Credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
By Drew Lerner on

For the first time since 2006, ESPN will air live coverage of a PGA Tour event.

The Worldwide Leader announced it will air first and second round coverage of this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, which will mark the return of Brooks Koepka to the PGA Tour after his four-year stint with LIV Golf. It’s the first time since the WGC-Barbados World Cup in 2006 that ESPN has aired live coverage of a non-major PGA Tour event on its linear networks, as noted by Josh Carpenter of Sports Business Journal.

ESPN+ has held streaming rights to PGA Tour Live, the PGA Tour’s early-morning and afternoon coverage of events, for several years now. That coverage typically includes a “Main Feed” that follows several players and holes across the golf course, as well as a few “Featured Group” streams that follow individual groups.

ESPN will simulcast the “Main Feed” during Koepka’s return. The five-time major champion will be playing with other high-profile players, Max Homa and Ludvig Aberg, in his group. Per Carpenter, ESPN will allocate more cameras to the “Main Feed,” so it can have “uninterrupted coverage” of the Koepka group.

Pat McAfee initially broke the news on his eponymous show, which will be bumped to ESPN2 during ESPN’s coverage of the tournament later this week.

Coverage of the Farmers Insurance Open will air from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET on ESPN, preempting both McAfee and an hour of SportsCenter in the 2 p.m. window. The broadcast will also be available on Disney+ and Hulu. The tournament’s usual television coverage will shift over to Golf Channel at 3 p.m.

This move has Brian Rolapp’s fingerprints all over it. The new CEO of the PGA Tour has moved quickly since assuming the position last summer. Rolapp, who served as Roger Goodell’s right-hand man in his previous role with the NFL, has deep relationships with those in a position to make programming decisions like this at ESPN.

The move highlights the PGA Tour’s new creative thinking under Rolapp, especially with regard to media strategy. Koepka’s return marks a pivotal moment for the Tour in its fight against LIV Golf, and there will be huge interest in the first couple of rounds of this event. Had Koepka’s first tee shots back on Tour been relegated to a streaming service, it wouldn’t have landed with the importance the moment deserves. Instead, Rolapp’s savvy will put Koepka’s return in front of a much wider audience.

About Drew Lerner

Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.

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