Opinion & Analysis
Can Back9Network Compete with The Golf Channel?
Instead of focusing on birdies and bogeys like The Golf Channel does, Back9Network celebrates golf’s characters, cars, clothes and charisma. Until Back9Network — the significantly capitalized Hartford-based television network — launched on Direct TV this September, the golf community didn’t know what to make of what was essentially a digital golf content site for the past three years. Certain folks scoffed at the thought of competing with the Golf Channel, while others — including the non-institutional celebrity investors backing the company — literally bought into the concept.
The Back9Network is a new breed of golf TV and entertainment, but can it work?
How Back9Network Got Started
The original founder and CEO, Jamie Bosworth — formerly National Sales Manager for Odyssey Golf — got the company off the ground in 2010 by raising $30M in capital from celebrities such as Ray Allen and Clint Eastwood among others.
For its first three years, Back9Network produced digital content for the company’s website as it pulled together investors, negotiated TV contracts and recruited talent for shows. Approximately 60 percent of the dollars funding Back9Network hail from Connecticut-based investors including $5M from the Connecticut State Department of Economic and Community Development. The company faced negative headlines when former Connecticut Fox News anchor Jennifer Bosworth posted scandalous photos on the company’s website, which raised eyebrows among state officials. In May of 2014, Back9Network acquired Swing by Swing — a Golf GPS App with the company tagline Golf Is Fun — along with their more than two million email subscribers.
While one can fairly question some of Back9Network’s prior mishaps, the company has jumped from 50 to 90 employees (job growth being the prime motive for the state’s investment) in the past few months and recently added key members to the Advisory Board such as Jim Remy, former PGA of America President, and Seth Waugh, former Deutsche Bank America CEO.
“Back9Network represents a real opportunity to fill a gap by entertaining and engaging those of us who love the game and the lifestyle surrounding it,” Waugh said. “I look forward to being actively involved on the Advisory Board towards realizing that goal.”
With some company history under our belts, let’s take a look at what the golf lifestyle network has live on Direct TV channel 262.
Ahmad Rashad Interviews Michael Jordan
Landing the Emmy-Award Winning former NBA TV celebrity Ahmad Rashad is a big win for Back9Network, as was Rashad’s interview with Michael Jordan that aired on October 28th.
I loved hearing Jordan talk about his dream foursome then call out Obama for being a sh*** golfer! I view Ahmad Rashad as the counter to the Golf Channel’s Feherty Show, which has landed countless premier interviews. If Ahmad can keep finding guys like Jordan to tee it up with, I think that this show will be a hit.
The Turn
Headlined by Shane Bacon — former Yahoo golf writer and Saint Andrews caddie — alongside co-hosts Erica Bachelor and Lou Holder, Back9Network describes The Turn as their “flagship hour of golf, pop culture, debate and entertainment.” Bacon brings both comedy, genuine golf knowledge and culture to the conversation. Bacon, Bachelor and Holder’s ability to extend the show beyond purely just golf will factor into The Turn’s success.
The Clubhouse
Headlined by John Maginnes — former PGA Tour Player and current host of the nightly radio show “Katrek & Maginnes on Tap”– and 19-year Golfweek veteran Jeff Rude, give us “real golf talk” on a show called The Clubhouse, which airs at 10 p.m. on Monday-Friday. Add in the lovely extreme sports woman Will Christein as a co-host and The Clubhouse has a chance to be a nightly staple to the golf community.
Direct TV to Cable?
Until the September Direct TV launch, Back9Network was just a website. Now, 20 million American Direct TV subscribers can turn on channel 262 and check out Back9Network any time. While making it to Direct TV is no small feat (less so having raised $30 million), Back9Network’s most obvious next hurdle is to get on cable where The Golf Channel is available to approximately 82 million pay television households. How the NBC Universal’s (owned by Comcast) ownership of the Golf Channel plays into this dynamic, however, remains to be seen.
On one hand, The Golf Channel might worry about a new player entering a space where it’s had zero competition. On the other, the Golf Channel has a lot to learn understanding why or why not Back9Network succeeds. If Back9Network brings new folks into the game through entertaining golf content, perhaps Golf Channel may offer more golf lifestyle oriented shows. Regardless of what happens, what remains clear is that Back9Network will struggle to formidably compete with the Golf Channel until they make it to cable.
Will Back9Network Succeed?
