These all deal with the PGA Championship next week.
First, CBS Sports talks about its coverage of Golf’s Final Major of the season.
CBS SPORTS BROADCASTS SEASON’S FINAL MAJOR — THE 91st PGA CHAMPIONSHIP FROM HAZELTINE NATIONAL GOLF CLUB ON AUGUST 13-16
Late Night Highlights of First Two Rounds Broadcast on Thursday, August 13 and Friday, August 14 on The CBS Television Network
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington will defend his 2008 title at the season’s final major against the strongest field in golf when the PGA Championship is contested for the second time at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., this August. Harrington won his third major championship at Hazeltine with a two-stroke margin over Sergio Garcia, becoming the first European in the modern era to win the British Open and PGA Championship in succession. For the 19th consecutive year, CBS Sports will be on-hand to cover the next chapter in PGA Championship history.
Jim Nantz, the 2008 Emmy Award Winner for “Outstanding Sports Personality – Play-by-Play” and 2008 National Sportscaster of the Year, serves as anchor of CBS Sports’ 2009 PGA Championship golf coverage. Sir Nick Faldo, winner of six major championships and more than 40 tournaments worldwide, serves as lead analyst. Peter Oosterhuis calls the action at the 17th hole, Gary McCord at the 16th hole and Ian Baker-Finch at the 15th hole. David Feherty and Peter Kostis serve as on-course reporters.
Lance Barrow, Coordinating Producer, Golf, will produce along with David Winner. Jim Rikhoff serves as videotape producer. Steve Milton and Bob Matina will direct. Harold Bryant is Vice President, Production, CBS Sports.
CBS Sports’ cameras will capture the action at all 18 holes of Hazeltine National Golf Club with live coverage of the third and final rounds on Saturday, Aug. 15 and Sunday, Aug. 16 (2:00-7:00 PM, ET; both days). In addition, CBS Sports will broadcast highlights of early-round action with Nantz and Feherty immediately following the LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN on Thursday, Aug.13 and Friday, Aug. 14 (12:35-1:05 AM, ET/PT; both nights). Bob Mansbach will produce the highlight shows. Chris Svendsen will direct.
The 2008 PGA Championship at Oakland Hills Country Club was contested by the strongest field of any major championship with 93 of the top 100 world-ranked players. In addition, last year’s PGA Championship featured a Championship-record 64 international players representing 22 countries. Since 1994, the PGA Championship has led all other major championships with the most world-ranked players.
The PGA Championship’s cable partner, TNT, will use social networks to reach fans throughout the tournament. Good idea. And unlike ESPN, no restrictions!
Turner Sports and The PGA of America Get Social on PGA.com with Announcers, PGA Club Professionals Tweeting Throughout “Glory’s Last Shot”Fans Also Able to Weigh In Through Live Chat on PGA.com Via Their Twitter, Facebook and MySpace Accounts
Turner Sports and The PGA of America announced that beginning today and throughout the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club, Aug. 13 – 16, all of TNT’s television announcers and PGA.com on-camera talent, as well as local PGA of America Club Professionals, will use the Twitter social networking platform to provide commentary leading up to and throughout the year’s final major. The tweets will be featured on PGA.com’s @PGA_com Twitter feed and will be made available on the PGA.com homepage, the site’s new live video player, and at twitter.com/PGA_com, and will receive on-air promotion on TNT.
Those tweeting will include TNT’s Ernie Johnson, Ian Baker-Finch, Billy Kratzert and Jim Huber, as well as PGA.com’s Marc Fein, Craig Sager, Michael Breed and Brian Katrek. The PGA of America will also enlist local PGA Club Professionals who will provide expert instruction and insight throughout the tournament as the action unfolds in Chaska, Minn.
PGA.com will also get fans involved in the game by utilizing three of the most popular social media platforms, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, on its PGA Championship LIVE player to allow users to interact with each other as well as react to the tournament action, making PGA.com the first official golf site to integrate all three of these platforms, as well as the first to make them available to users during a live golf event. Using the Gigya Socialize API, the three platforms will seamlessly aggregate into a single chat area available on PGA.com’s video player, allowing fans to interact with their friends and other golf fans while watching PGA.com’s extensive live video coverage of the PGA Championship.
“Using social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace to engage and inform a more diverse audience fits perfectly with The PGA of America and PGA.com’s strategy to bring younger people closer to the game,” said Matthew Hong, Turner Sports vice president and general manager of sports digital. “What better venue to get involved in social media than at the PGA’s premier event of the year?”
TNT will provide 18 exclusive hours from all four rounds of the 91st PGA Championship, live from Hazeltine National Golf Club. It is the 19th consecutive year, and 11th straight on TNT, that Turner Sports will air the event. TNT will televise 12 hours of exclusive live first and second round coverage (Thursday and Friday, 2-8 p.m. ET) and an additional six hours of early third and final round coverage (Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.). In addition, Turner Sports will offer PGA Championship LIVE on PGA.com, the official site of The PGA of America. PGA Championship LIVE will offer viewers nearly 100 hours of bonus coverage of the year’s final major championship from the course via multiple broadband channels.
Here’s Golf Channel’s plan for coverage of “Glory’s Last Shot”.
GOLF CHANNEL has the PGA Championship Covered
26 Hours of Coverage from Hazeltine National Golf ClubORLANDO, Fla. (Aug. 6, 2009) – GOLF CHANNEL’s Live From the PGA Championship, produced in high definition, will take viewers inside the ropes at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn. with 26 hours of live news reports, inside analysis and compelling features to deliver comprehensive, wrap-around live news coverage of the men’s final major championship of 2009.
Live From the PGA Championship kicks off Tuesday at noon ET when Kelly Tilghman will host coverage of pre-tournament news conferences from Hazeltine National GC. Later, Steve Sands will be joined by the network’s team of reporters and analysts from 6 – 8 p.m. ET to wrap-up the day’s activities. Wednesday’s Live From the PGA Championship will feature news conferences from 12:30 – 3:30 p.m. ET, followed by a two-hour preview show at 6 p.m. ET.
Thursday and Friday at 11 a.m. ET, and at 9 a.m. ET on the weekend, Live From the PGA Championship will preview each round complete with player interviews and analysis.
Prime-time coverage will air at 8 p.m. ET Thursday and Friday, and at 7 p.m. ET on the weekend. Each prime-time Live From the PGA Championship will re-air throughout the night all week.
Throughout the week’s coverage, Michael Breed, host of GOLF CHANNEL’s The Golf Fix, will interact with players on varies subjects concerning their game.
The Live From the PGA Championship team will include Tilghman, Sands, Breed, Vince Cellini, Rich Lerner, Frank Nobilo, Brandel Chamblee, Alex Miceli, John Feinstein, Jim Gray, John Hawkins, Tim Rosaforte, and Rex Hoggard.
In addition, GolfChannel.com’s team of writers will contribute to the popular Shag Bag blog with entries and posts throughout the week, along with daily columns, news articles features and breaking news. Hoggard, Jay Coffin and Randall Mell will report on-site from the PGA Championship throughout the week.
Live From the PGA Championship TV Times (all times ET)
Tuesday, Aug. 11: Noon – 1 p.m. & 6 – 8 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 12: 12:30 – 3:30 p.m. & 6 – 8 p.m.
Thursday, Aug. 13: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. & 8 – 10 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 14: 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. & 8 – 10 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 15: 9 – 11 a.m. & 7 – 9 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 16: 9 – 11 a.m. & 7 – 9 p.m.
That concludes this post. We have one more press release post, oh yes we do. We had a lot of press releases come into the Fang’s Bites inbox today.
