Huge interest in betting for 2020 Masters

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Marking the culmination of a long-term strategic planning process designed to best serve fans through traditional broadcast, Over-the-Top streaming (OTT) and emerging technologies, the PGA TOUR today announced its new nine-year domestic media rights portfolio for 2022-2030. “Following a comprehensive process of studying the market, talking to all interested parties and analyzing our various options, we’re excited to announce that we have entered into new agreements with our existing partners ViacomCBS and Comcast/NBC Sports Group, while establishing a new long-term relationship with Disney and ESPN+,� said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “We were extremely pleased with the interest we received from the market – both with incumbents and other media companies – and are excited that our current partners shared our vision for the future, and we are equally excited to be back in business with Disney and ESPN+.  These new deals will be a major win for our fans, bringing an elevated commitment from all three partners to help us expand and innovate our content and its delivery.� Financial details will not be disclosed, but Monahan continued, “The nine-year deals will put us in a position to significantly increase player earnings, deliver more value to our tournaments and sponsors, and ultimately allow us to continue to grow our charitable footprint. Additionally, we are now able to reinvest in our sport in a way never before possible, including production, personnel and technology, and are well positioned to best serve and grow our fanbase in the years to come.� Broadcast & Cable Television CBS and NBC will maintain weekend coverage of most FedExCup tournaments, with CBS averaging 19 events and NBC eight events each season through the life of the agreements. Under the new schedule, one network will televise all three FedExCup Playoffs events each year, starting with NBC in 2022 and generally alternating with CBS, creating powerful, three-week coverage of the conclusion of the race for the FedExCup. NBC Sports Group also will continue as the TOUR’s cable partner, with GOLF Channel providing all early-round coverage and early weekend coverage of every FedExCup event each season, along with PGA TOUR Champions and the Korn Ferry Tour. Further strengthening the ties, the TOUR and NBC Sports will expand their collaborative content and programming relationship. Another central component of the new agreements will see the PGA TOUR assume responsibility of the onsite production area and technical infrastructure each week, enabling the TOUR to more efficiently aggregate, distribute and develop content for its various platforms worldwide. CBS and NBC will still use their own production and announce teams, led by their producers, directors and production personnel. Additionally, the TOUR and its media partners will collaborate on creating more sponsorship and marketing opportunities, inside and outside PGA TOUR golf coverage, including access to the vast resources of ViacomCBS, Comcast/NBC Sports Group and Disney and ESPN+. “We’re excited to extend NBC Sports’ historic partnership with the PGA TOUR as its foundational media partner.  We will continue to utilize our extensive platforms to showcase golf with unparalleled live tournament coverage, comprehensive news and high-quality content. Golf is a part of NBCUniversal’s DNA across our broadcast, cable, streaming and digital properties – nowhere more so than GOLF Channel,� said Pete Bevacqua, President, NBC Sports Group. “With more live golf coverage than all other U.S. media companies combined, our relationship with the PGA TOUR also includes THE PLAYERS and Presidents Cup, as well as elevating the PGA TOUR Champions, Korn Ferry TOUR and LPGA Tour via our world-class coverage.� “Extending our successful long-standing relationship with the PGA TOUR was a top priority, and we are thrilled to add nine more years to this terrific partnership,� said Sean McManus, Chairman, CBS Sports. “As the PGA TOUR’s primary broadcast network, we are excited to showcase over two-thirds of all broadcast network coverage of the PGA TOUR, expand our schedule with all three FedExCup Playoffs events in alternate years, and to increase our use of PGA TOUR content across all CBS Sports platforms, with even more expansive content exclusivity.  For over 60 years the PGA TOUR, its tournaments and sponsors have been outstanding partners. We look forward to many more years of growth and success together.� PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ For the first time, the TOUR’s digital rights were negotiated concurrently with its linear offering and will have a new, exciting, direct-to-consumer home: ESPN+.  