Couch Producer looks at Golf Channel

Tuesday, October 7, 2008 1:33 pm (Eastern)

By Sal Johnson

A look at how live shows are better at Golf Channel and it could be because of the new executive that took over back in May.

May 28th was a very important date for Golf Channel. That was the day that Tom Stathakes started working at the channel to come and fix it up. Now many may wonder, why is the Golf Channel changing and fixing things at a time when it's rapidly growing in both viewers and advertisers?

Photo: © GolfObserver file Tom Stathakes Golf Channels Senior VP/Programming, Production and Operations

The answer is very easy, in a way it's like what has happened to the worldwide economy, two years ago it was cruising along and things were very promising, but there were signs that it needed fixing then and wasn't done, thus all of the problems that were seeing right now.

For the last couple of years many parts of Golf Channel wasn't growing and getting better. Despite getting the PGA Tour's main cable package back in 2006, it has not improved it's production values on it's live packages and in some cases like the European Tour shows, have drastically gotten worst to the point that the bodies of the European Tour have grown very concern. Even those at the PGA Tour, who won't admit it publicly, haven't been very thrilled with the product that Golf Channel has put out the last two years.

Just like with the $700 billion rescue plan that was signed into law last week, signs of recovery at Golf Channel isn't easy as Stathakes has spent the summer evaluating and thinking of new ways to make better it's live product and dream up new things for The Golf Channel to do. Before Stathakes came to Golf Channel he was the person that built Comcast SportsNet from scratch in 1997 into a very viable product. In talking with friends at SportsNet and Golf Channel they say Stathakes strong points are strong management skills, being a big idea guy and his ability to access and build up on-air talent.

As for what he is going to do at Golf Channel, very little is know. In a organization which a year ago had a lot of folks that complained about management and what they were doing, things have changed as most of the buzz from folks is that nobody knows what is going to happen. Probably because there is so much at stake at a company that had very little turnover, people are sitting back and waiting to see what Stathakes has in mind. But as many have told me they realize that Stathakes has a pretty open mind and is not afraid of trying some new things that a year ago would not have happened at the Golf Channel.

Over the course of the last six months I have personally been one of these people that have avoided watching live shows on the Golf Channel. I have always found Golf Central and post/pre game shows to be first class. I felt that the changes that they made on the European Tour last year was a shame. They turned a first class product which was fun to watch into a show that was unwatchable ( Hit this link and go to February 4th Buzz.) because they saved $2 million dollars in production cost. I also felt along with many others, that their PGA Tour coverage was also unwatchable and got out of hand with the team of Kelly Tilghman and Nick Faldo as their anchor. Now we don't know if they are going to bring out Kelly and Nick at Hawaii in January again, but the signs are that Stathakes is going to do something new and fresh.

In watching this week's coverage of the Dunhill Links and Turning Stone Championship, maybe some of Stathakes influence is showing off, I tuned in both on last week and was very surprised at the changes made.

First on the European Tour coverage, I do know that everyone over on that tour including George O'Grady, Chief Executive of the European Tour was very concern over the changes that Golf Channel brought in last year. In talking with O'Grady at the British Open he said that everyone was looking to find a solution to these problems and that meetings were set up to discuss this with the Golf Channel brass. At the Ryder Cup I talked with Hoddy Wood, who is the main producer for European Tour productions and responsible for most of the world feed. He was disappointed in the change that Golf Channel made but has been changing the way he produces the world feed in order to help improve the Golf Channel shows. In the last couple of weeks Wood has instituted changes in which the World Feed give the Golf Channel six breaks an hour in the hopes that they would get commercials on and off in a smoother way. Woods also is instrumental in getting talent to do on-camera intro's to help give Golf Channel viewers a better feel on who is doing the commentary.

Photo: © Andrew Redington/Getty Images Renton Laidlow

I noticed these changes at the Alfred Dunhill Championship. Commercials had a better flow to them, seem to come in and out at the right time. As for the announcing it helped having Renton Laidlaw, who everyone loves. He was with American Jay Townsend, who has spent a lot of time on the European Tour. Townsend is a bit raw, but he has a lot of potential and should be used on a regular basis. Having him on the show does help give it a more American touch instead of a European bias that has existed with others. Another thing that help was more voices, along with Laidlaw and Townsend they had Julian Tutt and Dougie Donnelly.

