FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2014
Contact: Kelsey Johnson, Marketing/PR Coordinator
kelsey@rfdtv.com or (402) 614-2563
Major champion Steve Elkington comes to RFD-TV Friday, July 4
In time for Independence Day, Rural America’s most important network brings viewers ‘The Rural Golfer’
The same drive and passion that brought Steve Elkington 20 professional victories around the world, including the 1995 PGA Championship, is now on display throughout the United States as Elkington’s latest project “The Rural Golfer” debuts on RFD-TV Friday.
The debut display of rural America’s love and passion for the game and a look at the elements that make them unique airs on RFD-TV at 9:30 p.m. (ET), with encore shows airing at 12:30 p.m. Sunday (ET) and the following Friday at 6 a.m. (ET).
The show was born from Elkington’s success with the hard-core instruction website, Secret in the Dirt, created by Elkington and five other eccentric and passionate golfers. The Secret in the Dirt team includes Elkington’s mentor and World Golf Hall-of-Fame member Jackie Burke Jr., Internet instructor Mike Maves, computer whiz Jimmy Nissen, golfer and videographer Terry Okura and cartoonist Calder Chism.
Friday’s debut show takes place at the storied Champions Golf Club in Houston, founded by Burke and the late Jimmy Demaret in 1957 as a haven for the serious golfer. It introduces the six members of the Secret in the Dirt team and unites them in one place – Elkington’s house -- for the first time in the team’s four-year existence.
Viewers will also meet Elkington’s incredible mobile rig, “The Big Show.”
Just as their personalities form a diverse group, the Secret in the Dirt team wanted to expand their instruction site and introduce themselves to a wider audience of golf fans who love the game as much as they do. Thus, “The Rural Golfer” was created and the team has traveled all across the country in search of golf’s hidden gems.
“My team loves golf so much that we decided to do this show and focus on other people that love it so much, and why do they love it so much? I mean, that’s what The Rural Golfer is,” Elkington said. “We just want to go to these everyday places that unveil the love of the game and get right down to the heart of it and what lengths they’ll go to in order to achieve it. And the stories that come out of that are amazing.”
Viewers can dig deeper into the heart of American golf with Elkington and his team as they visit FarmLinks in Alabama, the Freedom Golf Association outside Chicago and play with ropers Rich Skelton and Nick Sartain at Tapatio Springs in the Texas Hill Country. Season One of “The Rural Golfer” aims to bring RFD-TV viewers a real look at the inclusivity of golf and how it crosses every arena.
“‘The Rural Golfer’ is about the real golf that people play. We think it is right to celebrate that,” Maves said. “It doesn’t have to be the most sensational thing about it, people love golf for much simpler things.”
Judith Coleman, a longtime TV veteran who has worked numerous golf events for CBS, Golf Channel and PGA TOUR Entertainment, brings her broad golf experience to the project as the executive producer of “The Rural Golfer.”
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About Rural Media Group, Inc.: Rural Media Group, Inc. (RMG) is the world’s leading provider of multimedia content dedicated to the rural and western lifestyle. RMG is the parent company of RFD-TV, FamilyNet, RURAL TV, RURAL RADIO on SiriusXM channel 80, RFD-TV The Magazine and RFD-TV The Theatre. RFD-TV, the flagship network for RMG, launched in December 2000. RFD-TV is the nation’s first 24-hour television network dedicated to serving the needs and interests of rural America with programming focused on agriculture, equine, rural lifestyle, traditional country music and entertainment. Daily productions include Market Day Report and the Rural Evening News. RMG networks are distributed into more than 63-million homes worldwide by DBS, telco and cable systems including DISH Network, DIRECTV®, Comcast, Verizon FiOS TV, AT&T U-Verse, Mediacom, Charter, Brighthouse, Suddenlink, Time Warner, Cox and more than 600 independent rural cable systems. RFD-TV The Magazine is the print programming guide for the networks, which has attracted over 200,000 paid subscribers. RFD-TV The Theatre is a 2000 capacity soft seat venue in Branson, MO where entertainment programming is produced. RMG corporate headquarters are based in Omaha, NE and production operations are in Nashville, TN. For more information, visit www.rfdtv.com and join us on Facebook: RFD-TV Twitter: @OfficialRFDTV and Instagram: http://instagram.com/rfdtv
About Secret in the Dirt: In 2008, Mike Maves began selling his now infamous eBook, Secret in the Dirt, to the public. The eBook reached thousands across the globe, including PGA Tour Legend Steve Elkington as well as future Secret in the Dirt co-founder, Terry Okura. In 2010, Steve Elkington, Mike Maves, and Jackie Burke Jr. launched the site as it is known today, and created a social network for golfers around the idea that it should not be expensive to get a golf lesson. Golf happens from constant learning, feedback, momentum, and talking with golfers better than you. Since the original launch in 2010, the Secret in the Dirt team has launched 6 more digital products for sale in their marketplace, covering all areas of the game. The products include: The Reality of Putting, The Most Powerful Move in Golf, The Stroke of the Future, The Sequence: What Moves When, Tour Quality Short Game and Alex Mercer’s Golf Wise. For more information visit www.secretinthedirt.com or via Facebook at Secret in the Dirt.
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