well known for its celebrity pro-am, as well as having five daily 18-hole rounds of competition vs. the Tour standard...
hosted by
Arnold PalmerArnold Daniel Palmer is an American golfer who is generally regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of men's professional golf. He has won numerous events on both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour, dating back to 1955...
– and the six official money events following The Tour Championship. The network also will provide full coverage of three tournaments played opposite golf’s majors and World Golf Championships. Every PGA Tour event will be aired live and then rebroadcast in prime time, a first for the PGA Tour.
Golf Channel shows
Tournament Coverage
- Champions Tour Coverage
- European Tour Coverage
- European Tour Weekly
- Golf Channel Classics
- Inside the PGA Tour
- LPGA Tour Coverage
- Nationwide Tour Coverage
- PGA Tour Coverage
- Quest for the Card
News and Analysis
- Live From
Live From is a program broadcast by Golf Channel, providing coverage of the "majors" as well as the Ryder Cup. The show is broadcast on location at the golf course where the event is being held...
- Golf Central
Golf Central is The Golf Channel's news program. It was launched in 1995, in the same year as the network it airs on.A nightly half-hour show, Golf Central features news and highlights from the major golf tours and events of the world, in addition to on-site reports from tournaments.-Format:The...
- Grey Goose 19th Hole
- The Approach With Callaway Golf
Entertainment
- Golf In America
- The Big Break
The Big Break is the Golf Channel's reality television program. The show's premise is to award an aspiring professional golfer exemptions into selected events on certain tours. The series debuted on October 6, 2003, and has become very popular, spawning nine subsequent editions The Big Break is the...
- The Haney Project
- Top 10
Instruction
- Champions Tour Learning Center
- The Golf Fix
- Transamerica Playing Lessons From The Pros
Equipment
Travel
- Golf Hawaii
- Golf with Style
Golf Channel on-air talent
Programs talent appear on are in parentheses.
- Tom Abbott
Tom Abbott is a broadcaster with The Golf Channel.Abbott joined The Golf Channel in November 2005. He anchored the network's news show Golf Central for The Golf Channel UK until the UK operation went off the air on December 31, 2007...
(Golf Central, European Tour host, LPGA tour interviewer)
- Anthony Anderson
Anthony Alexandre Anderson is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He has starred his own sitcom All About the Andersons, as well as dramas such as K-Ville, The Shield and Law & Order...
(Golf in America)
- Adam Barr
Adam Barr is a television screenwriter and producer best known for his comedy credits , including the hit NBC series Will and Grace.In the early nineties he teamed up with Peter Ocko, with whom he wrote 12 episodes of Parker Lewis Can't Lose...
(Golf Central Business Reporter, What's in the bag?, European Tour host, Nationwide Tour interviewer)
- Steve Beddow (European Tour play-by-play)
- Michael Breed
Michael S. Breed is an American professional golfer who is currently the Head Professional at Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, NY; and he is a Nationwide Tour course reporter for The Golf Channel. Breed is also the host of "The Golf Fix," which appears on The Golf Channel.Breed "has been...
(Nationwide Tour course reporter, The Golf Fix)
- Billy Ray Brown
Billy Ray Brown is a former American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour in the 1980s and 1990s, and a current sportscaster for ESPN on ABC....
(PGA & Champions Tour course reporter and hole announcer)
- Ken Brown
Ken Brown is a Scottish former European Tour golfer who now works as a golf broadcaster and writer, primarily for the BBC. He also works as part of the commentary team for the international coverage of the European Tour on selected events which are not covered by the BBC...
(European Tour course reporter)
- Steve Burkowski (Golf Central reporter, course reporter)
- Curt Byrum
Curt Allen Byrum is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour. He is the older brother of PGA Tour golfer Tom Byrum....
(Nationwide and Champions Tour analyst)
- Donna Caponi-Byrnes
Donna Caponi-Byrnes is an American professional golfer.The daughter of a club pro, Caponi began playing golf at the age of eight and joined the pro tour at 20. It took Caponi-Byrnes four years to capture her first win, but she did it on the tour's biggest stage, capturing the U.S. Women's Open...
(Champions and LPGA Tour course reporter)
- Vince Cellini
Vincent Robert Cellini is a broadcaster for The Golf Channel.-Early life and career:In 1981, Cellini graduated from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio with a bachelor's degree in communications. Cellini played tight end on the college's football team...
(Golf Central, Grey Goose 19th Hole, The Big Break)
- Brandel Chamblee
Brandel Eugene Chamblee is an American professional golfer.Chamblee was born in St Louis, Missouri. He attended the University of Texas where he was an All-American. He has a home in Phoenix, Arizona and has four children: sons Brandel Jr., Brennen, and Braeden and a daughter, Bergen...
