Like many sports, golf is adjusting to the NFL’s television dominance. The Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego adopted a Wednesday through Saturday format this weekend to avoid the NFL conference championship slate on Sunday. That means CBS’ Jim Nantz will call the golf tournament remotely from Baltimore.
But in spite of this evolution and a general paranoia among many sports fans that football is sucking up all the attention and dollars, Nantz is still not worried about golf.
“Golf in the media landscape is on very solid footing,” Nantz told Gabrielle Herzig of Sports Illustrated in a piece published Friday. “You can’t get caught up in trying to compare it to the NFL, because there is nothing that can compare it to the NFL in terms of audience draw.”
The reason Nantz remains optimistic is that while golf’s television audience may pale in comparison to major team sports, the audience keeps coming back.
“Golf on a good week generates just a small fraction of (NFL) ratings. But that audience is loyal,” Nantz explained. “They’re there every week and they’re passionate about it. It means something to them. It’s an honor to try to be able to broadcast the PGA tour to that fan base on a weekly basis.”
Nantz also explained how the “tonnage” of golf tournaments each year and its consistent following makes it valuable to CBS compared with four and a half months of the NFL or even the five months of college basketball.
“That viewer that I mentioned before, they want to watch golf every week and they like the loyalty in return. That’s what they get with the PGA Tour,” Nantz added. “They like the consistency of the sites they’re used to. They’re looking forward to seeing the South Course again, Pebble Beach next week and Riviera behind it. It’s a part of a way of life for people that are in our little world of golf. We enjoy the stops along the way. That consistency and that loyalty are two very important factors in golf and its place in the media landscape.”
So while golf is in a chaotic transitional phase and its broadcasts may feel and sound different to the audience these days, Nantz believes those fans will get their links dose for the foreseeable future.