As a result of the new agreement, PGA TOUR LIVE – the TOUR’s subscription video service that was launched in 2015 – will live exclusively on ESPN+ beginning in 2022 and will be dramatically expanded to include multiple live content channels nearly every week of the FedExCup season. Jimmy Pitaro, President, ESPN and co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks said, “We are looking forward to working with the PGA TOUR to bring current and future golf fans the next generation of TOUR coverage. ESPN+ will offer golf fans unprecedented access and storytelling at an incredible value on the industry’s leading sports streaming platform.� Rick Anderson, Chief Media Officer, PGA TOUR added, “The relationship with Disney and ESPN+ gives the TOUR the opportunity to expand and diversify audiences, and the TOUR and ESPN will work together to bring new and unique content to our fans.� ESPN+, the leading sports streaming service from Disney’s Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) segment and ESPN, has grown quickly to reach 7.6 million subscribers (as of February 3, 2020) and the new relationship will provide a significant growth opportunity for PGA TOUR content via ESPN+’s digital reach, innovative platform and young and diverse audience.  PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will bring fans more access to the 30,000-plus golf shots hit each week on the PGA TOUR by delivering more than 4,000 hours of live streaming coverage annually.  PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will include live coverage from 36 tournaments – from the TOUR’s Hawaii events in January all the way through the year – with at least 28 events having four full days of coverage, with four simultaneous live feeds each day. PGA TOUR LIVE on ESPN+ will also feature on-demand replays of PGA TOUR events, original golf programs, edited speed round recaps and more. All of this will be available to ESPN+ subscribers as part of the base subscription, alongside more than 12,000 other live sporting events, an unmatched lineup of studio programs, original series and documentaries, along with a library of other, on-demand programming.  ESPN+ is available through the ESPN App, (on mobile and connected devices), ESPN.com or ESPNplus.com.  It is also available as part of a bundle offer that gives subscribers access to Disney+, Hulu (ad-supported), and ESPN+ at a discounted price. LPGA As part of its Strategic Alliance with the LPGA, the PGA TOUR also successfully negotiated rights agreements that will see the LPGA Tour continue as anchor programming on GOLF Channel, along with expanded exposure for LPGA Tour events on NBC and CBS each year, beyond the U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship and AIG Women’s British Open, which are already on network. Specifically, the TOUR secured the long-term extension of the LPGA/GOLF Channel partnership (2022-2030) with ancillary programming, including a season preview, season review and Road to the CME Group Tour Championship.  In addition, GOLF Channel will provide dedicated programming for the Symetra Tour each year, as well as enhanced marketing and promotional assets and expanded benefits for LPGA sponsors. As part of the agreement, the LPGA maintains control of all of its media rights outside the United States and receives expanded digital content rights. “This agreement is an important milestone in the strategic partnership between the LPGA and the PGA TOUR and a great example of the collaboration happening among golf’s biggest stakeholders,� said LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan. “Thanks to the enhanced agreement with GOLF Channel and increased network coverage on NBC and CBS, more viewers in the U.S. and around the globe will experience the quality and diversity of the LPGA Tour. This gives us a domestic broadcast partner to help deliver another decade of unprecedented growth and provides a foundation that will springboard the women’s game into the future.� “The LPGA is a very important industry partner, and we are proud that our strategic alliance has enabled these results,� said Monahan.  “I’m so impressed with Mike Whan’s leadership and the world-class talent of the LPGA’s athletes, and it’s exciting to know that when fans want to watch professional golf at the highest level, they are going to see both Tours on the same platforms – with the same partners – for the foreseeable future.� Evolution Media Capital, a division of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), served as the media advisor to PGA TOUR.

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In skipping next week’s U.S. Open, Tiger Woods said he hopes to give his body more time to heal in order to play The Open in July.

