This week the new partnership between Comcast/NBC and the Golf Channel will aim to give viewers more coverage of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Coverage will be led by the best team of golf commentators in the business: Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller.
Gary Koch and Peter Jacobsen will serve as tower reporters while Roger Maltbie, Mark Rolfing and Dottie Pepper will report from the course. Jimmy Roberts will serve as interviewer. Kelly Tilghman will host Golf Channel coverage with Terry Gannon and Nick Faldo anchoring from the main tower. Maltbie, Koch, Rolfing and Pepper will have dual roles joining Phil Parkin and Rich Lerner as Golf Channel reporters.
Hicks said variety is key.
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| The WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship is the first golf event since Comcast purchased NBC, and it means viewers will see the NBC team on the Golf Channel for all five days. The Golf Channel has coverage Thursday and Friday starting at 2 p.m. On Saturday, the early round of action is on the Golf Channel beginning at noon. NBC will handle the coverage from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. Things close on Sunday with the Golf Channel calling the action from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. and NBC closing out coverage from 2 p.m. until the event’s conclusion. |
“You’re doing the viewer at home a service by having this kind of golf analyst firepower and having this kind of thinking and dynamic,” he said. “The viewer at home is really the beneficiary of this merger. I think that Nick [Faldo] has a new pair of gardening sheers to cut Johnny [Miller] off when they don’t agree.”
Hicks on rebranding » All golf coverage on NBC will be rebranded as “Golf Channel on NBC.” The coverage will incorporate the Golf Channel look throughout every telecast, down to the logo on the NBC Sports commentators’ apparel. Golf Channel’s tournament graphics will be showcased throughout all coverage, which now includes a custom-made Golf Channel-NBC peacock combination logo.
Hicks on the program that he and the entire broadcast crew will be a part of » Friday night at 8:30 p.m. “The State of the Game Live,” a Golf Central special, will be a roundtable discussion of relevant events making news at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship: Tiger Woods, the emergence of European stars and what it means for American golf, and the PGA Tour, and rules — are they too complicated and should players understand them better?
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
