CBS Shows All Of Phil & More Shots Than The Other Networks

Jeff Hager of Classic TV Sports broke down the shots shown by CBS during the PGA Championship as he does for all of the majors and reveals that all of Phil Mickelson’s shots were shown, while five of eventual winner Rory McIlroy’s were not.

Before the chart showing how many shots each player had shown, Hager writes:

CBS showed all but 5 strokes by winner Rory McIlroy, skipping some tap-in putts. CBS televised all 66 shots by runner-up Phil Mickelson. Playing partner Rickie Fowler got air time for all but 2 swings. With several players in contention early in the round, CBS spread its coverage out. But once the eventual top 4 finishers created separation from the field, CBS focused almost exclusively on that quartet including Henrik Stenson who was seen for 52 strokes. Ernie Els made an early birdie run and appeared on screen for 28 strokes. The highest finisher not shown was Hunter Mahan who tied for 7th.

Alex Myers crunched Hager's numbers a bit more and found a weird network bias against Adam Scott and that CBS shows more shots than NBC or ESPN, though they are obviously aided by the Masters with its limited commercial interruptions.

CBS crushed the competition when it came to showing action. The network aired 1.18 shots per minute during the Masters (Yes, having limited commercials helps) and 1.16 shots per minute during the wild final round at the PGA. In comparison, NBC showed 1.12 shots per minute at the U.S. Open and ESPN came in a distant fourth place with just 1.02 shots per minute at the British Open.

Comments

[John]

1.16 vs 1.02 is crushed?

Over 60 min that's 70 shots vs 61. So 9 extra shots over the course of an hour makes a difference? I wouldn't even notice it.

I noticed a lot of tweets to @cbs complaining about the commercials before the last group hit their 1st tee shots.

All networks - the commercials are too much. Then there's the ads inside the broadcast. The damn blimp, the fat cat CEOs, etc.

I cannot watch a regular event anymore I want to kill myself out of boredom.

Having watched golf on tv in the UK and streaming on multiple devices really showed me the how god awful US golf broadcasts are. I understand ads, but it's too much. With the generation raised on Netflix and not having to deal with commercials I wonder how this model will fare.

[Marker81]

My dad and I were talking about this Sunday. We were both grateful for the clustered field. It forced them to cover more players. Particularly while the leaders were on the front nine it seemed that they almost couldn't keep up with all of the action. Seemed how it should be. The only gripe I had was the tee shots of the last group on 18. I thought it was disgraceful for them to show us Rory watching Weisburger hit a shot. The guy didn't have a good round but deserved a bit more respect.
So much more preferable than the Rory lovefest that was the British Open. All of the wasted time showing him walk down the fairway while the announcers fell over each other with increasingly obnoxious superlatives.

[Hoosier]

I wonder if its easier for CBS to show more golf shots at the PGA because it's less prestigious, and with fewer other story-lines to cover. Both the US Open and the Open Championship broadcasts seem to have more features and vignettes on the history of the courses, past winners, etc. The Masters is different, I believe, because they specifically want more golf to be shown on air.

[munihack]

Since so many horse racing analogies were invoked during the PGA- If horse racing was covered like that they would break away from commercial on the back strech then return to show the finish. TV golf oversold the commercials a long time ago. And every April we see a tournament that emphasizes the actual golf so the other broadcasts all fail by comparison. So more people will tape and replay. I watched the first 2 rounds (6 hrs of TBS drivel) in just over an hour and didn't miss one actual shot. For all the "grow the game" crap being shoved down everone's throat TV does more to kill golf each week by the way it is shown. The only thing worse is actually attending a major in person and beibg on a course that should have had 10000 spectators when they sold 35000 tickets. It is all about greed. If Trump wants to really help golf - sponsor a major and do away with the comeercials on a live feed and just show golf shots.

[John C]

I'm always interested in how CBS shows the leaderboard - especially for ties

... such as

TIGER WOODS is always listed on top in case of ties

During the PGA when Mickelson and McIlroy were tied at times... Mickelson was always listed first
even though Rory is #1 player in the world

When there was a 5-way tie at one pt (either 1st or 2nd)... of course Bernd Wiesberger was ... last.

[CRS]

Did they ever show Stenson's 2nd on 17. IBF raved about how it would be one of the greatest up and downs ever. I read where it was a mud ball that caused him to miss the green so much. Really bizarre they never showed the 2nd.

[dbh]

John C, all US broadcasts do that for ties. It's like they use some Q rating. Drives me nuts.
For the record though,on a proper leaderboard it is determined by holes played, so if Phil was listed ahead of Rory when tied on Sunday, that was the correct order.