Golf Making Debut on Pay-Per-View Cable TV April 25

Golf is coming to pay-per-view cable television.

It was announced Wednesday that Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino will play two foreign challengers, Greg Norman of Australia and Ian Woosnam of Wales, in a 1-day, 18-hole scramble Monday, April 25.

The event, to be held on the Nicklaus-designed Cochise golf course at the Desert Mountain resort near Scottsdale, Ariz., will be called the Desert Scramble and will be sold to cable subscribers for $12.95.

In a scramble, each team gets to play the better shot after each player has hit.

This will be the first televising of a non-boxing sports event on pay per view, as well as the first televising of a scramble.

There will be $300,000 in prize money. The winners will get $100,000 each, the losers $25,000 each, and the winners of the 18th hole will share $50,000 put up by Lyle Anderson, president of the Desert Mountain Development Co.

The event was conceived by Anderson and Nicklaus. Nicklaus and Norman selected their partners.

Woosnam, at only 5 feet 4 inches, won a record $1.82 million last year and was named world player of the year.

Torrance-based Choice Entertainment will distribute the event to cable operators.

Terry Jastrow, an ABC producer, will produce the telecast independently for Jack Nicklaus Productions. Jastrow said that each golfer will wear a mike and that viewers will be offered instructional advice along the way.

“How much would a golfer pay to walk along with these players and get lessons along the way?” Jastrow asked. “We think they’d pay a lot more than $12.95.”

Live coverage will run from 4 to 6:30 p.m., Pacific time.