Each
March when the tour reaches the final leg of the Florida Swing we are
reminded of the immense debt every golfer around the world owes to
three men, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus. The Big
Three. Winners of a combined 34 Major Championships and nearly 300
professional titles on every continent and three of the four men
responsible for the global explosion in the popularity of televised
golf in the 1960's, the other being Mark McCormack. This week is the
first of three tournaments worldwide where the world's best get the
opportunity to say thanks to arguably golf's three greatest
ambassadors, with the Memorial Tournament and the Nedbank Golf
Challenge to come later in the year the Arnold Palmer Invitational is
the first event hosted by one of the three iconic figures.
The
man responsible for taking full advantage of the outrageous talents
of the trio was Mark H. McCormack. McCormack was a good amateur
golfer who competed in the 1958 US Open at Southern Hills Country
Club and graduated from Yale Law School with a law degree, following
a short spell in the United States Army the Chicago native joined a
Cleveland, Ohio law firm. In the 1950's he helped organize one-day
golf exhibitions featuring professionals from around the United
States and then went alone and signed up Arnold Palmer in 1960 as his
first client as he branched into sports management, going on to sign
a young Jack Nicklaus and the leading non-American golfer Gary Player
and establishing a series of made-for-television events such as Big
Three Golf, World Series of Golf and the World Match Play
Championship that took his clients around the world, bringing them
fame and money beyond anything ever seen in the game before.
McCormack
also went on to recruit future young talent in Tennis and was
responsible for devising world rankings in both Tennis and Golf, his
World of Professional Golf publication is still sold today, featuring
results from every major tour in golf and his world ranking system
was the forerunner to the Official World Golf Rankings founded by the
R&A in 1986 as an entry system to The Open Championship and taken
on by the International Federation of PGA Tours in 1996. His
unrivalled role in the development of professional golf and tennis
worldwide has been recognized by the two sports and he is a member of
the World Golf and World Tennis Halls of Fame. He was named as the
'most powerful man in sports' by The Sporting News and it all began
with the host of the final leg of the Florida Swing, Arnold Palmer.
Palmer
would shortly be joined by Player and Nicklaus and they dominated the
world of golf throughout the 1960's, and their association with
McCormack enabled them to project themselves as global stars through
the medium of television. The trio won seven consecutive Masters
titles between 1960 and 1966 and 17 out 36 Majors between 1960 and
1968, and in the 1960's they won a total of 83 PGA Tour tournaments,
their wins were seen by a new, enthralled audience on television and
they gained fame across America and soon across the world. CBS first
broadcast The Masters in 1956 but its coverage gained more popularity
in the era of The Big Three, ABC became the first broadcaster to
cover the PGA Tour on a regular basis in 1966, and CBS expanded their
golf portfolio four years later by joining ABC in covering the sport
on a week-to-week basis. Golf coverage became even more extended by
ESPN's commitment from 1979 to show week-day action, ESPN would
eventually become the PGA Tour's cable partner and the deal lasted
until 2006.
A
variety of made-for-television events have been staged over the last
50 years, targeted at the casual golf fan including Big Three Golf,
World Series (1962), World Match Play (1964), Shells Wonderful World
of Golf (1961), PGA Grand Slam (1979), Lancome Trophy (1970), Nedbank
Golf Challenge (1981), Chevron World Challenge (1999), Kiwi Challenge
(2008), Skins Game (1983), Monday Night Golf (1999).
Through
television companies were able to use the fame of golfers like Arnold
Palmer to reach a specific audience through advertising, one such
example can be seen by the Cadillac ad below, golfers like Player,
Nicklaus, Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy would go on to
advertise products not associated with golf such as consulting
companies, banks, alcohol, cigarettes and auto-mobiles.
NBC
became involved in golf in the 1980's with the Skins Game and covered
PGA Tour events from the early 1990's,the company made an audacious
bid to hold the broadcast rights to the US Open from 1995 and
unexpectedly won from long-term partner ABC and has held the rights
ever since. Until 2007 NBC showed 5 tournaments per year including
The Players Championship but a new television deal involving a new
player in televised golf would enhance NBC's presence in golf
broadcasting.
In
1991 Joseph E. Gibbs launched the idea of a 24-hour-a-day golf
network and commissioned a Gallup poll to determine whether interest
in golf among the public would support it, the polls backed up his
thoughts and he approached Arnold Palmer to gain influence to raise
$80million to set up the Golf Channel. The network launched in 1995
and broadcast European Tour, LPGA, Senior and Hogan Tour events along
with PGA Tour highlights through 2006, but entered the bidding
process for live cable rights in 2006 for 2007. Surprisingly the PGA
Tour gave the network exclusive live cable rights, it was the first
time the PGA Tour had gone to a network which was targeted solely at
golf fans, it was a big risk. NBC's live coverage increased to 10
events and in 2011 ComCast (owner of Golf Channel) purchased 51% of
NBC Universal and gave NBC the biggest influence over golf
broadcasting ever seen in the United States. CBS had rights to 19
tournaments during the PGA Tour season. The deal was extended in 2012
to 2021.
Uniquely
in the world golf is broadcast live every week of the PGA Tour season
across the national, terrestrial network broadcasters. NBC and CBS
show live golf almost every weekend from the last week in January to
the end of September, in contrast to the United Kingdom in 2013 where
just three tournaments will be shown live on free-to-air television.
The
unrivalled exposure for the sport in the United States is the
responsibility of Mark McCormack and The Big Three.
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