The Big Break
The Big Break is an American golf reality competition series. Premiering on October 6, 2003 on Golf Channel, the series features aspiring professional golfers competing in various skills challenges for a chance to win a prize package, usually featuring a sponsor exemption for one or more tournaments and/or developmental tours.
The series originally ran on Golf Channel for 23 seasons from 2003 through 2015, after which the series was cancelled amid cuts by the network. In October 2025, Golf Channel announced that the series would be revived for a 24th season, in collaboration with the golf-oriented media company Good Good.
Format
Contestants on each season of The Big Break include professionals on semi-professional tours as well as amateurs who aspire to play golf professionally. The contestants compete in a series of golfing challenges, such as hitting balls into scoring zones or targets, shooting closest to the pin, and H-O-R-S-E-like competitions among others.Each episode consists of three main challenges: the "Mulligan Challenge" is a competition that allows its winner to receive a mulligan that can be used in the second challenge—the "Skills Challenge". The winner of the skills challenge receives immunity during the elimination challenge, whose worst performer is eliminated from the competition. In the season finale, the final two contestants compete in a final match to determine the champion, who typically receives one or more sponsor exemptions for events on the PGA Tour, LPGA, and/or a developmental circuit.
The show's signature challenge in the glass-breaking challenge, which usually takes place as the skills challenge in the season premiere; the golfers must make shots on a practice range to shatter glass targets with the names of the contestants on them. In the first season, the challenge was structured as a race, with the first contestant to shatter their target declared the winner. Beginning in the third season, the challenge was changed to a turn-based format, where contestants choose an opponent's target for each shot: if they hit and shatter the target, the respective contestant is eliminated, and the last golfer standing is declared the winner. In the fifth season, if the contestant hit a target successfully, they could keep playing until they missed a target.
Editions of ''The Big Break''
''The Big Break I''
The Big Break I premiered on October 6, 2003. The contest was filmed over ten days at the TreeTops Resort in Gaylord, Michigan. The winner would receive exemptions into four selected events on the Canadian Tour in 2004.The ten hopefuls for the first season were:
| Contestant | Hometown |
| Randy Block | San Antonio, Texas |
| Garrett Garland | Northridge, Los Angeles |
| Charles Calhoun | Marietta, Ohio |
| Justin Peters | Plantation, Florida |
| Steve Duemig | Clearwater, Florida |
| Anthony Sorentino | Rochester Hills, Michigan |
| Mark Farnham | Port Jefferson, New York |
| Craig Pawling | Sunrise, Florida |
| Jeff Brown | Hampton, Georgia |
| Jon Roddy | Orlando, Florida |
The show was hosted by Phil Mickelson's swing coach, Rick Smith, and Katherine Roberts. In the end, Justin Peters defeated Anthony Sorentino 3 & 1 in the matchplay final. Peters, though, failed to make the cut in any of the four Canadian Professional Golf Tour events he played in.
''The Big Break II: Las Vegas''
The Big Break II first aired in September 2004. The contest was filmed in Las Vegas. The winner would receive four exemptions into Nationwide Tour events during the 2005 season.The ten contestants were:
| Contestant | Hometown |
| Jay Mcnair | Florida |
| Shelby Chrest | Canada |
| Scotty Yancey | Illinois |
| Sean Daly | Visalia, California |
| Mike Foster | Georgia |
| David Gunas | Connecticut |
| John Turke | Clearwater, Florida |
| Bart Lower | Ionia, Michigan |
| Donny Donatello | Florida |
| Kip Henley | Chattanooga, Tennessee |
The Big Break II was the Golf Channel's highest rated show in its history of all programming. The show featured not only good golf but also some tension between roommates Sean Daly and Donny Donatello.
The winner Kip Henley failed to make any cuts on the Nationwide Tour, and shortly after his attempt to play his way on Tour, he went back to caddying on the PGA Tour for Brian Gay. Henley, who turned 50 in 2011, qualified for the FedEx St. Jude Classic through winning a Tennessee PGA Section event that included an automatic entry into the event, and has eligibility for the Champions Tour.
