Sick of Kelly Tilghman?

[flanagan]

My wife is an accomplished professional who has had to overcome outright discrimination, so I'm sensitive to these matters. I'm just talking about reaction to her TV presence. I would feel the same way about Pee Wee Herman's voice; I don't feel the same way about Dottie Pepper's voice (maybe that's because I met her once). A subjective observation, I'll grant you, but TV presence is a highly subjective activity. I do think she's improved over the past year.

Not sensitive enough, apparently. You didn't say Kelly Tilghman, you said "women" can't come across as enthusiastic and convey excitement without sounding shrill. You are entitled to that opinion, but it is an over-generalized and sexist remark, period.

[Trav]

Not sensitive enough, apparently. You didn't say Kelly Tilghman, you said "women" can't come across as enthusiastic and convey excitement without sounding shrill. You are entitled to that opinion, but it is an over-generalized and sexist remark, period.

Since you're parsing words, please note I didn't say they CAN'T, I said it's hard for them not to sound that way to me, and I noted specific exceptions.

You too are entitled to your opinion, but not to overgeneralizing.

[Shorty]

Kelly's voice is not bad. In my opinion, Judy Rankin and Dottie are the two best,with the nod to Dottie because she is not afraid to "say it like it is", and has emotion in her voice.

So if KT called the U.S. Solheim Cup team "choking freaking dogs" that would be OK, then, if telling it like it is is what you like?

Seems to me that some would accept that type of talk from Pepper but not KT.

[Shorty]

Could possibly one of the reasons why she hasn't been replaced is the fact that she is good friends with Arnold Palmer? Who, if my memory serves me correct, is a co-founder of the Golf Channel?

Might even be the fact that they are very happy with her performance and have never even considered replacing her.

Move to Australia if you want to hear some awful golf commentating!!

[From the tips]

OK, what about the other female idiot(not to sound chauvanistic at all, but...) Inga Hammond???? How annoying is she?? I hate everything agout her as well. It's not just those two. The one new guy with the English accent(not Faldo) is egually disturbing.

Bring back Peter Kessler!!!!

[bogeymike]

As long as Joe Buck and Tim McCarver don't start doing golf I'll be happy. With a lot of sports announcers I just hit the "Mute" button and put some tunes on. Life's too short to worry about it

[SubPar]

She has college and professional golf experience, has worked her way up with the Golf Channel and does okay. And she could beat the vast majority of people on this forum at golf.

If she knows so much about golf why is she always asking stupid questions?

They were showing some swing stats on screen one day and she cluelessly asked "Launch Spin? What is that?" Another time, a ball sat on the edge of the hole and the player was coming to the green from over 100 yards away and she asked what would happen if the ball fell in the hole: "Would it count?". Someone like Dottie Pepper can actually comment on tactics, rules and swing mechanics, where Ms. T can't. Every time Kelly opens her mouth regarding any aspect of the game she reveals her lack of depth. I saw her swinging on some bit they taped with the various commentators hitting balls and I would not be so sure she could bet most of us. SubPar

[iacas]

They were showing some swing stats on screen one day and she cluelessly asked "Launch Spin? What is that?"

I highly doubt that she doesn't know what it means. She was likely trying to set up another announcer.

I saw her swinging on some bit they taped with the various commentators hitting balls and I would not be so sure she could bet most of us.

You seem to be unaware of her past history as a pro and a Division 1 golfer (at Duke). Besides, I'm sure I could beat Pat Summerall, but he was still one of the golf announcing greats.

[SubPar]

I highly doubt that she doesn't know what it means. She was likely trying to set up another announcer.

She did a great job of "setting up" another announcer... Faldo and the others just ignored her and continued talking among themselves

If she is an accomplished golfer, she seems to have no insight into the game, or at least does not share her genius with the rest of us. What golfer who's ever played competitive golf would not know that a ball that falls in the hole before you get to it is holed out? There are plenty of scratch golfers who would make terrible on air personalities. Some day the true story of how she got her grossly under talented self into this position will be told by an insider Thank God TGC has been pulling her back from anchoring these broadcasts. She's dreadful. SubPar

[iacas]

If she is an accomplished golfer

It's not a matter of "if." Look it up for yourself. Why continue to speak from a position of ignorance?

