Golf Channel to give viewers Presidents Cup coverage in bulk

If you like your TV golf coverage in quantity -- and we mean really like it in quantity -- you'll be excited with what NBC and Golf Channel have planned for the Presidents Cup. The two networks -- now part of the same company because of Comcast's merger with NBC -- will show more than 50 hours of coverage of the team competition between the United States and the Internationals, to be played Nov. 17-20 at Royal Melbourne GC in Australia.

Because of the 16-hour time difference between the U.S. and Australia, the two networks will essentially show each session of the matches twice: live overnight on Golf Channel, and then tape-delayed the next day on either Golf Channel or NBC. For example, the Presidents Cup's first session, a Thursday foursomes (which actually starts Wednesday evening in the U.S. because of the time difference), will be shown live on Golf Channel starting at 9 p.m. EST Wednesday, Nov. 16, until its conclusion, around 2 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 17. Golf Channel will then re-air the session on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. EST.

"The Presidents Cup is one of golf's preeminent events and I'm pleased that we're able to service the golf fans with live coverage of all four rounds on Golf Channel despite the significant time difference," NBC Sports group chairman Mark Lazarus said.

--* Geoff Russell