''The Big Break III: Ladies Only''
The Big Break III: Ladies Only premiered on February 8, 2005, featuring a field consisting exclusively of women's golfers. It took place at the Kingsmill Resort and Spa just outside Williamsburg, Virginia, with the winner receiving exemptions for three LPGA events in 2005, along with a new Chrysler Crossfire and a $5,000 Golf Galaxy shopping spree.The ten hopefuls for the third season were:
| Contestant | Hometown |
| Tasha Browner | Tarzana, Los Angeles |
| Danielle Amiee | Newport Beach, California |
| Pamela Crikelair | Westchester County, New York |
| Valeria Ochoa | Miramar, Florida |
| Debbie Dahmer | Escondido, California |
| Jan Dowling | Dallas, Texas |
| Cindy Miller | Silver Creek, New York; |
| Sarah Sasse | Lincoln, Nebraska |
| Liz Uthoff | St. Louis, Missouri |
| Felicia Brown | Redondo Beach, California |
Vince Cellini and Stephanie Sparks, who once briefly played on the LPGA Tour herself, became the show's new hosts. In the final, Crikelair and Amiee faced off, with Crikelair going 2 up after just three holes. Amiee came all the way back, and, at 1 up on the par 3 17th, sank a birdie to go 2 up, and clinch The Big Break III title 2 & 1.
Also for the first time, professional golfers from the tour handing out the exemptions made cameos. In the first episode of the season in which a contestant was eliminated, LPGA winners Kelli Kuehne and Lorie Kane dropped by to participate in the season's first "Mulligan Challenge."
Amiee's first tournament, the Michelob Ultra Open, did not go well as far as trying to make the cut was concerned. She had plenty of fans following her. In her first round, Amiee shot 79 on the par-71 course. The second round was pushed back a day due to rain, where Amiee shot 77, missing the cut in her first LPGA event. Her second event, the Corning Classic, never materialized, as she withdrew before the first round, citing a back injury, throwing her second exemption away. However, it is believed that Amiee withdrew because of media pressure over an alleged topless photo of her that was circulating around the Internet. There has been a great deal of discussion over the validity of the photo.
Meanwhile, Miller, who actually played on the LPGA Tour from 1979 to 1981, when she married former PGA Tour player Allen Miller, competed in the LPGA Championship, having earned a spot by winning the 2004 LPGA Teaching & Club Professionals national championship. She shot an 84 in the first round, and an 88 in the second round, missing the cut.
It was then Dowling's turn to play in an LPGA event. She took part in the BMO Canadian Women's Open, where she shot a 77 in round one, and a 74 in round two to take a respectable 7-over for the tournament, though she still missed the cut. Dowling won the Canadian Women's Amateur Championship in 2000, helping her earn the Female Canadian Amateur Golfer of the Year Award; she was also individual champion of the Mid-American Conference in 1999 and 2000 while a student at Kent State University, and in her senior year at Kent State in 2002, she was given the Janet Bachna Award for Kent State Female Senior Athlete of the Year. While at Kent State, Dowling became friends with the winner of the 2003 The Open Championship, Ben Curtis. Dowling says her golfing hero is the great Canadian professional, Moe Norman, who died on September 4, 2004, over a month before the show began taping.
''The Big Break All-Star Challenge''
When The Big Break was first announced, a lot of celebrities applied for the show in addition to aspiring pros. The Golf Channel soon created a celebrity edition of the show, this one to benefit charities. On March 22, 2005, The Big Break All-Star Challenge debuted, featuring four members of the Boston Red Sox. Since then, there have been many more editions of the show, featuring NASCAR drivers, as well as members of the Green Bay Packers, the Chicago White Sox, the Tampa Bay Lightning, the cast of Scrubs, and the band Hootie & The Blowfish. There have been many various hosts of the All-Star edition, and not once have Cellini and Sparks co-hosted an episode together. Other Golf Channel personalities who have hosted the All-Star edition include Brian Hammons and Steve Sands, and some co-hosts have included former NASCAR star Benny Parsons and two-time Champions Tour major winner Peter Jacobsen.Jay Kossoff, the senior producer of The Big Break, told The Charlotte Observer at the taping of the first NASCAR edition, "We had a lot of celebrities apply for spots in the original shows, so we figured it was a neat idea to do something like this — let's take the next step."