This remains to be seen. The ethos of the Back9Network’s content concerns the golf lifestyle and fun of the game. With respect to growing the game, celebrating quality golf content will be a crucial factor in retaining and attracting new golfers over the next decade, particularly within the millennial cohort. Millennials spend 18 hours a day consuming and interacting with digital content. Back9Network’s ability to leverage multiple platforms (television, web, mobile) in producing and crowd-sourcing authentic content such as golf trick shots will determine its success.
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The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.
TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.
Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.
However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.
Past Winners at TPC Louisiana
- 2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
- 2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
- 2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
- 2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
- 2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
- 2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)
2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks
Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)
Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.
This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.
McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.
Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)
Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.
Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.
Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)
Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.
NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.
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After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.
For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.
The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.
The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.
*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*
Past Winners at LIV Adelaide
- 2023: Talor Gooch (-19)
Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami
Green in Regulation
- Richard Bland
- Jon Rahm
- Paul Casey
Fairways Hit
- Abraham Ancer
- Graeme McDowell
- Henrik Stenson
Driving Distance
- Bryson DeChambeau
- Joaquin Niemann
- Dean Burmester
Putting
- Cameron Smith
- Louis Oosthuizen
- Matt Jones
2024 LIV Adelaide Picks
Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)
When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.
At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.
The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.
Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)
Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.
In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.
For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.
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Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.
Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.
But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.
To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.
Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.
If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.
In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.
Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.
While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.
So, what about grooves and face texture?
Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.
Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.
But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?
The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.
So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.
And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.
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Dave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
John Daly stuns fans into silence with brutal opening tee shot on PGA Tour Champions
Things got heated at the Houston Open between Tony Finau and Alejandro Tosti. Here’s why
Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
Report: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
Two star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
2-time major champ announces shock retirement from the sport at age of 33
Report: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
Neal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
Sam Burns WITB 2024 (April)
Sam Burns’ what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. Driver: Callaway Paradym Triple Diamond S (9 degrees...
Will Zalatoris WITB 2024 (April)
Will Zalatoris’ what’s in the bag accurate as of the RBC Heritage. Driver: Titleist TSR2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting)...
Scottie Scheffler’s winning WITB: 2024 RBC Heritage
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (8 degrees @8.25) Buy here. Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 7 X (45 inches) 3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees) Buy...
Nelly Korda’s winning WITB: 2024 Chevron Championship
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 Max (10.5 degrees) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Diamana GT 60 S 3-wood: TaylorMade Stealth 2 (15 degrees)...
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19th Hole2 weeks agoDave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
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19th Hole2 weeks agoTiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
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19th Hole18 hours ago‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
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19th Hole3 weeks agoReport: Tiger Woods has ‘eliminated sex’ in preparation for the 2024 Masters
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19th Hole1 week agoTwo star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
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19th Hole7 days agoReport: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
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19th Hole1 week agoNeal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
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19th Hole6 days agoBrandel Chamblee has ‘no doubt’ who started the McIlroy/LIV rumor and why
John
Nov 17, 2014 at 7:26 pm
I frankly don’t think there is enough interest for one golf channel, much less two. I think perhaps half of golf channel might be about right. I want to PLAY golf not watch it, and I have barely the time to do that. I watch the Golf Channel most of the time when I am traveling, and there is nothing else to watch. Take the Golf channel, tournaments I have no real interest in and instructional shows that I don’t need or want. Perhaps on Masters week or US Open week I watch to get detail but that’s about it.
If they wanted to counter program, what might be of interest is classic stuff. Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf, old major tournament coverage of Nicklaus, Palmer, etc. The ’73 Open and Miller’s final round 63. Sort of a Golf History channel. That might work.
Back9 is swimming upstream covering a sport that is shrinking, not growing.
joe
Nov 17, 2014 at 2:28 pm
A most interesting article. Ihope they get on the web. Don’t forget “oldsters” love golf too!
James
Nov 17, 2014 at 12:50 pm
Maybe if they improve the instruction shows, show the old classic golf shows and then relate them to today as well, and get rid of the fluff, they will do great. Golf Channel has pretty much jumped the shark in my view.
milt turley
Nov 16, 2014 at 3:37 pm
There has to be a good alternative to the drivel of the golf channel! I find it unwatchable except for the tournaments which I mostly record for delayed viewing. If watching live, I mute the sound.
Mike Belkin
Nov 16, 2014 at 12:40 pm
Why would they try to just copy the Golf Channel? If they did that I don’t know how they could possibly succeed. They must be different I have to think.
