The seeds of The Golf Channel were planted in a chance meeting between Arnold Palmer and cable television entrepreneur Joe Gibbs.
It was at the 1990 PGA Championship at Shoal Creek in Birmingham, Ala., where Gibbs made his guest house available to the PGA of America to host a player. The guests turned out to be Arnold Palmer and his wife Winnie.
“It so happened that Arnold stayed there by chance and we became friends,” Gibbs said. “He invited me to come to Florida to play golf. Fast forward, I started thinking about cable systems. I did some research, and in 1991, I called him and said I had an idea.”
Palmer flew to Birmingham, and while discussing the idea of a golf channel with Gibbs, Palmer made a call.
“He said he knew someone who could help and he called Mark McCormack and then he set up an appointment,” Gibbs said. “He said, ‘Go talk to Mark, but be careful.’ With that warning, I ended up hiring IMG. They knew golf and I knew cable.”
With IMG in on the idea, Gibbs offered Palmer the opportunity to be a co-founder with one provision. He had to reimburse Gibbs for half of the money he had already spent. In return, Palmer would get half the stock in the company. But Palmer, who Gibbs said preferred to use his name and not his cash to get in on the deal, hesitated.
Two days after Gibbs made the offer, Palmer called from his plane.
“He called and said, ‘Where do you want me to wire the money?’”
But getting the network up and running would take another few years as Gibbs worked to raise $100 million.
“We finally got to the point where we launched in 1995.” Gibbs said. “I made him chairman and I was vice chairman. He never missed a board meeting and he was very dedicated to it and extremely supportive.”
While Gibbs ran the day-to-day operations, Palmer was always willing to help.
“We never had a cross word between us,” Gibbs said. “He never said, ‘Joe, do it this way.’ He would never tell me how to run it. He would just give his opinion.”
Five years after the launch, Comcast bought majority interest in The Golf Channel, with Comcast’s 54.7 percent stake valued at $369 million, resulting in a generous payout for both Gibbs and Palmer. In 2011, the network became part of NBC Sports after Comcast bought NBC.
Still, Palmer’s heritage was embraced under the new regime.
“Arnold had sold, but he was still founder,” said Mike McCarley, president of the Golf Channel since 2011. “He was emotionally connected to the channel. There was a lot of interaction.”