[BlueRidgePro]

Tilghman adds nothing to the broadcasts. I don't believe that she has any LPGA experience, or certainly doesn't demonstrate any. She also does not seem to have any broadcast or journalism training, given the way she speaks and how shallow most of her comments are.

There are many far better female announcer options, including Pepper and Rankin. Judy Rankin would be a first-rate lead, and Dottie would sure add color commentary. Rankin is as good as any golf announcer on TV today.

I'm at a loss as to how Tilghman got the job in the first place. She must have, or had, some connection to Golf Channel ownership. There certainly are better options for a lead commentator, especially now that TGC seems to be moving toward being the predominant broadcaster of TV golf. I'm sure that the new owners will make the correction.

That said, I must admit that I could/would not watch golf without my Tivo. I record tournaments, or start recording an hour or so before starting to watch. That way I can skip all of the commercials, the banter between announcers, dumb interviews, and the mandatory speech by the CEO of the sponsoring company, telling us how great the weather, course, players, and fans are and how proud that the company is to blow a few million as the sponsor (although in the current economy, this should scale back...).

Try this - count how many golf shots that you see between the commercial breaks. It's usually 1 or two full shots, and 1 or 2 putts, with a lot of walking around and lining up by the players. I've seen cases where they show only 2 shots between commercials. Thank god for Tivo fast forward!

I can watch a 3 hour tournament in under 90 minutes, and see every shot that they show. European tournaments have a much better content to noise ratio, if one can ignore the sad camera work.

[flanagan]

Tilghman adds nothing to the broadcasts. I don't believe that she has any LPGA experience, or certainly doesn't demonstrate any.

So we'll ignore the fact her bio is out there for anyone to look up in 30 seconds, and the fact that her college and pro golf experience, etc. has already been discussed in this very thread. Basically factual things, pretty easy to check out.

They've got Faldo for the commentary, she's really filling the Jim Nance role, and does that pretty well, but she has legitimate golf credentials. Everyone at the GC is being reviewed this year, according to management, so it will be interesting to see what happens for 2010. I predict she is still there next year. One recent note, they are bringing Jim Gray, formerly of the stupid Pete Rose interview (and other stupid interviews) and NBC, on board soon. I doubt this will prove at all popular. I'm not a big Rich Lerner fan, but Gray is annoying to listen to and wants to be part of the story, don't expect any captivating "essays", like we really want them anyway.

[iacas]

Judy Rankin would be a first-rate lead, and Dottie would sure add color commentary. Rankin is as good as any golf announcer on TV today.

Rankin is also not a Golf Channel employee, AFAIK, and has made a living walking the fairways with groups, NOT sitting in a tower.

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/talent-bios/ I used to do college radio. You don't talk for at least 4.5 minutes at a time. It's not the easiest thing in the world (nor the toughest).

I'm at a loss as to how Tilghman got the job in the first place. She must have, or had, some connection to Golf Channel ownership.

Allegations like this make you look bad when the facts are, I believe, easiliy found. She started out sorting videos or something IIRC and worked her way up.

Try this - count how many golf shots that you see between the commercial breaks. It's usually 1 or two full shots, and 1 or 2 putts, with a lot of walking around and lining up by the players.

http://thesandtrap.com/the_numbers_g..._golf_coverage

[BlueRidgePro]

I stand by my points:

- She is not a good announcer
- She has weak golf credentials, relative to other candidates
- There are many other better people for the job
- People with this lack of talent and weak credentials seldom just "work their way up"

Different opinions are what make for a forum...

[Bryan72]

Im jumping on the I hate kelly bus, this was decided after playing tiger woods 09 last night.

