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Turner Sports won't televise golf's British Open beyond 2009, possibly clearing the way for Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable network to add the sport's oldest tournament.

Turner's seven-year agreement to televise the British Open will end after the July tournament in Turnberry, Scotland. The network declined to extend the agreement with the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews for economic reasons, Turner Sports President David Levy said in a statement.

``We are disciplined in our approach to negotiating programming rights,'' Levy said. ``While we were unable to reach terms on future rights that made economic sense for our company, we respect and value our partnership with the R&A; of the past six years, and look forward to TNT's final year of covering the Open.''

Sports Business Daily reported that ESPN will pay the R&A; $25 million a year for six or seven years to put all four rounds on cable, a first for a major golf tournament on U.S. television. The newsletter cited people it didn't identify. The R&A; has had a 50-year partnership with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC over-the-air network, which currently shows the final two rounds.

ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys declined to comment on the report in an e-mail.

The ESPN agreement will include digital and international rights, the Sports Business Daily reported. ESPN also has cable rights to the Masters Tournament and the U.S. Open, with CBS and NBC network rights.

The British Open, which airs during the early morning in the U.S., typically draws the lowest ratings of golf's four major tournaments.

Turner will continue to telecast the first two rounds of the PGA Championship, golf's final major, in 2009 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota. CBS has that tournament's network rights.

(Source: Bloomberg)