Things That Make Watching Golf on TV More or Less Enjoyable

[WilliamB]

One thing that makes golf more enjoyable to watch on TV is shot tracker. When it wasn't available it was like watching a golfer pose and wondering where the ball went. Now I can follow it from club head to it's resting position very easily.

[David L Yskes]

HD TV

I can remember before HD TV, watching sports and then when I got HD TV, I was like HTF did i ever watch sports before this???   even now watching old videos of sports before HD TV, its like where did they hit the ball???  or what is actually going on here??   

a close 2nd...  Big Screen TV's  

[nevets88]

Multiple feeds. Multiple smartphones and tablets to keep watching while the ads and announcers gab. 

[RayG]

More enjoyable: HDTV. Quality of the images. 

Unfortunately, there are lots of "less" enjoyable: Too many ridiculous 'stats'. "Percentage made of 80' putts on a Thursday by past major winners over 45: 075%...". And posting real time odds on various players to win. On Thursday... after 4 holes...

Too many announcers seem to like the sound of their own voice. Endless prattling on. Too many of ""This was earlier..." ESPECIALLY- if it is some lesser known guy shooting 6 or 8 under after 10 or 12 holes and moving up the board. Because he isn't "known" or, lets face it, "American", he gets no love. Until maybe by 17 or 18 when he actually has a chance. After showing every shot live of whoever the flavor of the week is- even if they're essentially out of it. 

[Friz]

More enjoyable - hole flyovers, when I'm not familiar with the course getting an idea of what they're shooting at or working with rather than just seeing them swing and the ball land in an arbitrary place

 

Less enjoyable - there are way too many guys, even near the top of the leaderboard, they you see next to none of their action.  There are cameras all over the course already, whoever can create a custom feed to let me decide who I want to watch or scenarios I want to watch would be the perfect viewing experience.  The Masters streaming experience was the closest to this so far, hopefully soon this can be expanded and used in all tournaments

[mcanadiens]

Not that this is something that a broadcast crew can do anything about, but it is the magnitude of the event itself that makes the big difference for me.

Majors, Ryder Cup and the higher profile events are what makes me want to watch. Watching anything else is just killing time for me.

It almost doesn't matter to me who is doing the broadcasting. I ignore the things I don't like. 

[klineka]

Less Enjoyable - Anything that gets in the way of them showing golf shots aka:

• Large amounts of commercials
• Stupid fluff pieces about the tournament sponsors
• Interviews with random C-suite execs

[roejye]

Shot tracker is nice, so are flyovers/virtual layouts of the hole. Watching golf channel on a Thursday/Friday is borderline ridiculous/unwatchable with the amount of commercials. I usually have it on mute or low volume so announcers basically aren't there for me. I also like seeing a lot of the field vs just the leaders.

[Missouri Swede]

Less enjoyable: During some tournaments, there’s some aircraft loitering over/near the course, with its constant noise.  (Not talking about the blimp—that sound comes and goes—this is fixed wing.) Doesn’t seem to be local airport traffic—that would just transit and be gone until the next aircraft. Flight school? IDK.

Whatever the reason for the flight, I would think the production crew could filter out the noise, particularly since it’s fairly constant. Some have been so bad I just stop watching and delete it from the DVR.

Positive: graphics (ball position and outcome from previous players on the whole), shot tracker.

[Esox]

I miss Gary McCord. He made watching golf fun.

Always loved Johnny Millers brutally honest assessments of what was happening / had transpired.

[nevets88]

Also having played or walked the course a number of times makes it more fun to watch. Oh yeah, I know this shot, this putt, etc... Let's see what this person does with that. Playing it on a videogame doesn't cut it to be honest. Gotta see it live.

When the camera crew gets a good angle of an escape shot, that's cool. See the ball curve. Better with 4K, not possible in the old cathode ray tv days.

Also, stating the obvious. Two words. Tiger Woods. Especially when he's playing well.

[woodzie264]

44 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

Two words. Tiger Woods. Especially when he's playing well.

Never a truer word spoken

[WilliamB]

Mentioned a few times and probably common to everybody, is the amount of commercials (Especially the obnoxious emu commercials). Also, getting the split screen to appease the golf fans doesn't do much for me.

[iacas]

1 hour ago, WilliamB said:

getting the split screen to appease the golf fans

I don't think that's a correct phrase.

[jmanbooyaa]

Simply less commercials and useless commentary. Don’t get me wrong if they have something useful to say. Please by all means. Mostly it is just color. 

[boogielicious]

2 minutes ago, jmanbooyaa said:

Simply less commercials and useless commentary. Don’t get me wrong if they have something useful to say. Please by all means. Mostly it is just color. 

But isn’t that true for other sports where there are time breaks like football and baseball? Lots of commentary to fill the void. Hockey and basketball are less because of the flow of the game.

[jmanbooyaa]

Just now, boogielicious said:

But isn’t that true for other sports where there are time breaks like football and baseball? Lots of commentary to fill the void. Hockey and basketball are less because of the flow of the game.

Probably true. More noticeable with golf. 

[boogielicious]

1 minute ago, jmanbooyaa said:

Probably true. More noticeable with golf. 

Agree because it’s a more methodical sport.