Golf Channel is an American cable television network of the NBC Sports Group that focuses on coverage of the game of golf. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, the American headquarters and studio are currently located in Orlando, Florida. Golf Channel is available in the United States, Canada a few nations in Asia and Latin America through cable, satellite, and wireless transmissions. Worldwide, it is available in over 100 million households.

History and programming[link]

The network was launched on January 17, 1995.^[1] The idea of a 24-hour-a-day golf network came from media entrepreneur Joseph E. Gibbs of Birmingham, Alabama, who first thought of such a concept in 1991. Gibbs felt there was enough interest in golf among the public to support such a network, and commissioned a Gallup Poll to see if his instincts were correct. With the support of the polling behind him, Gibbs and legendary golfer Arnold Palmer then secured $80 million in financing to launch the network, which was among the first cable networks developed to cover one singular sport. The first live tournament the channel televised was the Dubai Desert Classic, held from January 19-22, 1995.

Golf Channel features a range of golf programming, including PGA Tour, European Tour, LPGA Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour events. The channel devotes considerable time to news coverage of golf, including a nightly program, Golf Central. There are highlight shows of past tournaments, and a reality television competition show, The Big Break, whose premise is to help aspiring professionals gain exemptions into PGA Tour and LPGA events. In 2005, Golf Channel helped set up a special match play event called Big Stakes Golf, in which teams of two paid a $100,000 entry fee to play in a special tournament where the winning team split a $3,000,000 first-place prize, the largest in golf history. In the end, mini-tour professionals Garth Mulroy and David Ping won the grand prize.

In 2007, Golf Channel embarked on its 15-year agreement as the exclusive cable television home for the PGA Tour. The network’s annual coverage will feature early-round coverage of the entire FedEx Cup season, including the World Golf Championships, The Tour Championship and The Players Championship, the PGA Tour’s crown jewel. In total, early-round coverage of 30 events will air on Golf Channel. Also included in the package will be 13 full, four-round events beginning with the season’s first three tournaments – SBS Championship, Sony Open in Hawaii, and the Bob Hope Classic – and the five official money events following The Tour Championship. The network also will provide full coverage of three tournaments played opposite golf’s majors and World Golf Championships. Every PGA Tour event will be aired live and then rebroadcast in prime time, a first for the PGA Tour.

In January 2011, Comcast, owners of Golf Channel, acquired GE's majority stake in NBC Universal. As part of the acquisition, Comcast's sports networks began to be restructured and merged with the existing NBC Sports division. As a part of these changes, NBC's golf telecasts would take on Golf Channel's production and branding as Golf Channel on NBC beginning in February 2011, NBC Sports personalities would now appear more frequently on Golf Channel, and former NBC Sports senior vice president Mike McCarley took over as the network's new head.^[2][3]

High definition[link]

Golf Channel launched its 1080i high definition simulcast in January 2007. However, in some areas, the feed shared airtime with its sister channel, then known as Versus, on a combined channel known as VS/Golf HD. Programming priority dictated what was broadcast on the channel, but typically Golf Channel programming was aired during the daytime, and Versus at night. Individual HD feeds for both networks were officially launched on December 8, 2008.

Golf Channel UK[link]

There was a British version of the channel called Golf Channel UK for a time. It was operated by sporting goods retailer JJB Sports, and was available on BSkyB satellite television. It broadcast many of the shows from the U.S. channel, but was unable to attract a viable audience as it offered little live golf, and it ceased broadcasting on 31 December 2007. All the major tours have their main UK contract with either Sky Sports or Setanta Golf, and BBC Sport covers several major tournaments each year.

Programs[link]

Tour coverage[link]

• Champions Tour, played at various venues in the United States, Canada and South Korea.
• European Tour, played at various venues throughout Europe.
• LPGA Tour, played at various venues worldwide.
• Nationwide Tour, played at venues in the United States, Mexico, Panama and Colombia.
• PGA Tour, played at various venues in the United States and worldwide.

News and analysis[link]

• Golf Central
• Grey Goose 19th Hole
• Morning Drive

Factual and reality[link]

• Donald J. Trump's Fabulous World Of Golf
• Feherty
• Golf In America
• Golf's Amazing Videos
• GolfNow
• Pipe Dream
• Big Break
• The Haney Project
• Top 10

Instruction[link]

• Champions Tour Learning Center
• Golf Fitness Academy
• Playing Lessons
• School Of Golf
• The Golf Fix

On-air staff[link]

External links[link]

• Official website (Mobile)
  • Golf Channel on Facebook
  • Golf Channel on Twitter
• NBC Sports Website

References[link]

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Jamie Sadlowski (born July 7, 1988^[1]) is a Canadian professional long driver, golfer and ice hockey player from St. Paul, Alberta. One of the longest drivers in the world with a personal best of 445 yards, he won the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship successively in 2008 and 2009 and has competed in over hundred long driving events and demonstrations.

