It’s the start of a brand-new golf season — and that includes the folks responsible for bringing golf television to life.
The new golf year has birthed no shortage of developments in the golf world, but one of the most notable has arrived each morning on Golf Channel, where a brand-new studio show has entered the network’s early morning airwaves: 5 Clubs.
If the name sounds familiar to you … it should! “5 Clubs” is the name of both the new studio show and the production company that owns it — a show that has run for several years in other forms on YouTube and SiriusXM. Gary Williams is the longtime host of the show, a veteran sports TV man whose resume includes a lengthy stint as the morning studio host on … Golf Channel!
To state it slightly more plainly: Yes, Williams is back in the fold at Golf Channel in ’25 after leaving the network in 2020 at the end of his longtime morning show, Morning Drive. His new role will look … a lot like his old one, bringing golf news and insight to the viewers of the sport’s dedicated cable network for a few hours every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. This time, though, Williams will also serve as executive producer of the show, which will be produced off-site from the network’s Stamford HQ.
5 Clubs marks the latest in a growing trend of studio shows purchased as turnkey production assets by cable networks. While Golf Channel’s arrangement isn’t nearly as all-encompassing as ESPN’s deal with Pat McAfee, the two agreements share the same kind of DNA in this way.
“It started with a phone call two weeks after the Masters with Tom Knapp (the EVP of programming at Golf Channel),” Williams said in an interview with Awful Announcing. “He said, ‘Look, let me just say this. And you can stop me and say not interested. But what would you think about 5 Clubs being the morning show on Golf Channel in January of 2025?’ I felt like saying, ‘Why did you think my reaction would be anything other than excitement and enthusiasm?’ Which it obviously was.”
Though Williams maintains a say in the editorial shape and voice of the show, he said he is leaning on Golf Channel’s editorial expertise, particularly Knapp and Golf Channel executive producer Matt Hegarty, to bring color and texture to the show.
“I don’t want them to feel like they’re looking at us like we’re some satellite on an island operating with autonomy, which we are,” Williams said .”I am the executive producer of the show, but I want collaboration. I have great respect for the people who have run the programming side plus the player relation side. My communication with them will be constant.”
Of course, it is odd for Williams to be back at Golf Channel after so much of his career was spent on the frontlines, and so much of the last half-decade appeared to send the two sides in opposite directions.
But sometimes you have to look back to move forward.
And if you’re the Golf Channel, sometimes looking back is the easiest thing to do.
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