FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, May 21st, 2020

GOLF CHANNEL TO CELEBRATE NCAA GOLF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS WITH NEW AND ENCORE PROGRAMMING

Watch Along with Champions to Feature Enhanced Encores of Women’s, Men’s 2019 NCAA Championships with New Excerpts from Players/Coaches

GOLF on Campus Premieres Monday, May 25 on GOLF Channel’s YouTube; Wednesday, May 27 on GOLF Channel

Field Announced for 2020 East Lake Cup Collegiate Match Play Championship, Featuring Top-4 Ranked Women’s and Men’s Programs

ORLANDO, Fla., May 21, 2020 – GOLF Channel will celebrate college golf and the NCAA Women’s and Men’s Golf National Championships – originally scheduled to take place the next two weeks at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. – with enhanced encore tournament programming, the premiere of a new original series, GOLF on Campus, and interviews with coaches and players throughout the network’s linear and digital platforms.

NCAA WOMEN’S AND MEN’S GOLF CHAMPIONSHIPS ENCORES: GOLF Channel will re-air the drama and excitement of the 2019 NCAA Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships from The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Ark., Tuesday-Thursday the next two weeks (May 26-28, June 2-4), respectively. Coverage will feature the final three days of the championships, including the individual stroke play national championship and the team match play semifinals and finals.

Thursday’s coverage (May 28, June 4) will feature enhanced telecasts of both team match play championships – Watch Along with Champions presented by Stifel – featuring analysis and play-by-play commentary interspersed with head coaches and players from the reigning NCAA national champions: Duke (women) and Stanford (men). GOLF Channel college insider Steve Burkowski will host the enhanced telecasts. In addition, members of GOLF Channel’s NCAA tournament broadcast team as well as participants from both golf championships will engage on social media throughout the three days of tournament coverage using the hashtag #NCAAGolf.

The 2019 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships crowned an individual champion to then-Arkansas senior Maria Fassi – back-to-back ANNIKA Award presented by Stifel winner now competing on the LPGA Tour – who captured the title on her home golf course. In the team competition, Duke defeated Wake Forest to capture the program’s seventh national title.

The 2019 men’s individual champion, then-Oklahoma State sophomore Matthew Wolff captured the individual championship in his final collegiate event before turning professional. The 2019 Haskins Award presented by Stifel winner won PGA TOUR’s 3M Open in July, becoming only the third player in history to win the NCAA individual title and a PGA TOUR event in the same year, joining Tiger Woods and Ben Crenshaw. In the team competition, Stanford defeated Texas to clinch the program’s ninth title.

2019 NCAA Women’s Golf Championships Encore Airtimes (all times ET)
Tuesday, May 26 Individual National Championship 3-6 p.m. ET
Wednesday, May 27 Semifinals, Team Match Play 3-6 p.m. ET
*Thursday, May 28 Team National Championship 2-6 p.m. ET / 7-11 p.m. ET
*(Watch Along with Champions presented by Stifel: Duke coach Dan Brooks, players Ana Belac, Jaravee Boonchant and Miranda Wang).

2019 NCAA Men’s Golf Championships Encore Airtimes
Tuesday, June 2 Individual National Championship 3-6 p.m. ET
Wednesday, June 3 Semifinals, Team Match Play 3-6 p.m. ET
*Thursday, June 4 Team National Championship 2-6 p.m. ET / 7-11 p.m. ET
*(Watch Along with Champions presented by Stifel: Stanford coach Conrad Ray, players Isaiah Salinda, Henry Shimp and Brandon Wu).

‘GOLF ON CAMPUS’ PREMIERES MAY 25: GOLF Channel analyst Amanda Blumenherst will give viewers an all-access look into several of the top women’s and men’s college golf programs in the country on a new original series, GOLF on Campus presented by Golf Pride MCC Teams. The series will launch on GOLF Channel’s YouTube on Monday, May 25, with a half-hour special premiering on GOLF Channel Wednesday, May 27 at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. ET. Five programs will be featured in the series: Arizona State (women and men), Arizona (women), Pepperdine (men) and San Diego State (men). Blumenherst, former three-time National Player of the Year and All-American at Duke, visited the campuses in early 2020 while college golf was still in full swing to give viewers a glimpse into the future stars of the game, as well as life on campus.

