PGA Tour Will Hit TV Bonanza — $700 Million?

Once again, The Sheriff Of Nottingham (aka PGA Tour Commish Jay Monahan) and his greedy Band Of Henchmen, will rob from the very rich and give to, well, themselves.

It won’t be announced until sometime in early 2020 but numbers are already leaking out for public consumption and good grief are the coffers at PGA Tour headquarters about to get even fatter than they already are.

Word is the annual pot of loot going to The Sheriff and his Henchmen will grow from $400 million annually to a, drum-roll please — whopping $700 million.

Keep in mind that is for PGA Tour events only.  Augusta National Golf Club, the USGA, the PGA of America and the European Tour/European PGA — control the telecast rights to their tournaments.

Perhaps Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley will tell the powers that be at CBS that Augusta National needs a little more walking-around cash.  The USGA has already sold its soul to the devil — the devil being Fox Sports.  The PGA of America is as greedy as the PGA Tour and will reap the rewards for the telecasts of the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup, although it shares Ryder Cup cash with the Euro counterparts.  The European Tour and European PGA get their dough from the Open Championship and the Ryder Cup.

Those of us who enjoy televised golf will be able to find the telecasts on old faithfuls — CBS, NBC and The Golf Channel.

Fox was not in the picture as it already forked up too much to the USGA for its championships.  ABC was absent from the bidding.

There were rumors of a PGA Tour Channel but that never came to fruition.

What is uncertain are the rights to the LPGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions (old guys) and the Korn Ferry Tour.  Most of those will wind up where they’ve always been — on The Golf Channel.

CBS and NBC will keep their same regular-season packages. Big difference will be seen with the FedEx Cup Playoffs. CBS and NBC will produce all three playoff tournaments, including the Tour Championship,  in alternating years. As part of the nine-year deals, NBC will carry  the playoffs five times and CBS will carry them four times. Previously,  NBC and CBS shared these rights, with NBC producing most of them each  year.

So why hasn’t the PGA Tour puffed its chest with an announcement of its latest theft, er negotiation?  The big hold-up is with digital rights, which are currently  held by NBC Sports as part of PGA Tour Live.  Those are still being negotiated.  ESPN has made a hard-line play for those rights.

Discovery also  has emerged as a serious contender for those rights and could end up sharing them with NBC Sports if a deal can be struck. Discovery holds the Tour’s digital rights internationally.

And speaking of CBS — seems the purge of the elderly continues at the network’s golf operation.

The powers at CBS announced that the 2020 season will be his final year calling the shots in the production truck.

Sellers Shy (is that really his name?), who has been a longtime producer on CBS Sports’ golf coverage team, will assume Barrow’s job at the top.

For the record, Barrow is 64-years-old.

Note, apparently CBS is not senior-friendly when it comes to golf.