Live From THE PLAYERS: PGA TOUR World Feed Is Set To Wow International Fans, Rightsholders The world feed will feature dedicated TOUR graphics and announcers By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Wednesday, March 12, 2025 - 6:03 pm
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Early this year, the PGA TOUR officially opened its PGA TOUR Studios, a massive production facility located next to TPC Sawgrass, the legendary course that is home to THE PLAYERS tournament this week. Today marks a new era in PGA TOUR world-feed production: the new facility will be producing a world feed that not only has its own graphics look but offers much more golf for international rightsholders.
PGA TOUR's Kate Sharpe (left) and Greg Hopfe in the production-control room that will provide a next-level world feed
The PGA TOUR has offered an enhanced international feed (EIF) for its events for more than 25 years, producing it from the PGA TOUR production facility at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, FL, about 22 miles from the organization's new studio. The EIF basically took the NBC Sports or CBS Sports programming feed and delivered it to viewers, complete with the respective broadcaster's announcers and graphics. The only difference between the domestic and international feeds was that, when the broadcaster would go to break or a domestic-related promo, the international feed would fill the break with other content and PGA TOUR announcers.
Now, in PGA TOUR Studios' new 165,000-sq.-ft. facility, Production Control Room 1B will be the week-in/week-out home of a team of around 30, producing a world feed that will better meet the needs of international rightsholders and fans.
PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monaghan weighs in on the importance of that capability to the future of the TOUR: For the first time, we will be able to customize our broadcasts for markets around the world. As the game and our membership becomes increasingly global, we will now be able to present the PGA TOUR to fans everywhere, from Seoul to Stockholm, in a more localized and relevant way.
According to PGA TOUR SVP/Executive Producer Greg Hopfe, the TOUR expects to use the domestic feed for about 70% of the coverage at THE PLAYERS. However, NBC has set up the Grass Valley Kayenne switcher in the TOUR production truck onsite to send a secondary signal that has PGA TOUR wipes instead of Peacock wipes, providing international viewers a much more consistent and cohesive world feed.
We don't get [NBC] graphics, he notes, but we get their technology, like tracing, and we have our own announcers. Each week, the PGA TOUR team will feature a host, two analysts, and an on-course reporter from a group of more than 30 (this week's talent includes John Swantek, Craig Perks, Billy Kratzert, and Colin Swatton).
The world feed will also have some of its own cameras to complement what comes in from NBC and give the world-feed team more looks. We don't need to throw a ton more resources at it, says Hopfe. We'll have one camera at the 17th and 18th to be with the finishing groups and then another four that can be with international groups that we don't think will get much domestic coverage.
Using PGA TOUR announcers for the entire broadcast gives the world-feed team the freedom to cut around the incoming NBC feed. The PGA TOUR production has four Hawk-Eye replay operators building clips for the show, and world-feed producer Steven Roth and director Emmett Loughran can hear the NBC production team and see NBC's preview and a multiviewer of NBC's replay options.
It allows us to show a lot more international players, adds Hopfe. If NBC wants to show an American player who is seven shots back, we can go in and show something else that best meets the needs of our international rightsholders.
To PGA TOUR VP, Broadcast Technology, Mike Raimondo, the biggest challenge was setting up NBC and CBS with the new in-house graphics packages. We had to make sure that the Shotlink data properly populated the new graphics package, and that took some time. Other than bringing in more Hawk-Eye operators so we can bring in more content, it has been fairly straightforward.
PGA TOUR SVP, International Media, Kate Sharp notes that the international players move the needle for rights partners as well as for sponsors and international fans.
A test at the Genesis Open this year proved just how improved the world feed is going to be. The international feed has four two-minute breaks per hour. For the Genesis Open, that translated into showing 600 shots during the four hours of final-round coverage, versus 350 shots on the domestic feed.
And we had more shots of the internationals, like 27 shots of Hideki Matsuyama, compared to two shots, and 78 shots of Ludvig berg, Sharp adds. We can tailor it to what we know the international audience is going to want to see. Yes, we're still going to do the storyline of the tournament and the top guys, but we can also show the guys that we want to, and that will help not just our business partners but all of our international fans.
This weekend marks step one in what is going to be the transformation of the world feed in the coming years. The new PGA TOUR Studios facility has additional control-room and production areas that could offer more-regionalized feeds for different areas of the world, better serving the needs of sponsors and rightsholders alike.
Now that we have more operational control, we can do what we want with it, says Sharpe. This is not just a better product; it is a better way to message our tournaments and our brand to our international fans. We think it will create more value and gives our partners and potential partners more opportunities to also engage with us.
