2016 L.A. Open (Northern Trust) Discussion Thread

[Natural Patrick]

1 hour ago, nevets88 said:

Nowhere near the much wanted McIlroy/Spieth showdown. 

Weird not hearing Feherty. The new graphics look like current website design, Google's new font, designed to be viewable in small to large viewports.

Despite intent to broadcast fewer commercials, not sure if it was CBS who said it, but didn't sense much of any reduced commercial time.

Did you watch Pebble Beach last week? Big improvement over that

[boogielicious]

I think they did a better job showing shots, especially for the final three groups. They have a tendency to focus too much on putting. But with quirky holes like the drive-able 10th, they spent more time showing the approach shots, which I liked.

[nevets88]

11 hours ago, Natural Patrick said:

Did you watch Pebble Beach last week? Big improvement over that

Skipped it and only caught the last 5 minutes. Imho, if PB is the bar we're measuring against, we've gone a long way down. It's not the best measure though because of the celebrities.

11 hours ago, DeadMan said:

Great article about CBS' awful coverage: http://nolayingup.com/2016/02/21/eye-on-cbs-an-intervention/

Watched about an hour, and it didn't seem as bad as it was at Pebble Beach. But it still could be a lot better. I think the author is right that CBS got complacent with Tiger, where they could only focus on him and people would be happy. Now that golf doesn't have that dominant player any more, they have to show more players. And they haven't adjusted to that yet. Or they don't care.

That was a great piece, although imho, NBC isn't that much better - Miller is getting repetitive and that annoying guy that does the essay pieces, Roberts. Even if you cut CBS some slack for Feherty, Oosterhuis gone and folding in Pepper, the broadcast was disappointing. There were some great angles on 18, like Scott's approach, KJ's fairway wood escape, some assorted recovery shots. And the added radar apex and distance numbers are good.

But like the article said, you can't blame any of the announcers, they're doing what they're told. Basically, having experienced The Masters coverage, where you can have 3 to 4 windows open playing different streams along with much better conversations than the announcing via messaging friends plus endless stats available opened a pandora's box to the casual+ viewers who can see really how good a golf telecast can be and what the networks have to offer, sorely lacking. Sadly, given the networks' history, you're not going to see much improvement.

Here are some highlights:

Quote

 Here’s something to consider as we dive into the 175 minute telecast: CBS presented 184 live or semi-live golf shots, between 90 and 95 commercials (depending upon your local affiliate), and a mind-numbing amount of fluff in between.

Quote

A few issues with regard to technology: No effort made to show the design of the golf course. Flyovers, explanations, some way to show elevation changes, nothing. NBC often uses technology to show the slopes of each green (and does so without interrupting the action) – would be a cool feature on a classic course like this with, ya know, severe greens. Also very limited use of ProTracer. I get the sense that they’re on a budget and skimping hard. All of this is particularly ironic considering this Q&A with Mr. Barrow.

Don’t recall hearing any caddie-player convos. Shame.

At least half the top twenty players on the leaderboard did not have a single shot shown on television.

It’s unbelievable how many PGA Tour produced commercials there are. We’re already watching your tournament,  let the action speak for itself instead of putting together some splashy commercial that everyone resents after the third or fourth week of it airing.

I’m convinced at least 20% of the shots are canned, most of which aren’t mentioned as such.

I enjoy Peter Kostis – I get the sense that he knows the coverage is crap and is more or less stuck. That’s probably true for a lot of people working on the telecast,t; professionals who follow orders.

Also, props to the PGA Tour for posting more videos to its Twitter account.

[bmartin461]

I went on Sunday and it was great fun to see these guys in person.  Watching them hammer the driver is a thing of beauty.  Rory is very short in person, but is fairly yoked.  

We were positioned on the 13th fairway about where the drives were landing watching several groups come through when Brendan Steele hit his drive right.  It was a very high drive and came down 25 feet right if the rope line I was standing next to, it hit this guy standing in the beer line square on the top of his head, bounced 30 feet in the air, and landed just off the fairway in the rough in front of me.  The sound it made off the top of that guys head was a very disturbing "ping".   The guy was in a bit of shock, didn't really notice what happened, put his hand on top of his head and then the blood just started to gush down his face and he promptly sat down.  The EMTs took him off a bit later, Brendan gave him a signed glove and looked upset about the fact he caused that injury, he did not hit his next shot well.

That was a fun spot to watch from as several drives went right, it was very entertaining with the crowds there.

 

[nevets88]

KJ Choi's fairway wood threads the eye of the needle.

 

[ppine]

Golf is much more interesting to watch when recorded first, and the advance feature is used liberally.

[Golfingdad]

Anybody know what Kokrak's "Blaster" sponsor is?  I couldn't find it anywhere.  Just curious.

[nevets88]

20 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Anybody know what Kokrak's "Blaster" sponsor is?  I couldn't find it anywhere.  Just curious.

Maybe this? I thought it was some new Callaway driver or something like that.

[Lihu]

http://www.cbssports.com/golf/eye-on-golf/25491387/bubba-watson-reveals-he-passed-a-kidney-stone-before-northern-trust-open-win

http://cbsprt.co/1ox8SNU

[Golfingdad]

7 hours ago, nevets88 said:

Maybe this? I thought it was some new Callaway driver or something like that.

That's it!  That "font" (not sure if that's the right word - but I mean the crooked arrangement of the letters, along with the exclamation point) and red is definitely what it said on his shirt.

No wonder my google searches came up empty - I had the word "golf" in all of them. 

[nevets88]

11 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

That's it!  That "font" (not sure if that's the right word - but I mean the crooked arrangement of the letters, along with the exclamation point) and red is definitely what it said on his shirt.

No wonder my google searches came up empty - I had the word "golf" in all of them. 

I Google image searched "blaster logo". Apparently, it's a well known rust remover. The disconnect for me is the demographic doesn't make sense. OTOH, now I know what to buy if I need to loosen those rusted bolts.

I missed this: Jordan Spieth hits a tee marker on the range, ball rebounds back.

 

[nevets88]

This shouldn't be any surprise, as stats bear out that Kokrak's average driving distance is more than Watson's according to pgatour.com, but you just don't see this often, a guy 20 yards in front of Watson, no? Granted though both hit driver, Watson hit a fade.

 

[nevets88]

Make sure you're watching this in HD. I love seeing the ball flight like this. If only the camera tilted up a little more towards the end. That's HD, imagine 4K, even 2K. I like Protracer. I like the real thing even more. 

 

 

[colin007]

1 hour ago, nevets88 said:

Make sure you're watching this in HD. I love seeing the ball flight like this. If only the camera tilted up a little more towards the end. That's HD, imagine 4K, even 2K. I like Protracer. I like the real thing even more. 

 

 

 

that was friggin awesome...makes you realize also how HIGH those guys hit the ball too.  i can hit it high, i deliver 75 degrees of effective loft with a two iron...