While women’s sports overall are certainly drawing more attention and more prominent broadcasting slots, there are still some significant moments where the coverage isn’t what many expect. We recently saw that with the lack of broadcasts at all for some WNBA preseason games, forcing fans to get a first look at Chicago Sky players Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso only through a fan’s cellphone stream from the stands. And while it’s not as rough as that, it’s absolutely notable that the linear TV coverage of women’s golfer Nelly Korda’s bid for an unprecedented sixth straight LPGA Tour event title will largely be just tape-delayed coverage on Golf Channel.
Last month, Korda won her second major title overall (she won the Women’s PGA Championship in 2021), her 13th LPGA title overall, and her fifth LPGA title in a row at the Chevron Championship. After electing not to compete in the next event, the JM Eagle LA Championship, she’s set to go for her sixth straight LPGA title at this week’s Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, NJ. A win there would break a women’s golf record jointly held by Nancy Lopez and Annika Sorenstam.
But the event will largely be only seen live on NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock, alternate streaming options on the NBC Sports App or golfchannel.com, or Disney streaming service ESPN+ (featured groups). It will be seen on linear TV as well, but that coverage will mostly be tape-delayed on NBCU’s Golf Channel (albeit with two hours of live coverage at the end of the tournament on CNBC Sunday). Here are those traditional broadcast details, from the LPGA’s website:
Thursday, May 9: 3 – 6 p.m. Peacock; 7 – 9 p.m. Golf Channel – Encore Presentation
Friday, May 10: 3 – 6 p.m. Peacock; 7 – 9 p.m. Golf Channel – Encore Presentation
Saturday, May 11: 3 – 6 p.m. Peacock; 8 – 10 p.m. Golf Channel – Encore Presentation
Sunday, May 12: 1 – 5 p.m. Peacock; 3 – 5 p.m. CNBC; 8 – 10 p.m. Golf Channel – Encore Presentation
On one hand, it’s not like Peacock is an unknown service, or like this is the first event to primarily air live there. The service had two exclusive NFL games this season, including one playoff one (to much complaining). NBCU has also have aired Notre Dame and Big Ten football games exclusively there. And they plan to heavily use Peacock for live coverage of much of this summer’s Paris Olympics, where they will also feature whiparound shows, highlights shows, and watch parties. (And, unlike linear cable channels, it’s possible to obtain Peacock completely on its own, so the criticisms of it are more about price than access. And in this case, there are also cable-authenticated streaming options through the NBC Sports app or golfchannel.com.)
In the post-NBC Sports Network era (they shut down that network at the end of 2021), a lot of NBC’s sports coverage has gone from linear to streaming-only. So this LPGA event isn’t alone there. And the Cognizant Founders Cup wouldn’t have drawn as much interest on its own without it being this potential record-breaking tournament for Korda, so it’s somewhat understandable why this coverage plan was drawn up initially. (Golf Channel is airing the PGA Tour’s Wells Fargo Championship live this weekend.)
But it is still somewhat odd that Korda’s chance at history will largely only be viewable live on streaming platforms. As NBCU knows well, tape-delayed coverage simply doesn’t work as a primary way to consume live sports in this era. It can still be fine for a rewatch, and there’s merit to that here. But many will want to watch this live, and they’ll have to go to streaming for that.
And that fits into a larger discussion about how Korda’s run maybe hasn’t received as much attention as it deserves. Mark Cannizzaro of The New York Post weighed in on that Thursday:
Korda’s greatness warrants more attention than it’s getting, and you wonder why she hasn’t been the recipient of the kind of adulation that Caitlin Clark has received for her remarkable achievements.
With all due respect to what Clark did in her incredible NCAA Tournament run and drawing attention to her sport, Korda has been doing things that the best to ever to play the game never did.
Had she not been photographed on the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, few might have even known Korda was in town.
If she wins the Founders Cup this week, maybe that changes.
There will certainly be lots of people tracking if Korda can pull off that record-breaking win this week. But they’ll have to watch it live on streaming rather than linear TV.
