Fixing Tour Golf Coverage on TV

[xxsoultonesxx]

I don't see what the beef is with Nick Faldo. I think his commentary is far and above better than any of the other announcers that GC has on payroll. Why don't you like him?

[cbrian]

Faldo's less than educated remarks have been pointed out many times. The man knows his swing to some extent, but that seems about as far as it goes.

[michaeljames92]

Does anyone know what happened to Protracer? I loved that, but i haven't seen it in a broadcast for ages, or maybe it's just me?

I noticed this on youtube, real time protracer as the shot is hit, rather than analysis after the shot is hit.

[LongballGer]

1) More technology especially protracer

2) The announcing is okay except that when it comes to giving out technical information about a players swing Faldo, Miller, Kostis etc... don´t know more about the golf swing than your average driving range hacker. They have proven this many times. Get someone that knows what he´s talking about to comment on players swings.

3) Preview some of the tougher/interesting holes like in the Tiger Woods video games.

4) cool thing would be if you were somehow able to follow a particular group of your choice. This could be done via internet broadcast.

...however nothing is more boring than the European Tour coverage. So in that regard I like the Golf Channel coverage a lot.

[Clambake]

Originally Posted by dmnoland

Second, JD is in the lead and I have yet to see a tee shot from him today. Again the GC has their cameras on nothing but Tiger and Phil.

BTW, one reason for this has nothing to do with an infatuation of Tiger and Phil, but that Daly was chain smoking his way around the whole golf course.     By agreement with the FCC, the networks greatly limit any portrayals of smoking on TV.      I was at Torrey both days on the weekend, and never once saw JD without a cigarette in his mouth or hand except when he'd drop it to hit.

[Clambake]

Most people I know who watch golf (even those who are avid players) do so as a secondary activity, i.e. they have the golf broadcast on in the background while doing something else.   Here are some of my miscellaneous ideas to make it more compelling so that watching is a primary activity and not background noise:

1. Cheerleaders.     Put 'em at each tee box with some music, doing routines to fire up the gallery.
2. Long Drive Contest.    Start out Sunday's coverage with a Long Drive contest with the pros.
3. Create a "halftime".     Other sports have break from the action for a bit and use that to fill in with other reporting (like player profiles) and entertainment.
4. Trick shot exhibitions.      Put in the halftime mentioned above and have one of those trick shot wizards entertain for a few minutes.
5. Better sideline reporters.      OK, they are usually reasonably competent, but let's spice it up.   The NFL, NBA, etc. have taken to putting in attractive female reporters for their predominantly male audience, so golf can do likewise.   We need to see less of people like Kostis and McCord and more of reporters like Erin Andrews, Alex Flanagan, Melissa Stark, etc.
6. Game within the Game.      Have a skins game going on within each group to make the stakes a little more interesting.    I can hear the sideline reporter (Erin, perhaps?) saying "Well, Westwood's leading the tournament right now and can play safe, but with 6 carryover skins worth $250k on this hole will he fire right at the pin?"
7. Alcohol.     The player with honors at each tee has to do a tequila shooter.   Should even out the competition a bit if a player gets hot.
8. Shot Clock.    Let's really put the players on a clock, and not a toothless one like the PGA uses.   Make it an actual shot clock like NFL or basketball, and use it!
9. More microphones on the players.      Let's really get the conversations between caddies and other players on the audio.   At Torrey last weekend while walking around I was surprised at the amount of banter that was taking place between the players - let's get their chatter on the air.
10. Let 'em wear shorts.     For some reason a sport wearing slacks just loses a bit of crowd appeal.   Let's let the players show off their legs for the viewing enjoyment of our female viewers.
11. Cheerleaders.   Did I mention cheerleaders?

[RC]

How many countless hours of golf TV have I watched seeing some pro, any pro, knocking in a two foot putt.  Maybe show birdies, or three putts, or critical putts, but why spend all that time showing a 2 or 2 and 1/2 foot knock-ins that 99 percent of golfers would routinely make?  Are we supposed to develop tension thinking a miss is coming?  If so, just show the misses.

[B-Con]

What I'd like to see replaced: 1) High profile players walking down the fairway. - Cut out Woods walking up the fairway and show me a talented player who hasn't gotten much airtime yet. I hate watching a tournament and seeing a player walking up the fairway while I wonder how exactly player X managed to rocket up to position Y in the standings when I haven't even seen a shot by him that day. (I don't mind watching players deliberate on shots and line up shots, but I don't care for idle walking. Walking is somewhat boring by itself, watching other people due it is just cruel.) 2) Close-ups of ball flight. - I'd prefer that they showed a wider view of the shot and traced the ball's flight. I don't gain anything watching the camera zoom in on the ball against a green or blue backdrop. 3) Awkward angles of ball flight. - Along the lines of the previous one: Overhead views that are angled against one of the tree lines are almost useless for me without a tracer. I just see the ball take off and then I lose it against a mixture of fairway and trees and eventually find it again once it comes close to landing. And due to the perspective, I have little idea how the ball traveled in flight. Again, I'd like views that are as close to overhead as possible with a tracer turned on. And something I'd like to see added: 1) I'd like to see more comparison of players' swing styles. I'd like to see a twosome tee off and then see a side-by-side of the two player's swings and see what they did differently on a relatively similar shot. Golf is fun to watch, but unfortunately a decent amount of the actual second-by-second time spent watching it can be boring.

