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“They always show Tiger even when he’s not in contention.”<\/p>\n“They always show Tiger even when he’s not in contention.”<\/p>\n
“I want to see more golf. Less jibber-jabbering and network promos, more actual golf shots.”<\/p>\n
“Why do they always show people walking around when other players are hitting golf shots?”<\/p>\n
No doubt you’ve heard golf fans complaining about network coverage of PGA Tour events. This weekend, I put CBS on the clock and took notes on their network coverage of the inaugural AT&T National. The results… well they may not surprise you, but they do shed some light on the subject. So, of the 210 minutes of allotted coverage, 148 minutes were golf coverage (or not commercials, anyway). That means 62 minutes of the 210 were commercials, or a whopping 29.52%. A small percentage was the “Lincoln Financial CBS Sports Update Report,” but the rest were commercials… and I tallied in-coverage network promos separately.<\/p>\n Throughout the 3½ hours, commercials interrupted coverage 21 times. The average length of time between commercials was a paltry six minutes. Towards the end of coverage, when few people with chances to win remained on the course, we saw coverage lasting two to five minutes five out of the last six times.<\/p>\n Shots<\/strong> In two hours and 28 minutes of network golf coverage, we saw 204 total shots, 95 of which were putts (including a healthy dose of tap-ins). That averages out to only 1.47 shots per minute of coverage, or roughly one shot every 40.8 seconds. If you think about it, that’s not much golf. When you mix in the fact that there were interviews and other things being shown, well, it starts to look a little better. But not much.<\/p>\n How many of the shots were of Tiger Woods? How many were replays? Here are those numbers:<\/p>\n Of Tiger’s 70 strokes on Sunday, we saw 31, despite the fact that he was never really anywhere near contending for the title. He was, of course, the tournament host, but I don’t personally feel as though he was shown playing golf any more or less than he would normally be shown given his tee time 40 minutes before the leaders.<\/p>\n Of course, Tiger finished well ahead of the leaders, and the line in the chart above shows the point at which he finished. To that point, we’d seen 164 shots, 31 of which were Tiger’s. That’s a fairly high percentage: 18.9%. Is Tiger Woods, not in contention, worthy of nearly 20% of the coverage? You decide.<\/p>\n Finally, 15 shots were shown on tape delay. Of course the number could easily be higher – I could only accurately mark something in this category when an announcer said “earlier, at the 16th hole” or “just a moment ago.” They may have tricked us several other times into thinking we were seeing live golf without our knowledge.<\/p>\n Promos and “Others”<\/strong> Likewise, much of golf coverage isn’t actually showing golf: it’s interviews with the tournament sponsor and\/or host, it’s special segments on some of the players in contention, or it’s Peter Kostis breaking down someone’s swing with the BizHub Something or Other SwingVision camera.<\/p>\n How often do each of these types of things interrupt golf coverage? Not as often as you might think, perhaps:<\/p>\n Over 22 segments, we saw only 12 network promos (though I can’t remember a single one) and 24 “other” segments, a few of which were actually entertaining (mainly the SwingVision stuff). So, over 3:30 (or 2:28 of actual golf coverage), we were interrupted only 36 times. That’s not too<\/em> shabby.<\/p>\n The Pro Side<\/strong> It turns out that the pro side may not be where you think it is.<\/p>\n I saw 95 putts in Sunday’s coverage of the AT&T National. Of the 95 putts, 48 either went in or were so miserable that I could not judge whether they’d missed high or low (usually putts that came up well short). Of those that reached the hole – or at least got close enough to make a determination, you may be surprised at what side of the hole they favored:<\/p>\n The pros missed low<\/em> nearly twice as often as they missed high! So much for “the pro side” of the cup. Granted, this is hardly a statistically significant number of putts. A truly thorough study would track every putt on all sorts of courses, on each day of the week, and off the putters of all players. All this tells us is that pros shown putting on TV one particular Sunday were missing low far more often than they missed high.