For the last years during which I refrained from paying pathetically high subscription fees for Sky, I paid from time to time a week ticket for Sky Ticket, which is basically the stripped-down version of Sky for those who want to pay-per-view.

It was easy to do, easy to use and I bought such week ticket usually for the bigger tournaments such as majors, when I thought I had time to sit down and watch some golf. That’s not given during the day with a 2-year old toddler which is supposed to only watch one episode of Peppa Pig a day.

I seriously dislike Sky for all what they are doing, for their price policy, their stupid apps and all business decisions they take. In 2019 however, as an infrequent Sky Ticket user, I was offered a multi-month subscription free of charge. ‘Why’ you will ask would they do that. Well it’s the football break in Europe that time and I reckon they fired out free subscriptions as a Marketing gig. If they’d be smart enough they would have checked that I never watched a single football match and sticked to golf only.

Clearly I didn’t complain and was able to watch the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and The Open Championship for no charge at all.

After that period I dropped out of Sky Ticket again and was kind of relieved to be honest, even tough I had no chance to watch golf anymore.

Then I finally found golf’s broadcasting holy grail and since then love every minute of that experience. Let me explain why.

Quite a while ago I stumbled over GOLF TV, by then a beta test golf TV website without any content. An empty site with just some information and the announcement to show both US and European tours at some point.

Couple of months ago I checked back and indeed the website was in full flesh and featured tons of content. Clearly the most part is not for free, but you are able to see what subscribers are able to watch with the plan they choose. Somehow it’s still in beta mode but there’s nothing that disturbs the golf experience whatsoever.

What I really love about GOLF TV:

• You are able to watch all the good stuff: European Tour, Challenge Tour, Staysure Tour, PGA Tour, Korn Ferry Tour, Champions Tour, player profiles, warm-up sessions, Presidents Cup, Solheim Cup, Skratch TV, round recaps, Tiger’s My Game, WGCs, Ladies Tours, … and much much more. You can watch golf all day without watching a swing twice.
• They are mobile focussed. That means you can watch GOLF TV on your computer, on the tablet, the phone or where you want it. My big living room TV currently doesn’t offer a GOLF TV smart app yet but I’m sure that’s in the making. All apps are super easy to use and a fresh breeze when you have been a Sky subscriber in the past.
• The killer functionality is the on-demand function. Contrary to Sky, with GOLF TV you click on a live event and you get asked if you prefer watch it live or from the beginning. Also you can watch a full golf day coverage from the afternoon just hours later in the night. That’s perfect for me. Our daughter goes to bed and I watch European golf from earlier in the day. Love it!
• Talking prices. The cost for a monthly or even the yearly subscription is extremely fair. I pay around 50€ for one full year of golf, live content and on-demand. There is a Pro Pass available too, and that’s for even more extended content.

So from a content, technology and price perspective this is unbeatable. Plus, now I can integrate golf much easier into family life, which is important, too. I play golf on the weekends, I don’t want to get home from the course and switch on the telly again to see a tournament I’m interested in. Now I can have family time and watch it at night. The wifey is happy too, I suppose. All boxes ticked.

In other words, if you are interested in golf and the pro tours and just avoided the heavy cost for carriers such as Sky who also finance their football, formula one and other sports, GOLF TV is your thing. I can easily recommend it.

One side note on the US tours, mainly the PGA Tour in that regard. GOLF TV is a service collaboration between the official PGA Tour and the Discovery Channel. Due to some broadcast rights that are negotiated per country, it is actually depending on where you live in order to determine what you will be able to see. In my case for Germany for instance, the PGA Tour with all live and on-demand content will only hit the service by January 2021. Until then it’s featured holes, featured groups and specific content only to see on the PGA Tour. The rest however is fully available. That could be different for your country so it’s worthwhile to check this. As I’m more interested in the European Tour anyway, it’s all OK for me.

Happy watching!