Golf on TV - Coverage

Watched the desert finale today from Sky, and have to say the coverage was pretty good. We got to see most of the contenders and a thrilling finish. In contrast I've been tuned into Sky's contracted out coverage, of the Farmers for the past few nights, and I'm bored stiff. Hardly seen any golf since coverage started at 6PM from the Golf Channel, and now I'm kicking my heels for half hour waiting for the CBS coverage to kick in. Why are we following Tiger as he's having a another mare, when Nick Watney is ripping the course apart and we've not seen him yet. I fear the worst come April when the BBC are only able to show highlights from Augusta, and Sky get the prime coverage, because this is dire. Sitting around for hours on end and seeing no golf, and the usual faces in the studio, closely followed by the blimp 'who have supported the people for many years'......

I suppose we'll have to wait for the Open before we see some good golf coverage again.

i cancelled sky a few years ago for the same reasons. 4 hour program with 1 hour of golf.

bbc coverage of the open can sometimes be a bit ropey as they do the featured group thing now. but still much better than skys uspga coverage.

i hope watteny does shoot 59 to shut rob lee up

Are you watching sky sports three? I am watching sky sports three on a stream and the live coverage has not yet started.

sheesh...out in 28 at Torrey Pines South with Sunday pin positions....that is quite frankly astounding!!

You cannot blame Sky, The PGA has sold the rights to televise, to the American channels, in fact I do not think that Sky are not allowed to have their own cameras on the course, so we get drip fed what the American channels will allow us to show. :wooo:

This is another reason that the PGA has to much power and only looks after it self interest, and that is the American audience the rest of us can have the crumbs.

TV coverage will always be a divisive issue.

Lots of time spent on Tiger because he is the most famous golfer in the world. The TV companies have their audience figures to think of. It's important to them that they get the most viewers (which isn't neccessarily what the serious golf nut wants to see)

Personally I like seeing lots of Tiger - whether it be the Tiger of 2 or 3 years ago, at his imperious best - or the current car-crash Tiger. To me it makes compulsive viewing and presumably it brings in the most viewers.

Yes it would be great to have seen more of Nick Watney in his early holes, but he was what? 1 under at the start of his round? Why would they show him? You can bet they'll show more of him on his back 9.

I can't comment on how much golf (as opposed to chat) was shown in the early part of the show, as I was having a couple of beers (with some golfing mates). I asked for the coverage to be turned on when the show started as the only alternative was some Spanish football which no one was interested in.

I will say that in a pub atmosphere, even the first couple of hours was fine. Perhaps if you are glued to every word, sat at home, then it may have been a bit slow, but for watching in a pub (and the same I guess would go for a golf clubhouse) then it was fine

Of course, for me, the biggest advantage of Sky is that we don't have to listen to the senile babblings of Peter Alliss. Augusta this year should be a treat without having to suffer the incessant tales of tea at Old Throgmortons

What the.....!!!!

Some American TV cameraman that walks down the fairways pointing his lens into players faces has been inducted into the 'Broadcasters Hall of Fame'!

Those yanks really do need to get lives! :affraid:

I have been looking at a profile or two today and something amazing has happened. I found my daddy! I'm so emotional right now... Mainly as now I want to inherit.

WHAT! :affraid:

I insist on a full DNA report.

What is DNA anyway? It's tricky stuff dreamed by scientists that is so complex, I can't even spell it. :scratch:

oldshanker wrote:WHAT! :affraid:

I insist on a full DNA report.

What is DNA anyway? It's tricky stuff dreamed by scientists that is so complex, I can't even spell it. :scratch:

not that hard, there's only three letters...

The Sky coverage yesterday morning was fine, because it was Sky broadcasting, but the stuff from the US was trickled into Sky via the CBS feed and it was rudey poo. I was going to put a stopwatch on the actual golf we got to see and wish I had. As usual we had dodgy Rob and studio guests for long periods of time, and we saw more of them and the leaderboard than golf as we got it from both sides of the pond everytime there was a break and of course the usual blimp shots. It was amazing the lack of golf we saw.

