Ford Bronco Off Course Desert Golf Scramble Headed to National TV
What happens when you swap traditional green fairways for the desolate badlands of Johnson Valley and replace standard electric golf carts with high-powered Ford Broncos? You get Bronco Off Course: Desert Scramble, an off-road motorsport-meets-golf experiment heading to national television.
Following its initial digital premiere, the event is taking over national airwaves on ESPN2 on Sunday, August 9, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET. The broadcast lands as a featured debut during the 10th anniversary celebration of ESPN8: The Ocho, joining a lineup of unconventional sporting competitions.
Where Off-Road Racing Meets Golf
Bronco Off Course: Desert Scramble is a brainchild of Formula Drift champion Vaughn Gittin Jr. and his team at RTR Vehicles. The desert tournament originated from a casual idea with long-time drift announcer Jarod DeAnda. The second annual installment expanded into a full-scale competition featuring 20 participants spanning professional golfers, motorsports drivers, and social media personalities.
Rather than cruising along manicured turf, three-person teams navigated rock-crawling sections, high-speed whoop runs, and sandy desert trails between holes. On the first day, competitors tackled technical driving courses behind the wheel of standard production Ford Bronco SUVs. For day two, teams upgraded to the 418-horsepower Bronco Raptor to navigate harsher terrain.
High-Stakes Scoring and Desert Survival
The competition introduces an off-road twist to the traditional best-ball golf format. Prior to teeing off on each hole, teams compete in timed driving challenges. The team with the fastest driving time subtracts one stroke from their hole score, second place stays even, and the slowest driver receives a one-stroke penalty.
The entire course is devoid of grass, water hazards, or traditional greens, forcing golfers to hit shots entirely out of soft sand, rocks, and desert brush. To preserve a legitimate tournament environment, a gallery of spectators followed the action from hole to hole in a dedicated fleet of Ford Broncos, while competitors stayed together in an off-grid trailer camp throughout the event.
Following its national cable broadcast, event organizers are already scouting extreme global destinations for future installments, eyeing potential expansion into locations across Iceland and the Middle East.
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