5 Notable Changes to CBS Golf TV Broadcasts in 2026

You didn’t have to be a particularly experienced TV viewer to notice the most significant shift in CBS Golf standings during the network’s coverage of the PGA Tour’s “West Coast Swing” – but you did have to be a persistent An.

The most notable change of the 2026 golf season for CBS arrived late Sunday night at Pebble Beach, after winner Collin Morikawa disappeared into the bliss of his first victory on American soil in nearly five years — and after Morikawa’s caddy Matt Urbanek disappeared into the night with the 18th hole flag at Pebble Beach. It arrived 50 yards off the side of the 18th fairway, along a bluff and onto a beach overlooking a steadily rising tide.

The name of the crew was Johnson Wagner, CBS Golf’s newest course reporter, who had arrived to reprise his role as golf’s preeminent stunt double. And as he watched the shot from the side of 18 that had delayed the end of the golf tournament by more than twenty minutes, the high-speed hum of the CBS Golf broadcast hung in a vacuum of anticipatory silence.

With a 50-degree wedge pulled from his bag, Wagner planted his feet, tightened his grip and swung. And with That swing, we begin our look at the biggest changes at CBS in 2026 – starting with the man whose on-course exploits have taken on a new tune…

5 notable CBS Golf changes in 2026

5.Johnson Wagner

Wagner’s addition to the CBS Golf team is actually much bigger than the on-course shenanigans, though he earned quite a reputation among those during his time at Golf Channel and NBC. In his day job at CBS, Wagner will be the network’s third “walking reporter,” following top walkers Dottie Pepper and Mark Immelman. But he’ll earn extra money by doing the kind of segments that have become a staple of golf in recent years: drawing on his experience as a professional golfer for more than two decades to recreate the biggest shots and moments of the day itself, giving fans a deeper understanding of their difficulty and nuance.

Wagner and CBS are still figuring out the details of those segments and how they fit into the network’s broadcasts, but they’ve already provided plenty of entertainment. (For example, after hitting his shot from the beach, Wagner was given thirty seconds to climb the rocks at Pebble Beach before CBS went on a break. He made it safely with five seconds to spare.)

As the new season progresses, expect Wagner’s role to expand to the same extent.

4. Colt Knost goes up

Colt Knost’s promotion to a spot in the CBS “supertower” got Wagner hired at CBS – a promotion yourself caused by the retirement of veteran analyst Ian Baker-Finch from the CBS booth after more than twenty years on TV.

Knost got the call to the bullpen to fill Baker-Finch’s seat, and while there is no replacement for Baker-Finch’s role on the CBS broadcast, Knost has already put some of his own spin on the position. He will play a crucial role for CBS, alongside fellow analysts Frank Nobilo and Trevor Immelman, and alongside play-by-play man Jim Nantz.

3. New drones!

The PGA Tour and CBS earned an Emmy last year for the latest expansion in drone camera work, a new technology called “Drone AR.” The new drone added a shot tracer to CBS’ existing drone complement, allowing the network to present tee and approach shots in a three-dimensional axis. It was immediately popular and was soon followed by shot tracer odds rules, which relied on the Tour’s extensive ShotLink database to predict the outcome of a tee shot (green for good, red for bad!).

In 2026, these animations will receive another upgrade, with analyzes added to the Drone AR that help explain player trends, course strategy and shot intent. If you looked at Pebble Beach, you’d see the first examples of these upgrades in action – although more are expected over the course of the 2026 season (on every network broadcast of the Tour).

2. B-2 Broadcast images

If you looked closely, you may have seen the Gulf version of the B-2 bomber flying over the skies of Pebble Beach, Phoenix or Riviera in recent weeks.

No, not one factual B-2 (although that would be sick, no doubt) – but rather the PGA Tour’s new “Weather Applied Metrics,” which help visualize the impact of changing weather conditions by converting the invisible forces of airflow into fully visible, computer-generated graphics.

We have seen versions of the “Weather Applied Metrics” used in Tour broadcasts in the past, most notably around the 17th tee box of the Players Championship. But this new version of the technology is more robust and comprehensive than previous iterations, showing changes in wind, temperature and humidity to help viewers understand the changes each week.

1. A new schedule

Golf fans have witnessed the Tour’s changing schedule up close in 2026, with the late cancellation of The Sentry in Maui and the return of the Cadillac Championship at Doral as part of the Florida Swing in March.

These changes have had downstream consequences for the Tour’s broadcasters, who have adjusted their 2026 television schedules to accommodate the shifts. First, CBS will market Doral’s Cadillac and host a tournament at a location where the network has a half-century of broadcast history. In exchange for that addition (and NBC’s loss of the Sentry), CBS will trade the Travelers Championship for NBC, which evened out the Tour’s regular-season schedule.

There’s also a change to the PGA Tour’s postseason broadcast schedule. As part of the Tour’s annual broadcast rights cadence, CBS will pick up this year’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, with coverage continuing through the Tour Championship in late August.