Yeah NBC - Boo CBS!
What a difference a network can apparently make in coverage of a PGA tournament. If you read this column, you know that I took offense at the high proportion of commercials to actual tournament play two Sundays ago at the Wachovia Championship. The television coverage was provided by CBS. On the other hand, this past Sunday’s coverage at The Players was excellent thanks to NBC. I hardly noticed the commercials interspersed among long stretches of PGA players actually hitting balls. What a relief!
Mr. Finchem, if you’ve got any pull with CBS please urge them to follow in NBC’s footsteps. I sure hope that NBC is doing this year’s US Open TV broadcast. I, for one, was ready to forgo TV if the CBS style coverage was all I could look forward to on Saturday and Sunday. And by the way, Wachovia, you must have some pull in this situation. Please get CBS to clean up their act or you’ll end up having a dead golden goose on your hands.
I have to take exception to Johnny Miller’s phrase ‘Winged Foot special’ in referring to what Phil Mickelson might hit on the last hole. It’s an attention grabbing line, but a bit of a cheap shot. Today’s news coverage has made every wart a headline that will never go away. Most of yesteryear’s great players made their share of bad shots and poor decisions, but thankfully we can hardly remember them because they weren’t front and center ad infinitum. It seems to me that Greg Norman was a pretty decent golfer in his heyday, but all I can seem to recall is how he choked repeatedly at Augusta thanks to the media’s pension for human failure. It’s a shame because it speaks volumes about what society really values today.
Sean O’Hair, congratulations on playing terrific golf, all the more impressive because you’re just getting started. I have my own opinions on how you played the 17th, but what’s more important is how you handled yourself when asked to explain what happened. You’re a class act and it’s hard to imagine you won’t turn out to be very successful on tour. One bit of advice, speed up your play.
3 comments:
I agree that the commercial time during the NBC coverage was much better, and I agree with your assesment of the Johnny Miller comment. The problem I have is that Johnny Miller makes similar comments every time I tune in to NBC. Since I TiVO the coverage, I'll take CBS over NBC every time. One downside to all the live air time would have been if the tournament had been a cake walk by whomever. We would have gotten 5 more Johnny Miller "Wing Footed" comments.
I actually liked the wingfoot special comment. At least Miller can be blunt and to the point rather than idolizing all these players like many other announcers do. I'm not saying I like Johnny, in fact he was a jerk when I met him.
NBC actually airs the entire tournament. CBS bailed on the Colonial in favor of local programming and Jim Nantz is a poor apologist. It was a great finish and CBS blew it - I'm glad the Golf Channel had the foresight to continue the coverage.
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