How to Watch Golf Events

The future of Golf in the U.S. might be on shaky ground with the confusing feud (or perhaps partnership?) between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. But one thing remains true: the fans just want to watch their favorite golfers on the green.

We’ll go over all of the best ways to watch live golf in the U.S. with or without a cable subscription. There’s even a free way to watch a lot of premier PGA Tour events.

Unfortunately, there’s no hole in one when it comes to golf broadcasters in the U.S. PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, and LIV Golf content is split between multiple different channels. These channels often change their lineup, trading the rights to air big tournaments with each other.

Here’s how the basic lineup stands for the 2023–2024 season.

The Golf Channel offers exactly what you’d think it does: golf coverage. A lot of golf coverage. It has the rights to broadcast the early rounds of the PGA Tour and to rebroadcast the major tournaments at prime time (after they air during the day on major networks like CBS).

The Golf Channel also covers the LPGA Tour, Asian Tour, and European Tour. Plus, you can watch golf-related shows like School of Golf, Golf Central, and Golf Today, and highlight reels of classic games and tournament moments.

The Golf Channel is sometimes called NBC Golf because it is owned by NBC. In fact, a lot of Golf Channel coverage is migrating over to the main NBC Sports coverage.

NBC owns the Golf Channel, but it also airs its own network coverage of major PGA Tour events. Right now, the channel has rights to broadcast several major events, including the The Open Championship, the Honda Classic, and The Players Championship.

NBC also alternates with CBS in airing FedEx Cup playoff tournaments like the St. Jude Championship and the Tour Championship.

CBS is home to a lot of the PGA Tour’s major tournaments, including The Masters, Farmers Insurance Open, John Deere Classic, the PGA Championship, and many more. It also covers some LPGA events, like the CP Women’s Open and the Cognizant Founders Cup.

The USA Network took a long break from covering golf, but it returned in 2022 with some limited event coverage. You can catch all of NBC’s early round coverage of the U.S. Open, the Open Championship, and the women’s counterparts to these events on USA Network.

ESPN may be the home of a lot of major sports content, but it isn’t really a major player in golf. That said, it does have coverage of the first two rounds of the Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship.

However, the ESPN+ app, which is different from the ESPN cable channel, does offer a lot of golf content, including live coverage of 35 tournaments. (We’ll talk more about ESPN+ below.)

That pretty much covers all of the major channels that broadcast golf in the states. Now the question is: how do you actually watch those channels when the game is on? Here are the best ways to get access to all of the top golf channels without overpaying.

There are several ways to get access to all of the PGA Tour channels. You can sign up for a cable package from DIRECTV or you can pay for Hulu + Live TV. But we think you get the most bang for your buck by going with fuboTV. 

With fuboTV, you’ll get all of the channels that stream the PGA tour: NBC, CBS, ESPN, USA Network, and the Golf Channel. That means you can easily tune in to NBC’s live coverage of the Masters Tournament, for example, or you can choose to catch it when it airs during prime time on ESPN.

The Golf Channel gives you access to plenty of smaller early-season tournaments, LPGA streams, and golf news shows like Golf Today. You’ll also get plenty of other great channels, like Comedy Central, FX, and National Geographic.

If you’re a LIV Golf fan, you can also tune in to The CW’s coverage of the new league’s events with fuboTV.

fuboTV offers two different pricing tiers, Pro and Elite. There’s also a Latino plan with lots of Spanish-language content, including ESPN Deportes. Both of the English language plans come with the PGA Tour channels listed above.

At $79.99 a month, fuboTV’s Pro plan might not seem like the best deal out there. But consider what you’re getting: over 190 premier TV channels, including every single broadcaster of PGA Tour content. Compared to cable or satellite prices, that’s actually a great deal.

Hulu + Live TV has everything that a golf fan needs. You get all of the standard channels that air PGA Tour content, like NBC, CBS, and USA Network, but you also can get an ESPN+ add-on that gives you exclusive live feeds for over 35 different PGA Tour events.

With Hulu + Live TV you will obviously get the big PGA Tour broadcasters: NBC, CBS, ESPN, USA Network, and the Golf Channel. You will also get CW, which means you can catch LIV Golf content.

Hulu + Live TV you also gets you an ESPN+ subscription, which has a lot of great golf content, including exclusive camera streams for over 35 events.

The ESPN and ESPN+ channels you get with Hulu + Live TV will have over 230 hours of live play to broadcast this year. You can round that out with 44 official PGA Championship films on ESPN+ and alternate telecasts that will run at the same time as the major network broadcasts.

All of this makes Hulu + Live TV the obvious choice for die-hard golf fans.

Hulu has several packages available for different combinations of services. If you want to get the whole golf package (with ESPN+), you’ll need to pay at least $76.99 a month.

With the ESPN+’s mid-tier package, you’ll get great premier channels like CNN, Food Network, FX, and Cartoon Network. Plus, you’ll get a Disney+ subscription so you can binge Marvel shows, Pixar movies, and Disney animated classics.

NBC Sports is one of the major players in casting the biggest PGA Tour events. The best way to get access to NBC without a cable subscription is with the Peacock streaming platform.

If you don’t need to catch every single golf event, then getting NBC Sports through Peacock might be the perfect mix of affordability and content.

NBC will be covering a lot of the U.S. Open in 2023. It also has rights to air other major tournaments, like the LPGA Tour Meijer, the Open Championship, the Honda Classic, and The Players Championship.

One of the best things about golf on Peacock is the price: you can get a Peacock subscription for as little as $5.99 a month. Even the highest tier plan costs just $11.99.

Besides live golf coverage, Peacock has an amazing slate of classic television shows and new originals, including: The Office, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, and Poker Face. 

Believe it or not, there is still a completely free and subscription-less way to watch TV. Yes, you can watch major golf tournaments like the Masters and the U.S. Open without signing up for a cable contract or paying a monthly build.

How, you ask? With a good ol’ fashioned antenna attached to your TV. Just find your local CBS and NBC affiliates and watch Rory McIlroy, Ayaka Furue, and all of your other favorite players as they tee off.

Golf fans can enjoy three main channels with an HD antenna: NBC, CBS, and CW. Between NBC and CBS, viewers will get live coverage of most of the major PGA tournaments, including: The U.S. Open, the Masters Tournament, CP Women’s Open, the Honda Classic, The Players Championship, and many others.

With access to The CW, fans get access to all the LIV Golf major tournaments.

You can buy an indoor HD TV antenna for under $30 and install it in your home easily. Just follow the simple instructions to connect the antenna to your TV, then place the receiver near a window.

You’ll get more than just live golf coverage with the antenna. Local network affiliates will air nightly news and great sitcoms, like The Simpsons, Abbott Elementary, and Ghosts.

That just about covers everything. Hopefully you’ve got a good idea of how to watch golf, whether you're a cable subscriber, a cord-cutting streamer, or someone who still uses an antenna to get free TV.

Here’s a quick recap for those who are still making up their minds.

• fuboTV: Best value. We think the best way to catch all of the major PGA tour events and LIV Golf tournaments is with an affordable fuboTV subscription.
• Hulu + Live TV: Best for serious golf fans. For those who want all of the major golf events and more, there is Hulu + Live TV. With this subscription, you get the main network streams of major tournaments, plus exclusive ESPN+ coverage.
• Peacock: Best for NBC live coverage. Just $6 a month will get you a subscription to Peacock, which has all of NBC’s live coverage of major PGA and LPGA events.
• TV antenna: Best free option. With a digital antenna hooked up to your TV, you can stream NBC, CBS, and CW golf coverage for free without a single subscription.