If you’re watching professional golf on ESPN, it’s impossible to miss Scott Van Pelt.
Next week, he’ll be back leading first- and second-round coverage of the PGA Championship, which will cap off his busiest year in golf for the network yet.
Along with annual Masters coverage, ESPN this year added TGL, the indoor golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, which Van Pelt hosted.
“Massive” is how important Van Pelt said golf is for his broadcasting career, which included a stint at Golf Channel in the 1990s. Since joining ESPN in 2001, the longtime SportsCenter anchor has been involved in every version of the network’s major championship coverage.
It’s still the majors that keep Van Pelt’s attention, despite TGL being “a fun little bit through the winter,” he said.
“I’ve been really fortunate in my life, whether it’s Augusta, U.S. Open, Open Championship, or PGA, at different times in my life, the networks I’ve worked with have had some role with it,” Van Pelt said on ESPN’s preview call ahead of next week’s PGA Championship. “So to get to do it is something that will always matter to me.”
The USGA’s media rights deal with NBC is expiring at the end of 2026, meaning the governing body is on the market for its next contract around the U.S. Open, which ESPN’s sister network ABC aired from 1966 to 1994. ESPN also held rights to the U.S. Open’s first and second rounds every year from 1982-2014
Could Van Pelt be adding even more golf duties? “Whatever majors we have moving forward, I hope that I have some spot in the rotation to be part of it,” he said.
Golf will always be on Van Pelt’s plate if he has it his way. “I’m always going to have an appetite to do it, and hopefully I can do it well enough that they want me to continue to do it,” he said.
