Stat profiles for 1500 golfers
Even old reliable CBS shows signs of depression as the coach tells us of their poor AT&T telecasts
The first six weeks of PGA Tour competition has been unremarkable, to put it kindly. Blame it on the absence of Tiger Woods, the pall over the economy, the failure of other marquee names to win so far, and a less than stellar effort by CBS in its Tour telecasts.
The list of Tour woes is long, and the situation doesn’t figure to improve until Tiger returns. Since the 2008 Masters he has played only once, posting a dramatic victory at the U.S. Open. So it’s hardly a surprise that interest in golf has taken a dive. We’ll know by the end of this week whether he’ll make his long-awaited comeback at the WGC Accenture Match Play or the WGC CA Championship at Doral.
Whatever, it can’t be soon enough. Here’s why:
- The season-opening Mercedes Championship was a preview of things to come. Had it not produced a credible and popular winner in Geoff Ogilvy, the tournament would have been completely overshadowed by questions about its future in Hawaii. There’s one year remaining on the contract and despite playing at a wonderful place like Kapalua, the venue and the dates have been unpopular with top draws like Woods, Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and Padraig Harrington. Commissioner Tim Finchem is feeling heat from Mercedes, which is miffed by the tournament’s lack of star power. If Finchem yanks the Mercedes from Hawaii, it could cause a ripple effect with the Sony Open, which likely would suffer from the loss of players who liked to take advantage of the two weeks of pampering in Hawaii. Rumors floating around is the Tour is looking into a possible new home at Wailea, which is on the sunny side of Hawaii, not as pretty as Kapalua, but a lot less wind and less of a walk. The course would get Mickelson’s seal of approval, and wooing Woods with a favorable date change, moving his Chevron Challenge up a couple of weeks would mean his Christmas vacation would end earlier, in time to play the Mercedes. Stay tuned.
- Another big name, Vijay Singh, limped through the Mercedes and then had knee surgery, sidelining him for four weeks. He missed the cut in his return at Pebble Beach.
- What can you say when embattled Chrysler and Buick are title sponsors? Both have taken federal bailout money to stay afloat. Suffice to say hospitality options at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and the Buick Invitational were modest. Both companies tried to keep a low profile, fearful that critics might question their promotional expenditures on golf. Both have contracts for next year, but all bets are off should either automaker file for Chapter 11 in the coming months.
- Stock in Friedman, Billings Ramsey, better know as FBR, is trading at 24 cents. Do we need to go further? The FBR Open was frugal with its corporate hospitality, plus its traditionally strong attendance was way down this year.
- There was much optimism leading up to the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which has a healthy sponsor, was being played on great courses, and boasted a strong field. But high winds and rain forced the cancellation of the final round, leaving a talented but uncharismatic Dustin Johnson as the 54-hole winner.
- Who’s taking up the slack for Tiger? Sergio Garcia has yet to play in the States this season. Phil Mickelson and Ernie Els aren’t firing on all cylinders. Much-hyped Camilo Villegas and Anthony Kim (who defected to Asia last week) have failed to close the deal so far. Even Boo Weekly spent a couple of weeks in Qatar and Dubai and hasn’t been seen since. Some good champions have been crowned – Ogilvy at the Mercedes, Kenny Perry at the FBR and Zach Johnson at the Sony – but the tour needs more top guns to get into contention.
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As a result, coverage has been spotty, with the use of more hand-held cameras for receiving shots, the lack of interesting graphics and the lack of compelling story lines. One big problem for CBS is having Nick Faldo as its main guy. Faldo frequently delivers strong commentary, but he has become woefully overexposed.
Faldo has been the lead announcer on just about every telecast this year – on Golf Channel at the Mercedes, Sony and Hope, then on CBS weekend telecasts at the FBR, Buick and AT&T. Throw in some Thursday and Friday shows on Golf Channel, and honestly you want to throw a brick at the TV every time you see him. Faldo’s same spiel week in, week out, has gotten old. Very old to the point that you wonder what Lanny Wadkins or Curtis Strange is doing. Gosh even having Ken Venturi on Saturday's telecast for a half hour gave us a fresh feel over Faldo.
Moreover, Gary McCord seems to have lost his edge. He used to be fresh and creative; now he’s boring and routine. As for the rest of the team, thank goodness for David Feherty he is the best thing they have, Ian Baker-Finch is always wonderful, Peter Oosterhuis is like a old reliable shoe and we even like Peter Kostis, who improves each show. These are the things that keep us watching and enjoying the shows even though the images that are being sent to our homes are not as good as past years. Coverage of the FBR, Buick and AT&T seemed like nothing more than shot after shot after shot, with no real story lines or graphic help, even though Jim Nantz tries.
The Saturday show from the AT&T was a total downer. It used to be great theater, with the celebrities on McCord ‘s couch and very exciting to watch. Now it’s a drawn-out promotion of CBS sitcoms and what movie can we promote next. Gosh can't someone say enough is enough of all these promotions, lets have some funny moments and good golf.
But the biggest problem with Saturday’s show was the inexplicable lack of attention it paid to the leader, long-bombing Dustin Johnson. Guess how many shots viewers saw Johnson make during the three days of telecasts? (Golf Channel airs the Thursday and Friday shows, but CBS personnel produce them) None. Guess how many shots we saw by Mike Weir, the eventual runner-up? Three. It's like CBS is now doing shows like the ones from the 60s, very limited. Someone must have pointed out this lack of coverage to CBS producers because the opening of Sunday's show featured highlights from the previous night's Golf Central of Johnson's round at Poppy Hills.
In past years, CBS has been better with coverage from Spyglass and Poppy Hills, providing live shots from both in addition to Pebble Beach. This kind of multiple-course coverage was first brought out by ABC and then executed by Golf Channel during the Bob Hope. At that event, the terrain is flat so all they have to do is find a high spot in the mountains to bounce the signal back and forth from other courses. The AT&T requires a trickier and more expensive scheme in which the signals from other the courses must be bounced back from a blimp or helicopter. This was done for a number of years for USA Network’s early coverage, but it ended a couple of years ago and was replaced with ENG footage (tape) that was brought back to the compound and edited.
CBS did some of that Thursday and Friday at the AT&T, but not a single highlight from the other courses made air on Saturday. Sorry guys, no excuses, you have to do some work on the tournament, just not cover the pro-am stuff.
The network needs to concoct more story lines and flesh them out better. It needs to provide tighter shots so that we can see the eyes of the players and his expressions, which convey more drama. We also need to have more story lines and take a breath in between the barrage of shot after shot after shot. But such is the effect of cost cutting or possibly some laziness when your number one.
Nor has CBS been airing the stats that have become the norm on golf telecasts. There were more informative graphics on the LPGA and Champions Tour shows on Golf Channel than there were in the last couple of CBS telecasts. With information available from the Tour’s Shotlink system, this should be easy. Instead, CBS beams shot after shot after shot and Nick Faldo tells the network audience the same half-funny things he told Golf Channel viewers during the first two rounds.
CBS has one event left (Northern Trust) before NBC takes over for the next six weeks. Let’s hope Sean McManus, who runs CBS, has noticed the shortcomings and will insist that the telecast improves. One thing for certain we may see some changes in L.A. since producer Lance Barrow is taking the week off and the telecast will be produced by Jim Rikoff. Maybe he will deliver a better effort in Los Angeles and in the future. Golf is having a tough enough time without its broadcasts being lazy and making golf any more boring.
Edited by Dave Seanor
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