[iacas]

- She is not a good announcer

Opinion. And you're entitled to it - just be wary of stating it like it's fact.

- She has weak golf credentials, relative to other candidates

Her "golf credentials" are miles and miles better than Jim Nantz, Pat Summerall, and Jim Mckay. "Golf credentials" are perhaps over-rated.

There are many other better people for the job

... that work at Golf Channel? That would work at Golf Channel for the peanuts they reportedly pay? You don't know.

People with this lack of talent and weak credentials seldom just "work their way up"

That's an allegation without any evidence to back it up. This is where you cross the line from "opinion" into "oblivious."

For the record, I don't really care one way or the other about Kelly. She's not bad, she's not great. Some like her, some don't. Announcing is tough.

[SubPar]

It's not a matter of "if." Look it up for yourself. Why continue to speak from a position of ignorance?

The only "ignorance" on display here seems to be your avoiding the rest of my post which relates to the point of this discussion, and focusing on something hardly relevant to the debate. We're not debating how good her golf game is. Maybe you can address the relevant questions about whether she is any good as a commentator or why she seems to not have much knowledge about the game.

I made a flawed assumption, but a natural one, that anyone who is an accomplished player would know more than she does about the game. My comment was an "if-then" statement that marginally concedes the point you are defending. When you get the nerve, deal with the "then" part

Rankin is also not a Golf Channel employee,

I wasn't aware you already have to work at the Golf Channel in order to get a spot on camera. I guess they only hire from within. You start unloading the trucks on the dock, then move up to the kitchen and then the register and so on.

I guess Faldo was someone's assistant a few years ago.

[iacas]

The only "ignorance" on display here seems to be your avoiding the rest of my post which relates to the point of this discussion, and focusing on something hardly relevant to the debate.

I wasn't avoiding it. It's opinion. You've got yours and I don't care about yours enough to try to change it.

I do care about people spouting off, particularly when they do so from ignorance:

She is just a twit... Once she showed herself to know "zero" about the game...

You don't know how much she knows about the game - nor do I - but her golf experience directly speaks to her likely level of knowledge.

And somehow you feel it's appropriate to call her names. Bravo, sir.

Maybe you can address the relevant questions about whether she is any good as a commentator or why she seems to not have much knowledge about the game.

I gave a possible explanation for that. It's called a setup. It happens all the time in broadcasting, and almost always from the play-by-play announcer to the color announcer. I don't like it either, but "asking the question" is not the same as "doesn't have golf knowledge."

Johnny Miller seems to frustrate so many people because he'll ask these "stupid" questions and then answer them himself: Johnny: "Gary, can you tell us about his lie there? It looks like he's going to have trouble spinning the ball." Gary: "Well, Johnny, it buried just a litt..." Johnny: "Right, so he's going to have trouble getting any spin, he'll have to chunk and run this and the green slopes away... (etc.)" It's a setup question, and if Faldo doesn't answer it, that could be partly his fault. I watched him answer a question the play-by-play person asked of Paul Azinger the other day, so it's not like he's a perfect announcer himself.

I made a flawed assumption, but a natural one, that anyone who is an accomplished player would know more than she does about the game.

No, your flaw was in assuming that there couldn't possibly be a reason for her to "play dumb" - and that she must truly be a "twit" who asks "stupid questions."

That you continued to believe your assumption despite the high likelihood she does know the answers to the questions - having been around the game for so long and having played the game at a fairly high level - was the particularly obnoxious part.

I wasn't aware you already have to work at the Golf Channel in order to get a spot on camera.

Didn't say you had to. Your post came off to me as if getting Judy Rankin in the tower - not even her usual position - was as simple as saying "Judy, get in there."

You're entitled to your position and opinion, and I don't care that you don't like Kelly Tilghman. Big whoop. Again, I don't care one way or the other for her myself. But I do care that you're making allegations based on assumptions about her level of intellect and golf knowledge that are quite likely dead wrong and rejecting possible and even probable explanations.