In 1982, innovative cable coverage of the major championships began, as ESPN aired three of men's golf's four majors for many years, the most distinctive feature being Thursday and Friday afternoon "Happy Hour" themed U.S. Open coverage anchored by Chris Berman.
[2] From 1991 through 2006, ESPN aired the PGA Tour Championship in conjunction with ABC, a fact depicted in the 1996 smash hit golf film Happy Gilmore.
This coverage is co-produced by CBS Sports as part of its presentation of the event, and largely features its personalities, joined by an ESPN studio host (initially Mike Tirico before his departure for NBC, and later Scott Van Pelt).
Alliss began to only appear as a guest at the Open Championship, still for one hour per day, and still working as Van Pelt's analyst.
The network traded its Friday rights to the 2014 event back to NBC for additional Premier League highlights.
NBC then signed a rights deal covering the 2016–2030 editions of the event, ending ESPN's chances of a comeback.
Weiskopf was moved to a position in which he would appear once during the telecast to discuss the architecture of the course and how it would affect play, as he is a noted course designer.
From 2008 to 2014, guest analysts were used during the Open Championship, in various roles, usually for a few hours each day scheduled around their own play in the event.
The 2015 Open Championship was the final event covered by the core ESPN/ABC announcer team in place since the 1990s, nine years after first losing rights to the PGA Tour.
In October 2018, it was announced that early-round and weekend morning coverage of the PGA Championship would move from TNT to ESPN beginning 2020, with ESPN+ holding rights to stream supplemental coverage prior to ESPN's broadcast window, and during CBS weekend windows.
[7] For the 2022 PGA Championship, ESPN announced that it would air a secondary broadcast modeled after its Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli broadcasts for Monday Night Football, which will feature ESPN's new lead NFL commentator Joe Buck (in his first on-air appearance at ESPN after leaving Fox—where he had also briefly served as a golf commentator), ESPN golf analyst Michael Collins, and various celebrity guests (such as Buck's NFL partner Troy Aikman, Fred Couples, Ken Griffey Jr., J. J. Watt, and Peyton and Eli Manning—who will produce the broadcast, among others).
[12] In 2024, ESPN was praised[13] for their breaking news coverage of Scottie Scheffler's arrest at the 2024 PGA Championship.