Golf — Where to Watch

Golf has an unusually clean structure compared with football, and one that is easy to explain. There are four men’s majors, each owned and sold by its own organising body, plus two professional tours: the PGA Tour in the United States and the DP World Tour in Europe. On top of that sits the Ryder Cup, which belongs to neither tour and is negotiated separately, and LIV Golf, which is a closed invitational series rather than an open tour.

The practical consequence is that a golf fan usually needs two subscriptions rather than one, and that the four majors are four different deals even within a single country.

Country	Who shows it	Free option
UK	Sky Sports carries the Masters, the PGA Championship, the US Open and the Open Championship live. It also holds the Open to 2028.	BBC has daily highlights of the Open, contracted to 2027. It is highlights only — there is no free live coverage of any major in the UK.
Ireland	The same Sky Sports coverage as the UK.	As the UK: Open highlights on the BBC, which is receivable in Ireland but geo-blocked on iPlayer.
US	ESPN and the Golf Channel carry the PGA Tour; GolfPass is the dedicated streaming product. The majors sit with a mix of ESPN, CBS and NBC, and we would treat the exact 2026 split as needing verification.	Some major coverage airs on CBS and NBC, which are broadcast networks and therefore free over the air with an antenna.
Canada	TSN Standard includes the golf majors among its rights.	None confirmed.
Germany & Austria	Sky, through WOW, carries the majors and the LIV Golf League.	None confirmed.
Spain	DAZN carries golf alongside its football and motorsport rights.	DAZN’s free tier is available in Spain, though its golf content is limited.
South Africa	SuperSport carries the majors on its Premium tier.	None confirmed.
India	FanCode carries selected golf, including the Presidents Cup.	None confirmed.
Worldwide	LIV Golf is carried on DAZN in around 200 territories, which makes it the one golf product with a genuinely global streaming home.	Selected LIV content appears on the DAZN free tier in some markets.

Can you watch it free?

Very little, and the most common error on other sites concerns exactly this point. The BBC does cover the Open Championship — but it shows daily highlights, not live golf, and the arrangement runs to 2027. Several guides present this as free live coverage of the Open, which it is not.

Beyond that, the free routes are narrow. In the United States, some major coverage airs on CBS and NBC, both of which are broadcast networks that can be received free over the air with an antenna — but which specific rounds and which years they cover is something we were not able to confirm, so treat it as unverified. In the UK, there is no free live golf of any consequence.

Highlights are not a live stream. The BBC’s Open deal is a highlights package with an end date of 2027. If a page offers you “the Open free on BBC iPlayer”, it is describing the highlights programme, and you will not see a shot struck live.

The cheapest legal route

UK, majors only. Sky Sports, unfortunately the only route. A NOW day pass at £14.99 covers a single day of a tournament, which is often enough.
UK, the Open only. BBC highlights cost nothing, and the daily programme is substantial.
US, PGA Tour. ESPN Select at $13.99 a month covers the tour without the full linear sports package. The price went up from $12.99 on 17 September 2026, so older guides will be wrong. GolfPass is the dedicated alternative.
Europe, the DP World Tour. DAZN carries golf in several European markets, and its entry-level plans are cheaper than a full sports subscription.
LIV Golf. DAZN, which carries it across around 200 territories — the broadest single route to any golf in the world.

One caution about golf pricing and rights: of every sport in this guide, golf is the one where our research left the most questions open, particularly around the US majors in 2026. We have said so where it applies rather than filling the gap with a confident-sounding guess. If you are planning around a specific tournament, check the organiser’s own site, which is the only source that is certain to be current.

Is the Open Championship free on the BBC?

As highlights, yes — daily, and contracted to 2027. Not live. Sky Sports has the live rights to 2028, which is what a lot of guides get wrong.

Where are the golf majors shown?

In the UK, all four are on Sky Sports. In the United States they are split between ESPN, CBS and NBC. Each major is sold by its own organising body, so the arrangements differ from one to the next.

Where can I watch LIV Golf?

On DAZN, which carries it across around 200 territories — the widest distribution of any golf product we could verify.

Do I need more than one subscription for golf?

Usually, yes. The tours and the majors are separate deals, and a subscription described as “golf” often covers one tour rather than the four tournaments people care most about.

Where to go next

Watching sport in the UK in the US in Canada DAZN country by country Free live streams