Biography[link]

Sadlowski was born in St. Paul, Alberta on July 7, 1988, the son of a highway-repair man.^[2] Since his youth, Sadlowski has been a keen ice hockey player and competed for three years in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and was defenseman and team captain for Bonnyville Pontiacs.^[1][2] He has two brothers; his brother Brandon is also a hockey player.^[1] He first entered a long drive competition in Edmonton at the age of 14, and claims to have been able to hit a ball over 400 yards at just 16.^[3] His father refers to him as a "freaky boy".^[2]

Sadlowski won the World Long Drive Junior Championships in 2005 and 2006.^[1] In the adult competition he has defeated rival and distance record holder Mike Dobbyn several times in the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship finals in 2008 and 2009 but, unlike Dobbyn, is of average height and slight of build at 5'10" and 168 pounds.^[3] He won $250,000 for winning his first world title in 2008, and $150,000 defending it in 2009 during the economic difficulties.^[2] As of 2011 he has a personal best drive of 445 yards.^[3][4] He won the 2008 finals as number 1 seed against number 2 seed Dewald Gouws, with a drive of 418 yards, hitting 434 yards in an earlier round.^[2][5] He reached the semi finals in the 2010 championships but lost to eventual champion, England’s Joe Miller, with a best of 388 yards as compared to Miller's 396.^[4]

In spring 2008, he hit a ball 330 yards using a hybrid club at the Four Seasons Resort and Club in Dallas.^[1] In 2010 he won the LDA’s Texas Shootout and finished third place at LDA’s Mile High Shootout. He also competed in a charity competition at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Hawaii which included professional golfers Bubba Watson, Dustin Johnson and Robert Garrigus.^[3] He faced Watson in the final and won easily with a drive of 407 yards, compared to Watson's biggest drive of 347 yards (370 at best in earlier rounds).^[3] He has competed in over hundred long driving events and demonstrations and aims to beat Jason Zuback's record of five RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship wins.^[4]

Driving mechanics[link]

Sadlowski is naturally left-handed and is able to drive some 300 yards using a left-handed club but is more able playing right-handed. It was in 2010 that he set his personal best of 445 yards and averaged 405 yards.^[4] He generally uses a Adams Speedline 6.5 with the maximum legal 48" House of Forged Shaft.^[1] He has also achieved several other impressive feats with other clubs, with his records as of 2010 being 350 yards with a 14 degree hybrid, 300 yards with a 3-iron, 260 yards with a 5- iron, 240 yards with a 7-iron, 180 yards with a pitching wedge and 300 yards with a putter.^[2] As of 2011 he resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.^[4]

Sadlowski is able to generate such massive lengths far beyond those of some of the more powerfully built professional golfers because of his unique flexibility and leanness of build, remarking, "Because I'm lean, I can get in positions other long drivers can't."^[5] Motion Golf, a company that creates sophisticated 3-D swing animations of players, has deduced that in his swing he rotates his shoulders 166 degrees, but his hips move only 49 degrees; Tiger Woods averages around 85 degrees in comparison. "Golf for Dummies" said of his swing, "at the top of Jamie Sadlowski's much longer swing, his hands are at 12 o'clock, and the clubhead is approaching 5 o'clock".^[6] Sadlowski claims that the secret behind his unusually long drive is because of his intensive cardio work out and flexibility exercises in the gym and to "Think swing fast, not hard."^[2][5] CBS golf announcer Gary McCord said the reason he is able to hit such phenomenal distances is because "he's figured out how to move his muscles in time and space faster than the big guys."^[2] His very active participation in hockey and in badminton and other sports developed fast-twitch muscle fibers in Sadlowski's left side (very important in the ability to drive long distances), while strengthening his wrists.^[2] Art Sellinger says "Jamie has been given a gift of hinges and levers. The hinges are the shoulders, the levers are the wrist. He has two right wrists, everybody else has one.^[7] His unusual wrist strength in both wrists is attributed to the fact that during the winter months he has played ice hockey left handed since a child and then in the summer golf right handed.

References[link]