(Golf Central analyst, PGA Tour analyst)
- Kay Cockerill
Kay Cockerill is an American golfer.An economics student at UCLA, Kay Cockerill won back-to-back United States Women's Amateur Golf Championships in 1986 and 1987 then immediately joined the LPGA Tour....
(LPGA & Nationwide Tour course reporter and hole announcer)
- Beth Daniel
Beth Daniel is a professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1979 and won 33 LPGA Tour events, including one major championship, during her career.-Amateur career:...
(LPGA Tour analyst)
- Dougie Donnelly
Douglas "Dougie" Donnelly is a Scottish television broadcaster best known for presenting sports coverage for BBC Scotland....
(European Tour play-by-play)
- Nick Faldo
Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo, MBE is an English professional golfer on the European Tour, and is one of Europe's most successful players ever. Over his career, he has won six majors: three Open Championships and three U.S. Masters. He was ranked the World No. 1 on the Official World Golf Rankings...
(PGA Tour analyst)
- John Feinstein
John Feinstein is an American sportswriter and sports commentator who is particularly known for his insistence that players accused in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse case were guilty even after the case deteriorated...
(Golf Central)
- Jerry Foltz (Nationwide Tour play-by-play, PGA Tour course reporter, Quest for the Card)
- Matt Gogel
Matthew John Gogel is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.Gogel was born in Denver, Colorado and grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he attended Bishop Kelley High School. He has lived most of his adult life in Kansas. He attended the University of...
(PGA Tour course reporter and hole announcer)
- Jim Gray (Golf in America, Live From...)
- Inga Hammond (Golf Central, PGA Tour interviewer)
- Brian Hammons (LPGA and Champions Tour play-by-play)
- John Hawkins
Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer and controller of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588...
(Grey Goose 19th Hole analyst)
- Warren Humphreys
Warren Humphreys is an English professional golfer.Humphreys was born in Kingston. He had a successful amateur career, winning the 1971 English Amateur and playing on that year's winning Great Britain & Ireland Walker Cup team...
(European Tour analyst)
- Denis Hutchinson
Denis John Hutchinson is a former professional golfer from Zimbabwe who currently lives in South Africa. He played most of his career on the Sunshine Tour finding success, winning five times there between 1959 and 1970....
(European Tour analyst)
- Kraig Kann
Kraig Kann is a personality on The Golf Channel.He is one of two on-air personalities, the other being Brian Hammons, to be with The Golf Channel since its launch in 1995...
(Golf Central, The Approach w/ Callaway Golf)
- Renton Laidlaw (European Tour play-by-play)
- Rich Lerner (Golf Central, PGA Tour interviewer)
- Todd Lewis (Golf Central, PGA Tour interviewer)
- Mark Lye
Mark Ryan Lye is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and currently plays on the Champions Tour....
(PGA & Champions Tour course reporter and hole announcer)
- Andrew Magee
Andrew Donald Magee is an American professional golfer who has played for more than 20 years on the PGA Tour.Magee was born in Paris, France, where his father, a Texas oil man, was working at the time. He grew up in Dallas...
(The Approach w/ Callaway Golf, PGA Tour course reporter)
- John Mahaffey
John Drayton Mahaffey, Jr. is an American professional golfer who has won numerous tournaments including 10 PGA Tour events....
(Champions Tour course reporter and hole announcer)
- David Marr
David Courtnay Marr was a British neuroscientist and psychologist. Marr integrated results from psychology, artificial intelligence, and neurophysiology into new models of visual processing...
(Champions Tour play-by-play and interviewer, Champions Tour Learning Center)
- Alex Miceli (The Approach w/ Callaway Golf)
- Frank Nobilo
Frank Ivan Joseph Nobilo, CNZM is a professional golfer from New Zealand.Nobilo had a successful playing career, winning 15 pro tournaments around the world...
(Golf Central analyst, PGA and Champions Tour analyst)
- Peter Oosterhuis
Peter Oosterhuis is an English golfer and golf analyst.Oosterhuis was born in London. Before turning professional, Oosterhuis represented Great Britain in the 1967 Walker Cup and in the 1968 Eisenhower Trophy. He played on the European Tour in the early years of his professional career, and won...
(PGA Tour Hole Announcer)
- Iain Page (Golf Central, Golf Central updates host)
- Phil Parkin
Philip Parkin is a Welsh professional golfer who has also worked as a golf commentator and analyst.Parkin was born in Doncaster, England and raised in Newtown, Powys. He attended Texas A&M University in the United States, where he was the first person to receive a full scholarship for the...
(Nationwide Tour hole announcer, European Tour course reporter)
- Dottie Pepper
Dottie Pepper is an American professional golfer. From 1988 to 1995 she competed as Dottie Mochrie, which was her married name before a divorce. She won two major championships and 17 LPGA Tour events in all.-Amateur career:...
