Frequent commercial interruptions have been a sore spot for golf fans for a number of years. It all came to a head at last year’s U.S. Open when USGA CEO Mike Whan promised to do something to actually show more golf during the governing body’s most important tournament of the year.
Heading into this year’s U.S. Open, Whan promised a 30% reduction in commercials for the weekend telecasts. The final hour of the tournament was also to be broadcast commercial-free as it has been since 2020. However, fans were less than satisfied when commercials dominated the early round coverage of the U.S. Open, as viewers were left frustrated by the constant interruptions.
Jason Lusk of Golfweek detailed just how prevalent they were.
“In the first 12 minutes and 45 seconds of coverage starting at 2 p.m. ET, USA Network showed 15 commercials,” Lusk detailed. “That was compared to just 11 golf shots. The network also showed a one-minute, in-broadcast promotion for the USGA, featuring Whan. In all, that was six minutes of commercials (both full-screen and split-screen with the playing-through feature), one minute of promotion and 5 minutes and 45 seconds of actual full-screen golf coverage.”
NBC, perhaps aware of the criticism, announced Tuesday that the final hour of this year’s coverage of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will be uninterrupted. According to the release, this marks the first time that the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will feature a final round with uninterrupted coverage.
The final hour from Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., will cap off a record 26 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock and GOLF Channel. This year’s coverage is nearly double the amount of last year’s championship coverage.
Instead of commercials, NBC notes that the “uninterrupted coverage will feature on-screen graphics highlighting prominent brands from Callaway, including the Paradym family of woods and irons, the Chrome Soft golf ball and the Big Bertha REVA family of woods and irons. Callaway is a proud longstanding supporter of the LPGA Tour and is the top golf club brand played on tour.”
It should be noted that Callaway also presented a final round of uninterrupted coverage earlier this year at the PGA TOUR’s Sentry Tournament of Champions on GOLF Channel and Peacock.
It’ll be interesting to see how the final round of coverage fares without commercials, but ad-free final hours should be the norm for golf telecasts going forward. If it means fans are overloaded with more ads during early rounds of the tournament, it may make it a bit harder to stomach, but might ultimately be worth the sacrifice. At least the closing stages and crowning of a champion will be free from interruption this weekend, as it should be in the future.
[Golfweek: Jason Lusk, NBC] Image from Scott Taetsch/USA TODAY Sports