<\/p>\n So, the next time you get jeered for missing on the amateur side, set your buddy straight. Tell him you missed on the same side of the hole as Jim Furyk, K.J. Choi, Tiger Woods, Mike Weir, and Stuart Appleby. Then tap in for your double and get on to the next hole – people are waiting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Missing from this week’s analysis: the number of times the announcers make stupid comments. Gary McCord talks too fast for me to keep an accurate count.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[98,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hot_topics","category-the_numbers_game"],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nActual Coverage<\/strong>
\nTV coverage on Sunday ran from 3:00 to 6:30. K.J. Choi finished just about on time (despite the last two groups being well behind pace for most of the afternoon). I charted stop and start times for golf coverage, and here is how things shook out:<\/p>\nStart End Time\n----- ---- ----\n3:04 3:15 0:11\n3:18 3:24 0:06\n3:27 3:28 0:01\n3:31 3:38 0:07\n3:40 3:43 0:03\n3:45 4:00 0:15\n4:03 4:12 0:09\n4:15 4:19 0:04\n4:22 4:33 0:11\n4:35 4:41 0:06\n4:43 4:49 0:06\n4:52 5:02 0:10\n5:04 5:10 0:06\n5:14 5:22 0:08\n5:24 5:34 0:10\n5:37 5:44 0:07\n5:46 5:51 0:05\n5:53 5:58 0:05\n6:01 6:03 0:02\n6:05 6:10 0:05\n6:13 6:15 0:02\n6:18 6:27 0:09\n ---- ----\n Total 2:28\n Avg 0:06<\/pre>\n
\nThroughout the coverage, I tracked the number of strokes – both shots and putts – as well as the number of network promos (i.e. “This Monday, catch an all new Crap Reality Show, only on CBS, America’s number one network.”) and “other” stuff (interviews, SwingVision tutorials, etc.). Here’s how those numbers shook out (SPM = Strokes per Minute):<\/p>\nStart End Time Shots Putts Total SPM\n----- ---- ---- ----- ----- ----- ----\n3:04 3:15 0:11 7 9 16 1.45\n3:18 3:24 0:06 6 2 8 1.33\n3:27 3:28 0:01 3 - 3 3.00\n3:31 3:38 0:07 6 5 11 1.57\n3:40 3:43 0:03 3 3 6 2.00\n3:45 4:00 0:15 9 12 21 1.40\n4:03 4:12 0:09 9 6 15 1.67\n4:15 4:19 0:04 3 - 3 0.75\n4:22 4:33 0:11 6 7 13 1.18\n4:35 4:41 0:06 3 6 9 1.50\n4:43 4:49 0:06 7 3 10 1.67\n4:52 5:02 0:10 8 8 16 1.60\n5:04 5:10 0:06 5 1 6 1.00\n5:14 5:22 0:08 6 7 13 1.63\n5:24 5:34 0:10 7 7 14 1.40\n5:37 5:44 0:07 5 4 9 1.29\n5:46 5:51 0:05 3 2 5 1.00\n5:53 5:58 0:05 2 4 6 1.20\n6:01 6:03 0:02 2 1 3 1.50\n6:05 6:10 0:05 5 - 5 1.00\n6:13 6:15 0:02 2 3 5 2.50\n6:18 6:27 0:09 2 5 7 0.78\n ----- ---- --- -- --- ----\n Total 2:28 109 95 204 1.47<\/pre>\n
Start End Time Total Delay Tiger\n----- ---- ---- ----- ----- -----\n3:04 3:15 0:11 16 2 3\n3:18 3:24 0:06 8 2 2\n3:27 3:28 0:01 3 - 1\n3:31 3:38 0:07 11 2 3\n3:40 3:43 0:03 6 - 1\n3:45 4:00 0:15 21 1 3\n4:03 4:12 0:09 15 1 2\n4:15 4:19 0:04 3 1 3\n4:22 4:33 0:11 13 1 1\n4:35 4:41 0:06 9 1 2\n4:43 4:49 0:06 10 1 3\n4:52 5:02 0:10 16 - 3\n5:04 5:10 0:06 6 1 1\n5:14 5:22 0:08 13 1 1\n5:24 5:34 0:10 14 1 2\n-----------------------(164)-----------------\n5:37 5:44 0:07 9 - -\n5:46 5:51 0:05 5 - -\n5:53 5:58 0:05 6 - -\n6:01 6:03 0:02 3 - -\n6:05 6:10 0:05 5 - -\n6:13 6:15 0:02 5 - -\n6:18 6:27 0:09 7 - -\n ----- ---- --- -- --\n Total 2:28 204 15 31<\/pre>\n
\nNetworks love to use their sports events to pitch their other shows, and the best time to do this is right after commercial. As we come back from the break, we often see beautiful pictures of the golf course, over which a small video for Two and a Half Men or CSI:Miami pops up. Jim Nantz intones something about how great the show will be, and how you should tune in to watch.<\/p>\nStart End Time Promo Other\n----- ---- ---- ----- -----\n3:04 3:15 0:11 - 3\n3:18 3:24 0:06 - 1\n3:27 3:28 0:01 - -\n3:31 3:38 0:07 1 1\n3:40 3:43 0:03 1 -\n3:45 4:00 0:15 - 2\n4:03 4:12 0:09 - 1\n4:15 4:19 0:04 - 2\n4:22 4:33 0:11 - 3\n4:35 4:41 0:06 - -\n4:43 4:49 0:06 1 1\n4:52 5:02 0:10 1 -\n5:04 5:10 0:06 2 1\n5:14 5:22 0:08 1 1\n5:24 5:34 0:10 - 1\n5:37 5:44 0:07 2 2\n5:46 5:51 0:05 - 1\n5:53 5:58 0:05 - 1\n6:01 6:03 0:02 - 1\n6:05 6:10 0:05 1 1\n6:13 6:15 0:02 1 -\n6:18 6:27 0:09 1 1\n ----- ---- -- --\n Total 2:28 12 24<\/pre>\n
\nWe’ve often heard that pros miss putts high. That side even has a nickname: “the pro side,” as in “I missed that one on the pro side of the hole.”<\/p>\n Missed\nPutts High Low\n----- ---- ---\n 9 1 2\n 2 0 1\n 0 0 0\n 5 1 3\n 3 1 1\n12 0 5\n 6 1 2\n 0 0 0\n 7 1 2\n 6 2 1\n 3 1 1\n 8 2 3\n 1 0 0\n 7 2 2\n 7 1 3\n 4 0 1\n 2 0 1\n 4 2 1\n 1 0 0\n 0 0 0\n 3 0 1\n 5 1 1\n-- -- --\n95 16 31<\/pre>\n