PGA Championship: ESPN To Produce 225+ Hours of Live Play on Multiple Platforms

PGA Championship: ESPN To Produce 225+ Hours of Live Play on Multiple Platforms Expanded ESPN BET' telecast, live SportsCenter' segments add to a full schedule By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.

Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 12:17 pm

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This week from Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, NC, ESPN platforms will present more than 225 combined hours of live play during the four days of the PGA Championship, both traditional coverage and exclusive Featured Groups and Featured Holes presentations. In addition, ESPN will produce an expanded ESPN BET at the PGA Championship alternative betting telecast and live SportsCenter segments from the course all week long, making an ultra-busy week for the ESPN remote-operations team.

We've been able to keep a pretty consistent team together for this event, and specific event experience and familiarity has been key, says Paul Horrell, manager, remote production operations, ESPN. The remote-operations, specialists, and production teams are the best in the business, and it's impressive to see it all come together in spectacular fashion every year.

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Spanning ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPN+, linear golf and studio coverage with SportsCenter, GolfCast, Feature Groups (four in the morning, four in the afternoon), and Feature Holes (Holes 16, 17, 18) productions starts today and will continue through final round of play on Sunday.

In addition to live coverage of play, SportsCenter will have reports and analysis from Quail Hollow for the entire week. SportsCenter With Scott Van Pelt will originate from ESPN's onsite studio structures built by Filmwerks.

Meanwhile, the ESPN BET studio production is being hosted from a Bristol, CT, studio with reporter and commentary onsite. The alternative telecast will run on ESPN2 for three hours each day during the first, third, and final rounds and for two hours during the second round.

Game Creek Video in the Crowded Compound In the compound, Game Creek Video Centennial mobile unit provides production space and hardware to support the SportsCenter and GolfCast REMI-based studio productions, with GCV Celtic and Columbia handling the Feature Groups productions. Similar to last year, Feature Groups 1 and 2 will be fully produced onsite, and Groups 3 and 4 will have director and producer integrated remotely from Bristol control rooms.

Every course presents a few unique challenges to work through, notes Horrell. This year, that included broadcast footprint and available space. But working in tandem with our CBS partners early in the planning phase is always key to overall compound layouts and making sure we can fit all necessary trucks, uplinks, gennies and trailers.

Specifically, available compound space is at a premium, and, having considered various versions of the overall layout, ESPN went with a few two-level structures housing operations and management offices in the compound area to condense its footprint and solve the problem.

Additionally, given the number of talent and tech crew for this event, the logistics of getting everyone to site from hotels is another challenge, says Horrell. This year, we set up regular AM and PM bus schedules with fixed drop-off point at the compound, and that worked out very well.

Returning for this year, ESPN's internal drone team was onsite on Monday to gather scenic course coverage for replay and to produce live shots to augment early-round coverage on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Support From PGA of America's Facility in Texas New for this year and due to available limited course space, ESPN's Coaches Corner piece highlighting interesting and helpful golf technique, tips, and information is being produced out of the PGA of America's headquarters facility in Frisco, TX, and will be integrated live into several studio shows and productions onsite at Quail Hollow.

Says Horrell, Quail Hollow has a remarkable course and multi-use facility that was perfect for this turnkey integration and will also be hosting the 2027 PGA Championships.

This marks ESPN's sixth year of live coverage of the PGA Championship after a 30-year absence. With first-tee-to-last-putt coverage of the first two rounds, weekend-morning viewing, and more live play and viewing options than ever, Horrell's team is certainly busy.

He credits close collaboration between ESPN and CBS Sports as essential to both networks' success at golf's second major: The sheer volume of overall content being produced - tournament play, studio shows, streaming offerings - is just staggering. CBS has always been a fantastic partner for us in providing crew and facilities and making any adjustments or considerations along the way. I can't say enough about the continued spirit of cooperation they've shown for us.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/05/15/pga-championship-espn-to-produc...
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