On Sunday's show they did have an on-camera bit with Laidlaw and Townsend which helped establish a face with a voice, but it would of been nice to do the same with Tutt and Donnelly. I did find the bridges that was done by Tom Abbott to be a lot less unobtrusive but I feel they need to use more resources for a better show. They can steal profiles on players and courses from European Tour weekly and I would really like to see instead of Abbott talking about something over a leaderboard, if he could personalize some of the players more. How about a player picture and Bio, explaining who a player is? Many in the states don't know who Ross Fisher, Martin Kaymer or Jarmo Sandelin are, couldn't Abbott do a better job in between breaks giving us some detail and tidbits on the players? Now I know that they were mostly live and it would of been a tough item to pull off, but with the access of Golf Central folks and some pre-planning they could make these shows even better.

Photo: © Sam Greenwood & Stan Badz/PGA Tour Rich Lerner & Frank Nobilo

Now for the Turning Stone Resort Championship. The one big change was the voices. Rich Lerner and Frank Nobilo are light years ahead of Kelly and Nick. They give us more insight on the golf, location and players and they give us that authoritative feeling of trust that we have never gotten with Kelly and Nick. Lerner is a good traffic cop and help coordinate the way the other announcers interact. I also saw a much better distribution of voices, I was getting tired of hearing Kelly and Nick 80% of the time. It was also nice to have Peter Oosterhuis abroad, he too is much better at that job than Mark Rolfing and Steve Sand could be the biggest improved guy at the Golf Channel and we all love and think that Jerry Foltz is not used enough. Foltz has gotten better in his presentation and always has a lot of good comments. As for Mark Lye, we can tolerate him, Foltz is better and should get more attention. As for production value, the Golf Channel has gotten better. After a very poor start on Sunday they got rolling. What I didn't like was the theme of their opening tease, talking about guys like Charles Howell III, Jason Day and Davis Love looking for wins. The focus should of been more on the players that were looking to save their tour cards and when Howell, Day and Love dropped from contention this tease should of been scraped for a highlight package instead. It took almost 11 minutes before they indicated that there were a lot of jobs on the line.

But they improved after that. They gave us a lot of graphics showing how the players stood on the money list and what it would take to save their Tour Cards. They also had a good flow in the shots on the whole and they never seemed rushed or missing things. If I was to give them a grade it would be that the show was OK. Now I say OK because they have a ways to go before they are good. Again I really think they underutilize their relationship with Golf Central and the pre-post game guys. If I was the producer, I would give more time to them and do a three minute segment an hour on looking back at what has happened and what to look forward to. NBC does this with Tim Rosaforte, why can't Golf Channel do the same? I also didn't see any pieces done with players on their thoughts for the day and give people a better understanding on who a player is. These are things that Golf Channel has to do better in order to make themselves look more like a network and not like the Golf Channel.

We don't know what is in store for 2009 in the way of talent at the Golf Channel but hopefully Stathakes realizes that the announce team that he had at Turning Stone should be the number one team for the year. Announcers is the number one item of importance in a golf telecast and if Stathakes can get it right like they did at Turning Stone, 70% of their battles will be won. The rest is then adding whip cream and a cherry onto of the pie.

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New show from New Zealand hires Steve Williams as an announcer

Photo: © Stephen Dunn/Getty Images Steve Williams working for Tiger Woods

On November 15 and 16 NBC Sports is going to televise the Kiwi Challenge. This is a match in which Anthony Kim and Hunter Mahan will be joined with Adam Scott and Brandt Snedeker in a 36-hole, stroke-play event that offers one of the largest winner’s checks in golf -- $1.5 million -- out of the $2.6 million purse. Now we all have seen these matches before and frankly nobody really cares about them. But this one could be special.

That is because the matches will be played on two of the most beautiful courses in the world. They will be played on Kauri Cliffs and Cape Kidnappers and both make Pebble Beach look ordinary. Also making the matches special is that the courses are 350 miles apart so technology that will create a challenge.

The commentaries of the show will be Dan Hicks, Roger Maltbie and Mark Rolfing but to add some spice to the show Steve Williams will be one of the on-course commentator's. This could be a grand experiment because Williams is a pretty good talker if you can ever get him to talk. He is also a native New Zealander and has spent a fair amount of time on both courses so he will have a lot of experience that he can interject. On the other end of the spectrum Williams has never done this before and he will have to be good with very little work at it. Still if Williams can interject his knowledge of New Zealand, the courses and his caddy knowledge it should be a very interesting experience.

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