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NICHOLASVILLE, Kentucky – The Champions Course at Keene Trace Golf Club is an unknown commodity for nearly all the pros teeing it up at the Barbasol Championship. The first three years of the tournament had been held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Opelika, Alabama. So players have been scrambling this week to learn the intricacies of this scenic Arthur Hills design. “Obviously new excitement for this tournament,” World Golf Hall of Famer Davis Love III said. “New golf course and new town and nobody really has an advantage here, so we’re all trying to figure it out.” Billy Horschel, though, feels good vibes at the course nestled among sprawling horse farms that has hosted a U.S. Senior Amateur, SEC Championship and an NCAA tournament, among other events. “Knowing the history of it, that the Florida Gators won the 1993 national championship here is also a little good luck, so …,” Horschel said, grinning as his voice trailed off. Until this week, the PGA TOUR hadn’t played an annual event in the Bluegrass State since 1959 when the third and final Kentucky Derby Open was played in Louisville. (Yes, we know Valhalla in Louisville has hosted three PGAs and a Ryder Cup but those aren’t TOUR-run events or played at the same place every year.) In fact, only one player competing this week at Keene Trace was even alive when that final Kentucky Derby Open trophy was handed out. But Jay Don Blake, born seven months earlier, was still in diapers – and he’s here this week making his 499th start. The field for the Barbasol Championship, which is played opposite The Open Championship at Carnoustie, has topped out at 132 players. The tournament offers 300 all-important FedExCup points to the winner and is one of just seven events remaining to earn a spot in the 125 who make the FedExCup Playoffs. Horschel, who won the FedExCup in 2014, enters the week solidly in the postseason at No. 45 in the standings. But the recent Zurich Classic of New Orleans winner is hoping to build on the work he did last month with swing coach Todd Anderson and set the stage for a big finish to the year. “Obviously the British Open Championship is going on this week, but I wanted to play some golf and I wanted to compete,” he said. “I feel like my game is in a really good spot, and I just wanted to build off some momentum that I’ve had the last few months … and get ready for the last half, stretch of the season with the PGA Championship and the four Playoff events. “So I didn’t want to take three weeks off. I wanted to come play. I’m grateful there was an opposite event to The Open Championship, and Barbasol puts on a great event.” THREE PLAYERS TO PONDER Brittany Lincicome: The 32-year-old from Florida is just the sixth woman to play in a PGA TOUR event. The eight-time winner on the LPGA Tour came to Kentucky on the heels of a playoff loss on Sunday. She is known for her length off the tee and is hoping to become the first woman since Babe Didrikson Zaharias at the 1945 Phoenix Open to make the cut. Joel Dahmen: The 30-year-old from Washington enters the Barbasol Championship on a hot streak after ties for fifth and second in his last two starts. All but two of his last 12 rounds have been in the 60s and he is 31 under the last two weeks. William McGirt: The North Carolinian finds himself on the FedExCup bubble at No. 125 so a good finish at Keene Trace could go a long way toward relieving the pressure of the final five weeks. WEATHER CHECK From PGA TOUR meteorologist Willis Young: High pressure will provide us with dry and pleasant weather through Thursday, with comfortable humidity levels. Low pressure will develop over the northern plains and push into the Great Lakes region by early Friday. A warm front will lift northward over the state Thursday night through Friday, resulting in showers and thunderstorms over or near the golf course first thing Friday morning. Very moist and unstable air will allow storms to redevelop during the afternoon/evening hours. An unsettled weather pattern will persist through the weekend.   For the latest weather news from Nicholasville, Kentucky, check out PGATOUR.COM’s Weather Hub. SOUND CHECK I had to play on the boys’ golf team when I was younger, and back then, 14, 15 years ago, there wasn’t as many girls as there is now that played, so for me back in the day it was great because the guys were better, their games were better, and it pushed me to want to be better. So I think playing with the guys, even this week, I’ll learn a few things. I can take things from this week out into my LPGA events. I think it’ll help my game for sure.I played when Annika played. It’s fun for us to see them out. My generation loved playing in the mixed team and competing alongside the LPGA players. … No matter what she does this week, it inspires the younger generation, both men and women, to play golf. So I think it’s great. It’s fun. BY THE NUMBERS 182 – Number of combined PGA TOUR victories among players in the field. 14 – Number of Bank One Classics, on PGA TOUR Champions, played in nearby Lexington, the last in 1997. 6 – Players with Kentucky ties in the field — Josh Teater, Grover Justice, Cooper Musselman, Chip McDaniel and Matt Atkins grew up in the Bluegrass state while Derek Fathauer attended the University of Louisville. 2 – Number of LPGA majors won by Brittany Lincicome. SCATTERSHOT The front and back nines of the par-72 Champions Course have been flipped to create a more exciting finish. So for the second time in three weeks, the final hole is a par 3 – this one a 205-yarder, while the 17th is a par 5 and No. 16 a par 4. Horschel thinks the back nine will be a little more generous since the greens are less undulating. “The greens are in absolutely incredible shape,â€� he said. “Course is in pretty good shape with all the rain they’ve had. I think the scores will be really low. I think it’s going to allow some guys to be aggressive into the greens. I think you’ll have to go low, so 18-, 20-, 22-under par is I think the winning score.â€� Josh Teater grew up in nearby Lexington and remembers attending the Bank One Classic on PGA TOUR Champions when he was a kid. “My interest in golf had already been sparked,â€� Teater said in an article on the Barbasol Championship website. “But that probably took it to another level.â€� Teater, who is playing the Web.com Tour this year in hopes of regaining his TOUR card, was given a sponsor’s exemption for this week’s event. He’s one of the few pros who has played the Champions Course in competition – shooting 7 under to finish third at the 2004 Kentucky Open, three strokes off the pace set by J.B. Holmes.

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