CBS golf coverage ripped

[Wally Fairway]

No Laying Up calls out CBS for their coverage of golf, basically pointing out how little live golf is actually shown and the 30+ minutes gap between Golf Channel coverage and CBS broadcast.

I noticed how poor the announcers were - comparing a shot Sung Kang hit in Monday/Tuesday qualifier to Tigers shot at 16 in the Masters and saying how Fluff was on the bag for both; which someone else quickly corrected pointing out it was Williams on Tigers bag at that Masters.

http://nolayingup.com/2016/02/21/eye-on-cbs-an-intervention/

 

[Gunther]

The golf shot:commercial ratio is something that has annoyed me with CBS and NBC/GC.  I only watch DVR'd golf now and I'm constantly FFng.

This is why I was so impressed with the Fox coverage.  I don't know the actual numbers relative to that ratio but to my eye, it sure seemed Fox covered about 15 golf shots per commercial break vs. 4 or 5 for CBS and NBC/GC.

Lots of great points raised in the article.  Sure hope someone takes it to heart.

[jgreen85]

agreed. I was so frustrated with them showing Bubba stand around waiting for a rules official; I never want to see a putt less than 4ft again unless it's the 16th hole and beyond. Thank goodness for DVR and other sports.

[newtogolf]

  On 2/22/2016 at 3:45 PM, jgreen85 said:

agreed. I was so frustrated with them showing Bubba stand around waiting for a rules official; I never want to see a putt less than 4ft again unless it's the 16th hole and beyond. Thank goodness for DVR and other sports.

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I agree, unless it's the final putt of the round, don't waste my time for 4' or less putts.  I know the putt is the equivalent to "scoring" in golf but no one wants to see short putts.  

[Fourputt]

  On 2/22/2016 at 3:53 PM, newtogolf said:

I agree, unless it's the final putt of the round, don't waste my time for 4' or less putts.  I know the putt is the equivalent to "scoring" in golf but no one wants to see short putts.  

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They can always show the replay in the rare occurrence that a player misses a virtual tap-in.  Watching players line up 2 footers is utter tedium.

[Elmer]

Good article with many, many valid points and criticism.
For the record I want the shot tracer on every shot, maybe even puts.
Since I watch the majority of golf in my kitchen on a small screen, while cooking it is impossible to see the shotBut I realize I am in the minority!

It is funny, every time I turned from the stove to the TV there was a commercial on!

[MrFlipper]

As someone who grew up watching golf on TV, the focus sure has changed, especially with CBS.

Nantz is the star, the show is about him, there didn't use to be a "star" as the non-golfer emcee, it was someone understated like Pat Summerall. When Nantz was young it wasn't bad, but now he's so self important. ("By the way Jim, nice job on the Super Bowl!" Thanks Nick. Oh, vomit!) Buck is the same way, though no one on NBC seems like that.

Since the demographics for golf shows are relatively unique, seems like sponsors fall all over themselves to be a part, between the medical commercials and the trust fund baby commercials it's too much. Over and over with the same commercials: the one with the 40 somethings swimming with turtles for their life mission was bad enough the first time. It's almost like watching SportsCenter, in that they don't expect folks to watch more than 30 minutes without re-rolling the same commercials.

It just seems that CBS is no longer interested in the casual golf fan, since they can sell the commercial time to a captive audience they are more interested in blowing smoke up the sponsor's asses and rubbing elbows. The golf is secondary to the personalities and the sponsors.  Since that's where the money is, I guess it shouldn't surprise me. Kind of like politics, it seems.

[nevets88]

Imho, both channels, CBS, NBC, the reporters inject themselves into the events way too much. We are a captive audience. There's only one place to watch the PGA Tour and we're forced to watch through this stuff. You can switch away or fast forward, but it takes time away from actual golf shots.

[Fourputt]

  On 2/22/2016 at 4:29 PM, Elmer said:

Good article with many, many valid points and criticism.
For the record I want the shot tracer on every shot, maybe even puts.
Since I watch the majority of golf in my kitchen on a small screen, while cooking it is impossible to see the shotBut I realize I am in the minority!

It is funny, every time I turned from the stove to the TV there was a commercial on!

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The commercials were totally out of control.  I watched the final round and managed to read half a book during the breaks.  Really pathetic, without even Feherty to provide some comic relief.

[dave s]

Flipping between CAVS / OKC basketball game and golf found commercials on the golf coverage nearly every time.  Got to watch the end because the basketball game ended.

