Golf Channel adding live college event, looking for more

Golf Channel LOS ANGELES — is interested in live programming from Monday to Wednesday, and the answer might be found in college tournaments. It is adding another prestigious event this year, and more could be on the way.

“We’re trying to grow appropriately,” Tom Knapp, executive vice president of programming and partnerships, said last week at Pebble Beach when Golf Channel announced plans to televise the Western Intercollegiate. “Somewhere in the 10-to-12 range feels right as a long-term goal.”

Golf Channel already has the East Lake Cup in the fall, along with the NCAA men’s and women’s championships in May, which has made for compelling television with eight finalists competing in team match play.

The Western Intercollegiate is next.

The 54-hole stroke play event is entering its 73rd year and is held at storied Pasatiempo, an Alister MacKenzie design in Santa Cruz, California. It will be televised live from April 15-17, the Monday through Wednesday right after the Masters.

Getting televised live will only add to the prestige of what already is one of the premier college events in the spring.

The trick is figuring out what else would fit.

“We learned a lot when we started doing this,” Knapp said. “Thirty percent of sports fans are golf fans, and 60 percent of sports fans are college fans. To be able to combine those is huge for us.”

Tiger’s assistants

What would a Presidents Cup be without Fred Couples involved? Go back to 2007 to find the last time Couples was not part of the matches.

U.S. captain Tiger Woods appointed the 59-year-old Couples to be an assistant at Royal Melbourne in December. Couples remains one of the most popular figures in golf with players and fans. He was Presidents Cup captain in 2009, 2011 and 2013, and an assistant the last two times.