For many years golf fans have enjoyed watching the greatest golf events on the planet live on the BBC - this year - for the first time - there will be no live golf on free-to-air television
Get The Masters And The Open Back On Free To Air TV – Sign Our Petition
For many years golf fans have enjoyed watching the greatest golf events on the planet live on the BBC – these include The Masters and The Open – for the first time in 2020 there will be no live coverage of Major golf events on any free-to-air television channel.
The loss of the sport from our screens could mean the loss of generations of golf supporters.
Putting all live golf coverage behind a paywall means that the sport is being lost to those that cannot afford to pay for a subscription. While it also fails to capitalise on the huge numbers of people who enjoy the game.
Martin Slumbers, the Chief Exec of the R&A, recently stated that 10.2 million people played golf each year in the UK – yet this huge group must now pay extra to watch their heroes compete in the biggest events.
Some of the pay to view television broadcasters do a fantastic job in providing weekly coverage of all the best golf events on the European and PGA Tours and that is certainly something that we don’t think needs to change.
However the greatest sporting memories come from the greatest sporting events and that includes the US Masters – and the bewitching fairways of Augusta – and The Open Championship –where golfers must battle the elements on historic courses.
Losing these two events from free-to-air terrestrial television means that a generation of golfers could miss out on the chance to pick up on the game.
We have started this petition to help these Major events – The Masters and The Open – to become Category A free-to-air and therefore they must be shown live on free-to-air terrestrial television.
Some events that are already Category A include:
FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championship, FA Cup Final, Grand National, Epsom Derby, Chalenge Cup Final, Rugby Union World Cup Final, Wimbledon Championship Finals and Olympics.
(Category A events are events which must have live coverage made available to free-to-air channels, although pay television networks may share live coverage)
We have no doubt that The Masters and The Open deserve to be on this list.
The loss of live coverage of these Majors, and the inspiration that it gave to those that watched, means that golf will forever lose generations of future stars. Please support our campaign and sign the petition.