After a 10-year hiatus, Big Break is returning to Golf Channel.
The reality show which pits aspiring professional golfers against each other for a chance to win exemption into a PGA Tour event is officially coming back, Golf Channel announced on Wednesday. In its new iteration, Big Break will be done in collaboration with the popular YouTube channel Good Good Golf.
The forthcoming season, which will be the 24th in the show’s history, will take place at Horseshoe Bay Resort near Austin, Texas. The winner of this season will receive a sponsor’s exemption into the PGA Tour’s Good Good Championship, the freshly sponsored Fall Series event announced earlier this week. Per Sports Business Journal, the pact between Golf Channel and Good Good is for multiple years, meaning there’s likely more than one season coming.
Good Good will be a heavy presence throughout the new edition of Big Break. One member, Matt Scharff, will co-host the series alongside Golf Channel personality and former Big Break runner-up Blair O’Neal. Two Good Good members, Brad Dalke and Sean Walsh, will compete in the series. And two of Good Good’s most recognizable personalities, Garrett Clark and Bubbie Broders, will serve as team captains on the show.
Chris Graham, a longtime producer during Big Break‘s original run, will return to executive produce the season.
“Bringing back Big Break in partnership with Good Good Golf is as good as it gets,” Golf Channel EVP Tom Knapp said in a press release. “Big Break is a Golf Channel institution which defined golf reality entertainment for 23 seasons. Good Good Golf is creating today’s version of golf entertainment and has redefined what ‘reality’ content really is. These two golf contents brands will be a very powerful combination.”
Several Big Break alumni have gone on to lead very successful PGA Tour careers after appearing on the show. Most notably, Tony Finau, now a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, participated in the show while he was still a relative unknown competing on lower-level tours. Finau finished second during his season in 2009.
Golf Channel is preparing to be spun off as part of Versant in 2026, the entity that will house NBC’s current portfolio of cable networks. It’s fair to say that a programming decision like this likely would’ve been a more difficult sell under NBCUniversal, where Golf Channel is a small fish in a big pond. At Versant, however, Golf Channel is core to the company’s business, and taking on a project like the return of Big Break, especially in collaboration with content creators like Good Good, seems like a no-brainer.
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.