Seemingly, one audience Golf Channel has already captured is the PGA Tour rank and file, thanks to the rahrah tone of the coverage.
"They push the Tour hard, no question," says Kenny Perry. "They want to tell our stories. It's great for (the) young guys to get their names and faces out there. They'll get way more exposure than they would have with anybody else."
Lucas Glover is one of the young guys Perry is referring to, and he seems content to spend most of the rest of his career playing on Golf Channel.
"Coming up on the Nationwide tour, I got to know a lot of their guys pretty good, so there's a comfort level," the 27-year-old Glover says. "I'll do pretty much anything they ask me to."
Television contracts always drive purse increases, and though the terms of Golf Channel's deal with the Tour have not been made public, Finchem says, "Our financial models have taken us out six years, which is the period of time we did with the networks. The financial benefits to the players will grow about $100 million a year. On a percentage basis it's not quite as great as the last six years, although it's off a significantly higher base."
What happens after the first six years has yet to be decided. The savvier Tour pros understand that their fortunes are now directly linked to Golf Channel's.
"There's no question all of us benefit as the channel grows," says Ogilvie. "There are kickers in the contract to guarantee that. I think players are slowly starting to realize we're married to the channel, so to speak. It's in our best interests to help it succeed."
Thirteen years into an unlikely success story, Golf Channel has gone from a mere purveyor of programming to part of the larger story. "We're like a teenager — everyone has an opinion on how we should grow up, what clothes we should wear and how we should cut our hair," says Golf Channel announcer Rich Lerner. "That's not a negative. It simply means that people care."
And like all adolescents, love 'em or hate 'em, this one's impossible to ignore.
