Coverage of the PGA Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs, which begin Thursday, will look a little different for golf fans than it has in recent years.
ESPN is broadcasting two hours of first- and second-round coverage for all three postseason events, marking the first time the network has aired live playoff action. The move comes after a successful trial run of sorts in January at the Farmers Insurance Open when Brooks Koepka made his first PGA Tour start since leaving LIV Golf. ESPN averaged 393,000 viewers during its six hours of coverage (12-3 p.m. ET during the first and second rounds), simulcasting the primary PGA Tour Live feed that typically only streams on the ESPN app.
At this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, ESPN anchor Michael Eaves will host the network’s live coverage from 9-11 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday. Eaves will serve the same role at next week’s BMW Championship and the season-ending Tour Championship. ESPN is planning to roll out enhanced production elements compared to regular PGA Tour Live streams, including extra cameras and drones, enhanced player audio, and 3D hole and course modeling.
Amid the shift to linear, the PGA Tour is controlling player pairings like it does during the regular season, as opposed to its traditional postseason model of grouping players based on their FedExCup rankings. That allowed it the flexibility this week to pair top-ranked Scottie Scheffler with Rory McIlroy (No. 6) instead of No. 2-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick. Scheffler and McIlroy tee off at 9:30 a.m. ET in the first round, giving them 90 minutes on ESPN. The PGA Tour will control early-round pairings again at the BMW Championship but will use the traditional FedExCup rankings-based pairings at the Tour Championship.
