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Golf telecasts have aired on NBC since 1954, with some of its earliest telecasts having included the 1954 U.S. Open, and the first televised coverage of the Ryder Cup in 1959. Presently, NBC televises around 8 PGA Tour events per-season, alternating with CBS on the FedEx Cup Playoffs since 2022. It also serves as the broadcast television outlet for two of the men's majors, the U.S. Open and The Open Championship. NBC has occasionally aired coverage for selected European Tour and LPGA events, although the majority of these tours' events are broadcast by sister network Golf Channel. After NBC's parent company NBC Universal was acquired by Comcast–owner of Golf Channel –in February 2011, the channel's operations were merged directly into NBC Sports, and golf broadcasts on NBC took on the Golf Channel on NBC branding. Since 2022, due to the realignments of NBC Sports output stemming from the launch of Peacock, closure of NBCSN, the move of cable rights to majors to USA Network, and NBC's renewed PGA Tour contract, the Golf Channel on NBC title was dropped, and all golf telecasts across NBCUniversal properties (including Golf Channel) are now billed as NBC Sports telecasts on-air. Coverage overview Early years NBC first began televising golf events after it was awarded the television rights to the U.S. Open in 1954 with Lindsey Nelson anchoring the coverage from the 18th hole tower. In 1959, NBC provided the first ever telecast (airing two hours of highlights) of the Ryder Cup. The 1962 U.S. Open, marked the first time that NBC covered golf on a Sunday. The U.S. Open continued to air on the network through the 1965 event, however NBC rebuffed a long-term deal to broadcast the event when the United States Golf Association (USGA) decided on a true contract in 1966. The network, however, did televise a handful of PGA Tour events over the following decades. For example, NBC's broadcast of the 1962 Tournament of Champions as the first color golf telecast. Five years later, NBC broadcast the Hawaiian Open Golf Tournament, which was the first live color sports transmission from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. In 1983, NBC televised the first Skins Game ever held, with Vin Scully and Ben Crenshaw serving as announcers for the tournament broadcast. From 1983 to 1989, Scully juggled duties for both golf and Major League Baseball telecasts for NBC, usually teaming with Lee Trevino. The only notable affiliate not to televise the first event was KYW-TV (now a CBS owned-and-operated station) in Philadelphia. 1990s: Ryder Cup and U.S. Open In 1991, coverage of the Skins Game moved to ABC Sports, after NBC obtained the rights to broadcast Notre Dame college football games. After Vin Scully left NBC Sports following the network's loss of the Major League Baseball package to CBS, Bryant Gumbel, who was still co-hosting Today at the time, took over as NBC's primary golf anchor. In 1991, Gumbel was replaced by Charlie Jones and subsequently, Dick Enberg and (after the former left NBC Sports for CBS in the year 2000) Dan Hicks. The American Century Celebrity Golf Classic was held in 1990 and sponsored by NBC, which broadcasts the second- and third-round coverage. The game NBC Sports Real Golf was unveiled at the 17th annual American Century Championship Celebrity Golf Event and promoted during NBC's broadcast of the event. NBC generally televised around five regular PGA Tour events per season at this time. In 1991, the network acquired the broadcast rights to the Ryder Cup. In 1995, NBC Sports acquired rights to the USGA championships, including the U.S. Open, from ESPN/ABC. ESPN retained rights to a portion of the weekday coverage, however NBC was the dominant rightsholder, including exclusive coverage of the weekend rounds. This took NBC's coverage to a new level, and marked the first time in the modern era of television that the network had televised a major championship. NBC, and its lead analyst Johnny Miller (who joined NBC in 1990), became synonymous with the U.S. Open, televising it for the next 20 years, through 2014. 2000s: Expansion of PGA Tour rights In January 2006, the PGA Tour announced a new set of television deals covering 2007 to 2012, increase the number of events covered by NBC Sports from five to ten. The deal also renewed broadcast deals for the Ryder Cup and the USGA Championships, including the U.S. Open. NBC is the only network which provide four days of major tournament coverage (CBS, which airs the Masters and the PGA Championship, only provides weekend coverage of its tournaments; starting in 2010, the Open Championship would not be aired live on a major broadcast network at all, with all four rounds airing on ESPN and ABC providing only edited highlights of the event). NBC carried the weekend coverage of the JELD-WEN Tradition in 2007, 2009 and 2010. Golf Channel covered the early rounds (and all four rounds in 2008 while NBC carried the Summer Olympic Games from Beijing). NBC carried a tape delayed broadcast of the World Series of Golf, which was held from May 13 to 16, 2007, on June 23 and 24 of that year; the 2008 event of the series, played from May 12 to 15, and was televised by CBS on June 28 and 29. In 2007, The Shark Shootout was moved to December, and was broadcast live by both Golf Channel and NBC. The event was originally broadcast in the United States by sister cable channel USA Network, and CBS – with USA broadcasting the first round on a tape-delayed basis, and CBS handling the second round live. The final round was not broadcast live to the entire country, as CBS' commitment to the NFL only allowed the round as it took place to air in the Eastern and Central Time Zones, with the rest of the U.S. seeing the event beginning at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. 2010s: Golf Channel re-branding, loss of U.S. Open, gain of Open Championship In January 2011, Comcast, owners of Golf Channel, acquired a majority stake in the NBC network's parent company NBC Universal. Comcast's existing sports properties were merged into the NBC Sports division, allowing Golf Channel to pool its personalities and other personnel with NBC. As a result of this synergy, Golf Channel took over production of NBC's golf telecasts, which were now co-branded under the "Golf Channel on NBC" banner, beginning at the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, with a co-branded logo adding the NBC peacock to Golf Channel's existing logo (the co-branded presentation would also migrate to Golf Channel proper shortly afterward). While most golf broadcasts on NBC used Golf Channel's on-air branding as graphics packages as a result of the changes, the Players Championship, Ryder Cup and USGA tournaments maintain the distinctive theme music that NBC used prior to the rebranding (such as the theme from The Man from Snowy River for the Players, and Yanni's "In Celebration of Man" for the U.S. Open, which, with a rearrangement, was also temporarily used for the Open Championship). In both 2013 and 2.... Discover the Golf Channel Staff popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Golf Channel Staff books.