Watney's round should have been shown as he could have made history, we hardly saw anyone except Tiger, Phil, Jonny Vegas and Bubba, even Kim and Hass who were in the mix were hardly shown and they were in the same groups as the others. But it made compulsive viewing at the death and Phil stagemanaged a brilliant closing 2-holes. Phil pulled off a stunning birdie at the 17th to make it close going down the last. Bubba hit sand on the par 5 18th but pin high in 2, Vegas hits the water in 2 and Phil pulls a drive into the thick stuff. Phil's waiting on the 18th and deciding if he should go for the green in 2, and whilst this is going on vegas takes a drop and gets close in 4, and bubba plays out of the sand sideways left and watches his ball hit the slope and start to fall towards the hole and stops 6 foot away on a slippery downhill. Bubba pulls of a deft birdie to win and then Phil takes centre stage and walks up to the green and paces around. Phil sends Bones the caddie onto the green to tend the flag because he was going for it, in other words he was confident of going in from 80-yards away over the water. Pure drama, and Phil almost made it, leaving himself a tap-in for birdie, but he needed an eagle to tie. Brilliant stuff, but that was almost midnight and the stuff leading up to it was hardly seen by the UK viewers. Bubba, Phil and vegas played great and Dustin was coming back at them but again we never saw much of that, so I guess we missed a hell of a lot of great golf. :evil:

hi a bit late replying this but I sky plus the whole thing and started watching an hour and half later forward through
the ads and talking in the studio. There was still very little golf shown. It could have been a lot better as it was a good tournament. A good finish by Bubba and Phil.

Caf - good idea about the Sky+ but I think you'd catch up with yourself after a couple of hours. I reckon if you cut out the ads and the chat then the 5 hours of coverage at the weekend would work out at around 2 hours of golf - and then they show more putts than other shots. It's pretty poo if you ask me!

Ladyputt I do find you catch up on it so I did just flick onto watch the latest snooker tournament which was quite exciting.
So then I turn back to watch end of the golf. I think coverage of the USA golf the last few years has been really bad.

My favourite tournament is the masters I cringed to think what Sky/and the american broadcasters will do to it. Mind you I think BBC have it Sat/Sun with highlights the other two days.

Caf wrote:My favourite tournament is the masters I cringed to think what Sky/and the american broadcasters will do to it. Mind you I think BBC have it Sat/Sun with highlights the other two days.

I'm sure Sky will get exactly the same feed as BBC would - so any (future) criticism of the Masters coverage should be aimed at the American feed, not as Sky. At least we won't have to put up with Aliss or big ears

Davie

I think sky when they go back to the studio is waste of time and it is boring to listen to them in the studio I would like to see
them maybe showing the ET highlights / or lessons during their breaks or something different to what they are doing. They are just driving people away from them.

They need to jazz it up.

Got to go, finished work. Talk more tomorrow.

It may not be great, but it's beter than nothing. Was pretty annoying when it suddenly disappeared to Setanta without much warning.

Inspite of the ads and the babbling it's still a nice way to spend a Jan/Feb evening watching (a little bit of) great golf in the sunshine from nice looking parts of the world.

But Hawksworth is pretty annoying :606laugh:

Caf - Sky's coverage of the Masters will be exactly the same as the BBC's - the feed comes from the States and is exactly the same for both. The only difference will be that Sky have said they will show the Par 3 competition on the Wednesday which the BBC never did - except for the odd highlight, usually of someone getting a hole in one. The only difference will be in the commentators and I prefer Sky's to the BBC's.

Ok, they have only got the Sat/Sun rounds LIVE.....but coverage THU/FRI on radio & online......

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/golf/9020380.stm
At least Hazel Irvine was 100 times better presenting than the wooden Gary Lineker. Yes PA has had his day and needs to bow out gracefully.

Desperado wrote:But Hawksworth is pretty annoying :606laugh:

I used to think that until I started downloading the European Tour Weekly Podcast. I've grown to like him.

I can only watch after recording and so fast forward through the ads and lots of the guff, particularly studio discussion. If there was a silencer for Murray and Critchley I would happily use it - might even be persuaded to sponsor it!!!!!!!!

4 years on, and still we're having a debate on BBC v SKY... plus ca change!

Good find Ray .. lots of names no longer here but at least those who are still here have the same opinions. Fascinating to read my own comments about Tiger and car crash TV .. as you say, plus ca change