Joker
Nov 16, 2014 at 3:06 am
What the Back9 Network should have done or should do more of in the future is purchase rights of all the historical footage and rare footage still unseen to this day and show them all from the beginning of time. I guarantee you that the purists would switch over from TGC if they knew some good golf from the 60’s is on, for example. We all know there’s still a ton of footage out there that hasn’t been seen in years
Mike Belkin
Nov 16, 2014 at 12:41 pm
Totally agree. Their ability to tell golf stories is crucial. Golf has so much history I think there is a lot of potential around this.
RD
Nov 16, 2014 at 6:19 pm
If the channel can survive that long. May be they have to pull the plug soon lol
don davis
Nov 16, 2014 at 1:39 am
good luck. I find myself watching less and less of the golf channel. I watch the tournaments with the sound off. The rest of the programming is usually pretty boring and hard to watch for long. They could all go belly up and I would still be out there every day trying to beat father par! It’s all fluff.
Mike Belkin
Nov 16, 2014 at 12:43 pm
Can’t disagree with you. But what could they to to not be “fluffy”?
Tip o'kneel
Nov 15, 2014 at 7:16 pm
I’d like to see these guys make it to cable. Frankly, I’m getting sick of the bozos on golf channel (except for DiMarco he’s a stud). How many times does Damon hack need to ask for a swing tip from a pro? The best tip they could give him is to relax and quit asking for advice.
And Gary Williams….this guy is the typical country club type that every 18 to 30 year old can’t stand. GC needs some competition for viewership. I’d like to see back9 give them a run!
Nick
Nov 15, 2014 at 6:36 am
Ahmad is the worst golf anchor in the history of golf anchors… Sinking ship with Ahmad as the anchor
gary m
Nov 15, 2014 at 1:44 pm
i totally agree….. he is a tiger woods homer !! i stopped watching the golf channel while he was on it. I can say i would never watch the back 9 network while he is on it.
On another note i love John Maginnes on satellite radio and would consider watching him on this network….
But Rashad ruins any network he is on…..terrible
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:21 pm
but if gets Tiger Woods than he gets Tiger Woods…
I doubt he can, however.
Oscar
Nov 15, 2014 at 3:52 am
The channel is a failure. Who the heck wants to watch famous, rich people get interviewed NOT playing golf? We’ve heard from them all, enough, with their scripted interviews of only the selected bits that they want us to see. A total waste of time.
gary m
Nov 15, 2014 at 1:52 pm
i agree with you as well…. there are way too many “crossover” athletes that think they can play high level golf and have to tell us all about it. That’s what happened on the morning drive for a while. True passionate golfers want the facts not all the b.s. and fluff. i dont care or need to know how many Ferrari’s Poulter has or about Phil selling his 6 million dollar house…. jealousy, maybe…whatever… it still isnt important to the purist.
Therefore i dont think there is room for multiple golf programming. At some point you run out of “golf related” stories to go around. We already get the morning drive replayed 2 to 4 times a day during the week.
Mike Belkin
Nov 16, 2014 at 12:44 pm
To each is own. You guys are definitely not the type of golfer they are pursuing. Nothing wrong with that, just a different target audience.
Bill
Nov 15, 2014 at 2:53 am
While some of the stuff on the network is a bit campy, but I like the show Golf Treasures where they show off all the cool golf memorabilia. Very cool to see stuff like this that the Golf Channel never had. The main problem with the network is that 75% of the time I turn it on it’s a repeat of something that’s already been on. I must have tuned into Rashad interviewing Bill Murray 100 times. It gets old REAL quick. Too many infomercials during regular viewing times as well. I think they need more content.
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:15 pm
They launched at a tough time as the golf season was coming to a close….I actually think they did that strategically to “soft launch” to get things out there and test the waters before the real golf season kicks in in April with Augusta. The question is how can they get people intrigued without a lot of golf “stuff” going on?
Robeli
Nov 14, 2014 at 10:52 pm
Flipped over to ch262 to gave a peek. Ehhh… why are the people so fat? O, not HD. Ehhh.. isn’t that SNL? I’m sure that looked like a skit from SNL. Switch back to ch218. Thanks, but no thanks.
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:16 pm
No HD is tough, definitely hard to be “legit” not in HD in this age.
Jeff
Nov 14, 2014 at 9:10 pm
It’s gonna be expensive to cover golf tournaments so they should focus on instruction, to grow their audience. Or to build a loyal one.
