Tiger vs. Phil will be a golf broadcast that we've never seen before

The Match may be the most unique golf broadcast we’ve ever seen. Hell, calling it a golf broadcast may not be an accurate categorization. It could be a live gambling show with some golf shots mixed in from Vegas. It could be nothing more than a pay-per-view sports entertainment endeavor with the actual golf just a vessel for making a cadre of people a pile of money (there are a lot of executive types with their hands in this thing).

Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are taking golf to pay-per-view in an experiment that could become a new model for pro golfers at the highest level. The made-for-TV match is not new. That’s been a part of American golf for decades, with almost every legendary player being a part of some made-for-tv side game back to the black-and-white TV days. But it has been a generation since we had one, the last round coming in the early 2000s with the “Monday Night Golf” series. Also, we’ve never had one of these on pay-per-view.

The leap to PPV

It’s possibly the only risk Tiger and Phil are taking here. The purse is a winner-take-all $9 million bucket of cash but make no mistake, both players are coming out of this with a nice payday. The risk may be in taking this behind a paywall, forcing people to make a harder choice than they might normally have on a Friday after Thanksgiving. We may never hear truly accurate numbers of how many buys The Match draws, but if it flops, that would probably impact how they approach the next one. And unless this is a total failure, the idea is to have a next one. It may not be another Tiger v. Phil battle, but both legends see this as the potential start of some new business model in which they have a stake.

This is not a golf broadcast for the golf nuts. Those people had a full set of sleepy fall series events to watch. The idea here is to break away and stand out from the glut of PGA Tour stroke play events. There are too many on the schedule for a league that takes care of its sprawling faceless middle better than any other. The players own and operate the PGA Tour and the priority is playing opportunities, and paychecks, for the entire club. The stars that actually draw the interest and can carry broadcasts probably do not get a truly proportionate cut of things. It’s what makes the idea of two superstars going one-on-one for a bunch of cash a possible replicable model.

The marketing and promotion have looked similar to a Vegas prize fight. It’s a broadcast and an event to scoop a wider audience, not that set of golf nuts that cares about course set-up or The Masters low amateur or the love of the game. They expect to scoop them up anyways and if they turn them off with the promotion, so be it.

The Match: Tiger vs Phil - Practice Round and Press Conference — Tiger and Phil giggle at their Tuesday press conference.

Bells and whistles we’ve never seen

The broadcast is also going to look nothing like we’ve seen before in golf. There will be live odds and probabilities on the screen based on course mapping data and the two players’ ShotLink data profile. So as Phil gets reckless with some side bet on how he’ll pull off a certain shot or win a hole, you should be able to tell the probability of that happening, similar to seeing hold cards during a pro poker telecast.

There will also be a drone camera heavily involved in the production. Drones are now common in picking up golf course footage, but there are regulations against using them when tournament crowds are on the grounds below. So we’ve never seen one used right over a live golf event and this should be a cool new angle to see the entire hole.

There will be microphones on the players and caddies the entire match as well. Tiger is probably used to the assumption that his every word and movement could get picked up, but now we get it in the context of a match with Phil. The walking reporter, Shane Bacon, does not need to jam a mic in their face and with no commercials, that discussion and banter in between shots will be critical to the broadcast.

All of these elements could be what we’re going to see more of down the line. Or we may never see them again if it fails spectacularly. But the PGA Tour pushed for the legalization of gambling and embraced it, largely due to the business opportunity from all that proprietary ShotLink data they own. So we’re going to see live wagering and live odds and probabilities incorporated into the pro game much more. We’ve been pining for years for mic’d up players and caddies. That’s improved significantly thanks to production hustle but full access with the players agreeing to wear microphones is often lobbied as the next step. And the drone view is the kind of technology we should expect more of as cameras become more mobile.

Tiger and Phil knew they had to agree to unlimited access to make this thing really go, even if that meant mics on everything and noisy drones hovering over their shots. It’s a made-for-TV event and we’re going to get new bells and whistles that should be the future of what more golf looks like on TV.

A mishmash of talent

According to reports, the traditional golf broadcast networks NBC/Golf Channel and CBS Sports passed on it and a deal with ESPN for a televised Match around July 4th fell through. Turner won the bidding for this made-for-TV event and they have pounced on the opportunity to spread it all around the new WarnerMedia empire. So we get a Turner production with an HBO 24/7 show and some PPV distribution on AT&T and DirecTV and a stream on the Bleacher Report Live app.

There will also be a pre-match show working hard to get those last-minute PPV buys. That show starts at 2 p.m. ET, one hour before The Match and will feature Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson, and the frequently cussin’ PGA Tour pro Pat Perez. The host will be Adam Lefkoe and that one-hour pre-show will be free across Bleacher Report platforms. That could be a fun show with plenty of cursing and possibly some interviews with Phil and Tiger as they warm up and things get less giggly and more tense on the range. It will also be a chance to show you Shadow Creek, which is a complete fantasy land of a golf course built in the middle of flat desert.

"I don't believe nature can make great golf all by itself.... I think it’s pretty obvious that you need to shape the land forms to create a quality golf setting and to produce acceptable shot values. That’s where a golf course designer really earns his keep." -Tom Fazio pic.twitter.com/il8on4EYCW
— Garrett Ford (@gfordgolf) November 22, 2018

There are a bunch of homes around that golf course now, but still doesn’t seem like the best most natural use of the area!

The announce team for the actual Match is a mishmash of talent from across several networks. TNT’s Ernie Johnson will get the call with Darren Clarke and NBC’s Peter Jacobsen providing the analysis. It’s unclear just how much hard-hitting golf analysis will be needed for an event that’s mostly gambling entertainment. Bacon and LPGA pro Natalie Gulbis are the reporters on the ground during the match. That’s a solid group that should make things fun and keep it moving with no commercials to fill up much of that “in-between” time as they walk to shots and walk to different holes.

The nuts and bolts

So this is a golf experiment and the broadcast should illustrate that point more than anything else. It should look and feel and sound different than anything we’ve seen on a golf telecast. Here are your nuts and bolts details on how to watch The Match:

The Match start: 3 p.m. ET

Price: $19.99

Online Streaming: B/R Live

TV: You can purchase through DirectTV or AT&T U-Verse. The event will also be distributed through other providers such as Comcast, Charter, Cox, Verizon and Altice in the U.S. and Rogers, Shaw and Bell in Canada through iNDEMAND and Vubiquity

Watch in 4K: DirecTV channel 106 is offering a 4K edition for $29.99.

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