Peter Kostis on PGA Tour’s TV product, LIV Golf’s impact and three of the best shots he ever saw

PK: Nope.

GWK: Do you like what you see when you watch live-streaming LIV?

PK: Nope.

GWK: Is it too much talking? Too many graphics? Not enough analysis?

PK: How many announcers do you need to describe one shot? CBS has three on the ground, they got a guy in the tower, they got another analyst in the 18th tower, they got Jim Nantz. And so at a minimum there’s three announcers on every shot and they’re all trying to get in because they want their air-time and it ruins the flow of the show, in my opinion. I’m not going to mention names, but they just don’t need that many announcers, in my opinion. And plus with the number of commercials and sponsored segments and whatnot, it’s too cluttered. The whole thing is too cluttered.

GWK: What do you think about the number of commercial breaks?

PK: That’s the Tour’s fault. That’s not the network’s fault. The Tour charges x amount for the rights fees and they bump em up, bump em up, bump em up. The networks want golf. How they gonna justify spending what they’re spending. They gotta pay for it. They’ve got a board to respond to, they got shareholders, they got everything. They gotta get the money back somehow so you get it through commercials.

GWK: What about things like, ‘the final hour is commercial-free brought to you by, say, Rolex?’

PK: Most people have turned it off by then. They’re sick of the commercials. The whole thing is too cluttered. It’s propaganda. The Tour has managed to get rid of some voices that were honest, shall I say, and replaced them with cheerleaders, former Tour players and whatnot. But the Tour gets what the Tour wants.

I’m glad I had my run when I had it. Gary and I worked in what I consider to be the Golden Age of golf on television. We had fun, it was entertaining, informative. It wasn’t laden down with a bunch of commercials, a bunch of promos, sponsored segments.