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:23 pm
I highly doubt Back9 will ever focus on instruction…it’s not in their DNA. They are all about the lifestyle. If you want golf instruction, watch the Golf Channel. Do you no think Golf Channel does a good job offering golf learning-based content?
Pat Robertson
Nov 14, 2014 at 9:08 pm
I want to like it because I want it to succeed. I want more golf programming options. The problem is I prefer golf to almost anything, preferably tournament golf. I’d rather watch the 10 year old junior state toureamer than almost any non golf show I’ve ever seen. What I’ve seen of the back9 network so far, apart from the Ahmad Rashad show, it’s pretty terrible. But if it could possibly lead to tournament coverage, or even “Live From” style major coverage, I’ll continue to be a supporter.
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:18 pm
I don’t think there is much demand out there for the type of niche tournament coverage you desire. Not that it’s not “interesting”, it’s just that I can’t see Back9 getting an “ROI” on sending a crew out to coverage niche championships. They are all about the lifestyle…for better or worse…
Mark
Nov 14, 2014 at 8:54 pm
How do you launch a TV Network in 2014 that is not in HD? The article does not even address this fairly important issue; would like to watch, can’t get passed the SD feed.
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:24 pm
I don’t have DirectTV….thanks for sharing this important point which I should have addressed.
Brad B
Nov 14, 2014 at 7:35 pm
Sounds like they’re aiming at the same audience Golf Digest is aiming at with its retooling ….
wonder whether Golf Digest will bring in more readers than it turns off.
Mike Belkin
Nov 14, 2014 at 8:44 pm
“Think young play hard” – is Digests’ slogan….definitely a similar audience but Golf Digest is more focused on “golf”
CT
Nov 14, 2014 at 6:50 pm
Ahmad is good friends with Tiger. Maybe he can work that for some exclusives. Give him a show, a series of interviews, or playing lessons, and the network will compete with Golf Channel.
Mike Belkin
Nov 14, 2014 at 8:44 pm
That would be enormous for the network however I highly doubt that they can pull it off
Dick
Nov 14, 2014 at 6:48 pm
I refuse to support anything with Shane Bacon. He makes the writers of GolfWrx look like New York Times best selling authors. His articles were simply dreadful
Mike Belkin
Nov 15, 2014 at 4:27 pm
Haven’t read much of his stuff, all I can say is that he seems like a great guy in person and seems to have his stuff together on air.
Tom D
Nov 14, 2014 at 5:04 pm
I was in golf publishing for about 20 years and witnessed the launch of many magazines and websites that focused primarily on lifestyle and/or tried to be edgy or cool. They pretty much all failed and the further away from the game they got (i.e., the more focused on lifestyle/being hip), the quicker and more precipitous the fall.
This is a totally different media and a different time, but I don’t give it much of a chance.
Mike Belkin
Nov 16, 2014 at 12:45 pm
It’s a very tall task. Not to say that it can’t be done, but a tall task.
JT
Nov 14, 2014 at 4:20 pm
Never come close–they are plain lousy!!
Pat
Nov 14, 2014 at 3:03 pm
This is going to fail miserably. Golf is a niche market and this network is concentrating on an even smaller more specific market. The only people that care about golf fashion are the upper to upper middle class which is a very small percentage of tv viewers. Also, most people could care less about Ahmad Rashad and his horrible interviews including myself. FAIL.
Mike Belkin
Nov 14, 2014 at 8:47 pm
While I”m not saying I believe that Back9Network will necessarily be around for the long haul, there are millions of “latent demand” golfers who want to play but are on the fence. Quality golf content leveraged on digital platforms (social, web, mobile) is the key.
The opportunity is large, bottom line.
Mike Honcho
Nov 14, 2014 at 2:00 pm
Strike 1: Not in HD. Strike 2: Some of the shows are trying to be too uber Fox Sports via staged, lame comedy, hipness and with some just downright bad writing. I’ve yet to find a show on there I will watch regularly. There’s absolutely no way I would ever watch The Turn with Shane Bacon on it. He was HORRIBLE when he wrote for Yahoo Golf and is one of the biggest Tiger apologist on the planet. Strike 3: ???? TBD, but at some point Ray Allen, Clint Eastwood, State of CT et al will be wanting some return on their investment.
Mike Belkin
Nov 14, 2014 at 3:10 pm
It’s a pure venture investment that will be a hit or not. I hope they succeed, it will take some time…..
Josh
Nov 14, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Ferrity?
Mike Belkin
Nov 14, 2014 at 3:12 pm
More importantly, who will be their “Holly”?