[laconic517]

Im all for shot tracker and swingvision

Aimpoint is really stupid IMO.

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Clambake

Most people I know who watch golf (even those who are avid players) do so as a secondary activity, i.e. they have the golf broadcast on in the background while doing something else.   Here are some of my miscellaneous ideas to make it more compelling so that watching is a primary activity and not background noise:

Cheerleaders.     Put 'em at each tee box with some music, doing routines to fire up the gallery.

Long Drive Contest.    Start out Sunday's coverage with a Long Drive contest with the pros.

Create a "halftime".     Other sports have break from the action for a bit and use that to fill in with other reporting (like player profiles) and entertainment.

Trick shot exhibitions.      Put in the halftime mentioned above and have one of those trick shot wizards entertain for a few minutes.

Better sideline reporters.      OK, they are usually reasonably competent, but let's spice it up.   The NFL, NBA, etc. have taken to putting in attractive female reporters for their predominantly male audience, so golf can do likewise.   We need to see less of people like Kostis and McCord and more of reporters like Erin Andrews, Alex Flanagan, Melissa Stark, etc.

Game within the Game.      Have a skins game going on within each group to make the stakes a little more interesting.    I can hear the sideline reporter (Erin, perhaps?) saying "Well, Westwood's leading the tournament right now and can play safe, but with 6 carryover skins worth $250k on this hole will he fire right at the pin?"

Alcohol.     The player with honors at each tee has to do a tequila shooter.   Should even out the competition a bit if a player gets hot.

Shot Clock.    Let's really put the players on a clock, and not a toothless one like the PGA uses.   Make it an actual shot clock like NFL or basketball, and use it!

More microphones on the players.      Let's really get the conversations between caddies and other players on the audio.   At Torrey last weekend while walking around I was surprised at the amount of banter that was taking place between the players - let's get their chatter on the air.

Let 'em wear shorts.     For some reason a sport wearing slacks just loses a bit of crowd appeal.   Let's let the players show off their legs for the viewing enjoyment of our female viewers.

Cheerleaders.   Did I mention cheerleaders?

12.0 Shotgun start so all the players are on the course at the same time. Just start the leaders on #1.

[motteler621]

yea Ive been thinking about this for awhile. There really needs to be a way to see the flight of the shots instead of a guy swinging, closeup of ball in air and then it hitting the ground. It will really bring Golf coverage to a new level when we can actually see the height trajectory and flight of the pros different shots. Thats what golf is about

[JerseyThursday]

Less erectile dysfunction and brokerage firm ads.

The demographic for the golf television audience must be men too dumb/lazy to do their own due diligence on investing who also can’t get wood.

[Aquaguru]

Originally Posted by JerseyThursday

Less erectile dysfunction and brokerage firm ads.

The demographic for the golf television audience must be men too dumb/lazy to do their own due diligence on investing who also can’t get wood.

I couldn't agree more.  Its everywhere.  The game of golf has a new young generation of golfers that are interested including me (21) lets quit having a ED commercial at every break.

[yimpydimpy]

It's all about the wealth management commercials.

[mtsalmela80]

Originally Posted by cbrian

Faldo's less than educated remarks have been pointed out many times. The man knows his swing to some extent, but that seems about as far as it goes.

By who, people on this forum? The man has been in golf his whole life and has a pile of championship wins. To say he knows nothing more about the golf swing than an average range hack is just idiotic.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by mtsalmela80

By who, people on this forum? The man has been in golf his whole life and has a pile of championship wins. To say he knows nothing more about the golf swing than an average range hack is just idiotic.

Once again, success doing something doesn't guarantee that he can explain it to others or even knew exactly what he was doing to begin with. Feel ain't real, and you're darn right that "an average range hack" can know more than Nick Faldo about some important things.

Ball flight laws for starters.

P.S. cbrian ain't an "average range hack."

[ControlJunkie]

Yeah, I'm resurrecting a month-old thread, sue me. Today and tomorrow at Doral are prime examples of why coverage sucks. Even though it's only Thursday, and nothing major is gonna happen, everyone should be able to see Tiger/Phil/McDowell's entire round. I realize there is a weather delay and all now, and so chances are a big part of it will be televised now, but if not for the weather, they would have missed a big opportunity to watch two of the biggest superstars in the game in a rare round together. That would be like the Lakers playing the Heat and only the 2nd and 3rd quarters are televised, and during that coverage, you don't see much of Kobe and LeBron. There are probably better fitting sports analogies, but that's the first that comes to mind.

I know I said this earlier, but I want to be able to select which group I want to watch, and being that the first two rounds of tournaments are during most people's normal working hours, I want to be able to watch those groups online, and seamlessly switch between feeds for each at any time. Kinda sorta similar to how DirecTV does majors, but more. Why haven't they embraced this yet? It's infuriating to me.

[newtogolf]

Originally Posted by ControlJunkie

I know I said this earlier, but I want to be able to select which group I want to watch, and being that the first two rounds of tournaments are during most people's normal working hours, I want to be able to watch those groups online, and seamlessly switch between feeds for each at any time. Kinda sorta similar to how DirecTV does majors, but more. Why haven't they embraced this yet? It's infuriating to me.

I agree 100%.

The nature of sports production has to change for us to get that level of control.  It seems sports producers feel some sports aren't interesting enough on their own, so they need to "present" the event like a story and therefore decide for us what's important and not important.