Individual features from each program also will post online on GOLF Channel’s YouTube:
Monday, May 25: Arizona State (women)
Wednesday, May 27: Arizona (women)
Friday, May 29: San Diego State (men)
Monday, June 1: Arizona State (men)
Wednesday, June 3: Pepperdine (men)

FIELD ANNOUNCED FOR 2020 EAST LAKE CUP IN OCTOBER: The 2020 East Lake Cup presented by ZipRecruiter and Uber collegiate match play championship, taking place Monday-Wednesday, Oct. 26-28 at historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, will feature the top-four ranked women’s and men’s golf programs as of the final Golfstat rankings published on March 19.

Women: Wake Forest (1), Texas (2), Arizona State (3), University of Southern California (4).
Men: Pepperdine (1), Oklahoma (2), Texas Tech (3), Texas (4).

The East Lake Cup tournament format is modeled after the NCAA Golf Championships, consisting of an opening round of stroke play to crown an individual male and female champion and to determine seeding for the following two days of match play. GOLF Channel will air live coverage of all three days of the competition.

The East Lake Cup benefits the East Lake Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to helping families build better lives and children reach their highest potential through its holistic approach to community revitalization incorporating mixed-income housing, cradle-to-college education and community wellness. The East Lake Cup is one of the largest contributors to the East Lake Foundation, having raised more than $1.5 million for the East Lake Foundation since the tournament’s inception in 2015.

COLLEGE GOLF TALK PODCASTS: GOLF Channel college insiders Steve Burkowski and Brentley Romine will host special podcast episodes on the NCAA Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships. They will be joined by fellow college golf writers to discuss their picks on teams that had the best chances of advancing to team match play and, ultimately, winning the 2020 national championships. GOLF Channel podcasts are available for listening on GOLF Channel Digital as well as on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify and Art19 and other podcast providers.

The women’s golf championships podcast edition will premiere Wednesday, May 27. Golfweek’s Julie Williams and Golf Digest’s Ryan Herrington will join Burkowski and Romine. The following Wednesday, June 3, will feature the men’s golf championships podcast. Golfweek’s Lance Ringler and The Fried Egg’s Will Knights will join Burkowski and Romine.

GOLF CHANNEL SOCIAL HIGHLIGHTS TOP NCAA MOMENTS: Beginning Monday, May 25, GOLF Channel’s social media handles will unveil several of the top NCAA Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships moments over the years by spotlighting one team or individual each day during the next two weeks across all social platforms. Past NCAA champions also are scheduled to participate in Instagram Live activations via @GolfChannel Instagram.

COLLEGE GOLF ON GOLFPASS: College golf fans will be able to dive deeper into college golf via GOLFPASS, the digital golf membership co-founded by global golf superstar Rory McIlroy and NBC Sports. Featured college golf programming available exclusively to GOLFPASS members includes:

2016-19 Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships
2016-19 NCAA Golf Championships
Driven – Full episodes from the two seasons of Driven, executive produced by Rickie Fowler
Driven – Season 1 and 2
My Daily Routine – Texas’ Cole Hammer
My Daily Routine is a GOLFPASS Original series where top golfers, athletes, entertainers and acclaimed business professionals explain what they do each day to keep them sharp.

GOLF Channel is the television home for college golf, televising five college golf championships. Following its announcement in 2013 as the exclusive television provider of the NCAA Golf Championships, GOLF Channel has provided live coverage of the men’s NCAA championships since 2014 and the women’s NCAA championships since 2015, which now are hosted at the same venue in consecutive weeks in May. The 2021 NCAA Women’s and Men’s Golf Championships will take place at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz.

GOLF Channel also televises the Western Intercollegiate presented by Topgolf, one of the longest running college tournaments in the U.S. taking place at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif; the Maridoe Collegiate Invitational at Maridoe Golf Club in Texas and the East Lake Cup collegiate match play championship at historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. In addition, GOLF Channel deploys its comprehensive portfolio of news, digital and social media coverage year-round in covering collegiate golf, including specials for regional and national qualifying, on-site and wraparound news from golf’s biggest college events, and year-end award shows for the Haskins and ANNIKA Awards presented by Stifel.

-NBC Sports Group-