(LPGA tour analyst, PGA and Champions Tour Course Reporter)
- Mike Ritz (LPGA Tour play-by-play)
- Mark Rolfing (PGA Tour course reporter, Golf Hawaii)
- Tim Rosaforte (Golf Channel insider, Champions Tour interviewer)
- Jeff Rude (Grey Goose 19th Hole analyst)
- Charlie Rymer (Golf Central analyst)
- Steve Sands (Golf Central, PGA tour interviewer)
- Val Skinner
Val Skinner is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour.-Amateur career:...
(LPGA tour course reporter)
- Stephanie Sparks
Stephanie Sparks is an on-air personality at The Golf Channel and a former golfer, whose best years in golf came as an amateur....
(Nationwide tour interviewer, LPGA tour course reporter, Transamerica Playing lessons from the Pros, Golf with Style)
- Lauren Thompson (Top 10)
- Kelly Tilghman
Kelly Tilghman is a broadcaster for The Golf Channel, and the PGA Tour's first female lead golf announcer....
(Golf Central, PGA tour Play-By-Play)
- Jay Townsend (European Tour play-by-play and course reporter)
- Julian Tutt (European Tour play-by-play and course reporter)
- Scott Walker
Scott Walker may refer to:*Scott Walker , solo singer and member of The Walker Brothers**Scott Walker: 30 Century Man, a documentary about the singer...
(Golf central)
Former Golf Channel talent
- Brian Anderson
Brian Anderson was named Brewers play-by-play announcer on January 10, 2007 and just completed his fourth season as a Major League broadcaster. For the past two years, Anderson has been tabbed by TBS to do play-by-play for the network's coverage of the National League Division Series, calling the...
- Casey Bierer
- Grant Boone
- Charles Davis
- Steve Duemig
Steve Duemig is an American sports media personality. He was also a former host on The Golf Channel's Grey Goose 19th hole. He still hosts Fox Sports Radio's weekly call-in show College Game Time Warmup, and has had a daily local sports talk show on AM 620 WDAE in Tampa since the mid-1990s...
- Brian Hewitt
- Jim Kelly
- Peter Kessler
- Jennifer Mills
- Tom Nettles
- Steve Schlanger
Steve Schlanger is a multi-sport announcer for Universal Sports. He has announced skiing, cycling and other sports. He announced the 2009 Giro d'Italia with Todd Gogulski.-External links:**...
- Brian Tennyson
- Ted Tryba
Ted Tryba is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour and the Nationwide Tour.Tryba was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He has two victories in PGA Tour events. His best finish in a major is a T-31 at the 1999 PGA Championship...
- Bob Valvano
Bob Valvano is an American sportscaster based in Louisville, Kentucky.During the college-basketball season, he is an analyst for ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Plus, mostly covering Big East basketball. When not doing those games, Valvano is the color analyst for University of Louisville men's basketball...
- Scott Van Pelt
Scott Van Pelt is an American sportscaster. He is an anchor for the 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter on ESPN, the host of The Scott Van Pelt Show on ESPN Radio and has also covered various golf events for the network.-Early life:...
- Megan West
Golf Channel HD
Golf Channel HD is a
1080i1080i is the shorthand name of a format of high-definition video modes. 1080 denotes the number of horizontal scan lines - also known as vertical resolution - and the letter i stands for interlaced. In the alternate format of high-definition video mode, known as 1080p, the p would stand for...
high definitionHigh-definition television is a digital television broadcasting system with higher resolution than traditional television systems...
simulcast of The Golf Channel. It launched in January 2007. Formerly in some markets Golf Channel shared an HD channel slot with sister network
VersusVersus is a sports-oriented cable television network in the United States. It is owned by Comcast.It was previously known as OLN until a name change on September 25, 2006. Formerly, OLN stood for Outdoor Life Network, and the name was licensed from Outdoor Life magazine...
which programmed based on the priority of each network's event; this channel was known as
VS/Golf HD. As of December 8, 2008, both channels are now distributed individually in high definition.
Comcast planned to have Golf Channel HD available to 12.5 million viewers by January 2009, with a promise of 750 hours of HD content in 2009.
Golf Channel UK
There was a British version of the channel called Golf Channel UK for a time. It was operated by sporting goods retailer
JJB SportsJJB Sports plc is one of the United Kingdom's leading sports retailers. Since early 2009 JJB has been in financial difficulties in talks with banks to secure its future.- History :...
, and was available on BSkyB satellite television. It broadcast many of the shows from the U.S. channel, but was unable to attract a viable audience as it offered little live golf, and it ceased broadcasting on 31 December 2007. All the major tours have their main UK contract with either
Sky SportsSky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...
or
Setanta GolfSetanta Golf was a television channel from Setanta Sports dedicated to the sport of golf.The channel was available in the UK on Sky Digital channel 429, Tiscali TV channel 557 and Virgin Media channel 543. It was a premium channel on Sky but included on Virgin's XL pack...
, and
BBC SportBBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing and the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.BBC...
covers several major tournaments each year.