No wonder the Masters on CBS is 'with limited commercial interruption.' Nobody would watch under NORMAL, (every 4 minutes!) commercial interruption.

Give me another network, Johnny Miller and David Feherity any day!

dave

[No Mulligans]

The flip side, the excessive amount of commercials are a benefit to me. By using the DVR and fast-forward through commercials and some of the fluff, I'm able to watch the tournament in a much more reasonable amount of time.  

[Missouri Swede]

I gave up this weekend when they came back from a commercial break, showed one putt (!), and then went back to commercials.  Even watching on the DVR, it was annoying.

[Golfingdad]

  On 2/22/2016 at 6:59 PM, No Mulligans said:

The flip side, the excessive amount of commercials are a benefit to me. By using the DVR and fast-forward through commercials and some of the fluff, I'm able to watch the tournament in a much more reasonable amount of time.  

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I agree with all of the complaints, but this is a good "glass half full" way to look at it.  The downside to them simply showing more golf means that they're showing shots of people who we really might not care about because they aren't in contention.  So a good answer to taht would be to simply watch it on tape I guess.

I prefer my sports live when I can get them though, so like all of you I'd just rather they show more shots, less commercials, skip the gimme putts unless they miss, and I could really do without the Kostis critique of Marky Marks golf swing.

[Fourputt]

  On 2/22/2016 at 6:59 PM, No Mulligans said:

The flip side, the excessive amount of commercials are a benefit to me. By using the DVR and fast-forward through commercials and some of the fluff, I'm able to watch the tournament in a much more reasonable amount of time.  

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That being what little part of the action they deign to actually show.  If they are going to mostly focus on the leaders, I'm okay with that, but lets see some of the side stuff that we see in other tournaments.  Stuff like what was mentioned in that article, like the player and caddie discussing options, and maybe a bit more of the ball flight and terrain contour information.

[nevets88]

  On 2/22/2016 at 7:34 PM, Golfingdad said:

I agree with all of the complaints, but this is a good "glass half full" way to look at it.  The downside to them simply showing more golf means that they're showing shots of people who we really might not care about because they aren't in contention.  So a good answer to taht would be to simply watch it on tape I guess.

I prefer my sports live when I can get them though, so like all of you I'd just rather they show more shots, less commercials, skip the gimme putts unless they miss, and I could really do without the Kostis critique of Marky Marks golf swing.

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I agree with you, but if you look at Sunday's leaderboard, a lot of guys who didn't get any airtime had good rounds. Kuchar, Laird, Martin, Hadwin, List (he's a bomber, show him), Appleby and some lesser known players broke 70. I think showing a wider variety of players makes for a more interesting telecast. When there are fewer players on the course, instead of playing stupid s****y f***ing BS commercials, they could recap good rounds by promising or lesser known players. I just find the format so stale and creaky.

I think these guys don't have to do much to keep their stranglehold on the telecast, so they don't do much to innovate. The fact that one of the announcers said Watson's apex was as high as he hits it when it isn't according to PGA stats makes me think they don't do much to prepare, asides from the fact that they repeat a lot of what they say over and over again.

[Coronagolfman]

  On 2/22/2016 at 6:59 PM, No Mulligans said:

The flip side, the excessive amount of commercials are a benefit to me. By using the DVR and fast-forward through commercials and some of the fluff, I'm able to watch the tournament in a much more reasonable amount of time.  

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I would agree - when I tell the wife I'm going upstairs to watch the CBS golf tournament recording I can get through it a lot faster now. 

Also agree about Nantz's sense of self-importance - its grown quite a bit over the years to the point now where it seems like he really feels he is the star of the show and not just a presenter of what is going on on the course. Will be interesting to see how things go at the Masters this year as August folks can turn on a dime if they think somebody is stealing their show from them.

An aside note: aside from one lousy Sunday at Torrey Pines, CBS had great luck this year with spectacular weather in California - can't remember any time in the past decade or even two that all 4 tour events in California had it so good weatherwise.

[phan52]

I just wish Gary McCord would STFU. Totally annoying.

[GolfLug]

CBS is crap. They all are sort of. My golf watching has slowly receded to background noise in the last year or so. I can see the commercial go only one way - up. Although, even with all the commercials of US tourneys, in comparison European golf is even more of a guaranteed snooze fest even though you get much more golf per minute.

Honestly only thing I enjoy watching now is shots with pro-tracers or if the course is extremely scenic.