Palmer-Bay Hill: Running Out of Time

[Frank-0-Sport]

Greetings ..

On Sunday March 18, 2007, the 4th round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill was played. Justin Leonard, the 79th player in the post-36-hole-cut weekend field teed off at 7:57 AM EDT, not long after sunrise. Tiger Woods teed off at 1:00 PM, Vijay Singh at at 1:36 PM, and 3rd Round leaders Vaughn Taylor and Ben Curtis at 1:45 PM.

When NBC-TV went on the air at 2:30 PM, Leonard had long since finished, and with no groups in front, very quickly, no doubt! Meanwhile, Taylor and Curtis were on the 4th green, Singh was playing the 5th and Woods was starting the Back 9.

By approximately 5:52 P.M., Singh had finished and was assured of victory. Taylor and Curtis were just about to play the 18th. At 5:55 pm, Singh had a brief TV interview with NBC's Jimmy Roberts. This was not the official closing cermony, and tournament host Arnold Palmer was not present. Taylor and Curtis were still on the 18th when NBC's Dan Hicks announced that the Peacock Network had run out of its allotted air time and signed off.

Now it's after 6:00 PM and there is no TV coverage as Taylor and Curtis finish up their round. Minutes after that, the official closing ceremony begins. The gathering includes Arnold Palmer, Vijay Singh, tournament officials, charity representatives and the major sponsors, including MasterCard.

Decades ago (Yes, I go back that far), all play in a regular event would be over early enough that TV could show a trophy presentation, plus an extended interview with the winner as well as the tournament host(s).

It's not that way anymore.

Thanx-A-Lot, Frank-0-Sport

[Cleveland Gunmetal]

yeah, I pretty much agree with you. They did however have Arnold Palmer on the air, well, pretty much all 4 days. But I agree, the end was sloppy. The interview with Vijay was obviously rushed and nothing from Arnie himself. You know, had Vijay been in that last group, or if CUrtis or Taylor still had a shot to win, they would have stayed right there. I understand the Reno-Tahoe open (or whatever it is these days) being rushed due to time but this is a big event with bigtime sponsors and a bigtime field. Oh well.

[PalmIII]

The theory being that packing more golf into coverage is preferential to championship ceremonies. The networks and the Tour have done focus groups on this, and they know what people want to see.

Viewers don't care about seeing Al Smith, Honda VP of Sales, handing over a trophy to Joe Blow, or even Tiger Woods, for that matter. They want to see action, so they try to set up the tee times for such acommodations, even though they have an agreement that, "time permitting," the Cooper Tires Ce o can hand over the sword to Vijay.

But, I don't care to see the presentation, and neither does the majority of the people who tune into golf on Sundays.

[golfchief]

They could speed up the game if they prohibit the players from walking 20 to 70yrds toward the green to see where to hit the shot too, thats what the practice rounds are for. they have plenty of info about the course as it is.

[Fisherdude]

This is becoming pretty standard, and the only thing that made this one a little different was the fact that Arnie was there. Otherwise, I fully agree with previous posts that I couldn't care less about watching some VP of marketing stumble through his stage fright.

I'm reachin' for the remote as soon as it's "over".