Grow The Game Files: TNT Reminds That TV Matters

Golf on TV could be the greatest, it could be the best, it could be King Kong banging on its chest!

Standing in the Hall of Fame, and the world might even know golf is not lame!

I'll stop now before you get nightmares since I'm pretty sure Omega's latest ad (key word, ad), will be running a bunch during the Rio games.

Not being present at this year’s PGA Championship afforded an opportunity to be reunited with the early 2000s, a.k.a. a TNT broadcast at a major championship. But this is not to pick on any one network (well, maybe a little), as some of the same issues TNT exemplifies afflict all of the major broadcast presentations, though no major has the annual commercial and promo dump that is the PGA of America's dreadful presentation.

Shoot, even CBS head man Sean McManus talked to Golfweek.com's Martin Kaufmann right after the PGA to address the telecast and suggest the commercial load needs to be dealt with for the next three years of the deal. 

No, the affliction I refer to runs deeper than the annual overcommercialization of the fourth of four majors. It's the tendency to stick to what got you here, what has worked over the decades, and to not give up screen space to anything but green grass and golfers. But most of all, to do what will please “partners” who want to play it safe while also preaching how we need to do things differently to save the sport.

Those partners--the PGA of America (this week), the PGA Tour, the USGA, the R&A--all talk relentlessly about growing the game and reaching the all-important millennials, yet refuse to see that their biggest growth tool is in how they present golf on television. Outside of the cost to play, I can’t think of anything more stifling for growth than an aspiring golfer, turning on the suffocatingly safe presentation of golf at the PGA Championship.

TNT’s presentation undermines the event’s place in the major spectrum by appearing to work out of an early 2000’s playbook. (The addition of some fun split screens showed some sign of life and fresh voices in Mike Weir and Amanda Balionis were huge positives.) Yet the ultra-conservative approach to the PGA Championship is even more maddening because of TNT's bold approach to the NBA. That’s where innovation and must-see pre and post game shows have spiked ratings, establishing the cable network as the best at bringing us pro basketball.

In golf, it's vital that television presentation be strong to "grow" participation in the game. More people watch golf on TV than avidly play it. That's an amazing notion suggesting how vital telecast presentation may be in motivating people to play.

With the PGA Championship that TNT airs through 2019, the cable network’s idea of a pre and post game show amounts to reruns of something from their highly-rated catalog. Those cash cows merely require a few an engineer to push a few buttons takes priority for TNT over even now-standard re-broadcast for major rounds (which are appreciated by working folks or those with DVR’s full to the brim).

Adding to the pain is what appears to be a reluctance on CBS’s part to share its gadgets with the TNT broadcast. Can't we all get along here?

Good TNT broadcasts will make more people watch CBS!

As with NBC’s coverage, the beauty of the golf course is a CBS priority and in the early days of high definition, no one disagreed with this approach. But now that nearly all viewers are watching on an HD flat screen and enjoying access to Internet-enabled information, the minimalist approach to screen acreage has begun to give core fans the impression of laziness and casual fans a sense that things could be better. In a day when people can handle more graphics and social media information on screen, golf is still holding back real-time information.

Knowing how hard the people in golf television work, particularly during majors, the impression of laziness is an unfair one. Golf is by far the most difficult sport to cover. Nonetheless, as we get more fun stuff like Protracer, on-screen graphics/Trackman data, split screens that give us a better sense of the golf hole faced, and full-field scores, the broadcasts that eschew such progress only give the impression to viewers that golf is stuck in a different decade. This was TNT last week.

When something controversial happens--like the PGA’s miscue with a hole location and repeat of its 2005 refusal to move up tee times--the lack of broadcast discussion looks lame while social media covers the story. This undermines the credibility of the networks and tournament host. (Especially when it’s the network home to Ernie, Charles, Kenny and Shaq, where nothing is off limits and controversies are embraced). Also, do recall that Fox’s breakthrough at the U.S. Open came at the expense of actually covering its partner’s mistakes. Painful for the USGA, yes, but also a huge boost to their partner overpaying for the product.

The people who want to grow the game need to stop focusing so much on the production values of their public service announcements. They need to look within and start pushing their broadcast partners to rethink how they present the sport, even if means giving back a few bucks to help the networks expand certain production values. These conversations are long overdue and more necessary than another short term feel-good initiative. Because those PSA-driven grow the game concepts pale compared to motivating people  by giving them a telecast that inspires them to run to the range.

Comments

[Crab Cakes]

Hey PGA of America, time to differentiate yourselfs from the others. Here's an idea:
Build 4 courses across 4 regions of the US.
1. NE (somewhere north of NY. Maybe coastal Maine)
2. SE (somewhere in the Blue Ridge mountains. TN has some good spots)
3. NW (Northern Cali)
4. SW (desert)
After you get those built you've got yourself a 4 year rotation of courses that 20 years from now will be very familiar to all of the viewers and will give the PGA some much needed individuality. You could even put a set of tees that will stretch them to 9000 yards if need be. Time to go bold and broaden your ideas. Let the USGA have the historic venues. Build your own! BTW, be sure to make all of them public. I look forward to seeing all of this done and will check back in 20 years from now!

[Tee Dever]

Here's a novel idea to grow the game: show more golf!
Stop giving us fluff stories and only the leaders.

[Amen Coroner]

Why do I prefer watching foreign broadcasts of overseas pro golf? They show more golf and talk less. The formula is simple. The people who get paid big bucks to steer golf's US broadcast ships love getting in the way of logic and simplicity so they can hear themselves sound really smart and important justifying those big bucks.

PS watched about 10 minutes of this PGA. Busy playing golf with my wife and two elementary school
aged kids. Thats how you grow the game. I know what a novel idea!

[Convert]

TNT was no worse than the Golf Channel.

[Play It Forward]

+1 Amen

Ah Crab, where does that leave Valhalla?

[Patchy]

The nets' idea of 'coverage' is to have not one, but two mobile cameras focused on Jordan Spieth as he does his sweepsweepsweepsweepsweep routine and mutters to his caddie while the man in the truck switches feverishly between the fairway view and a closeup of Spieth.

Meanwhile, somewhere nearby a golf tournament is taking place.....

[Schlasser]

Not so sure about the Mike Weir adding any freshness to the broadcast. He merely stated the obvious every time he was on the air. Not saying he can't improve but I thought he added nothing this past week.

[JC]

Kudos to Amanda Balionis on a great debut as interviewer on network TV. Perhaps Holly Sonders can take a few pointers- you don't have to dress like a stripper to get noticed. Amanda asked great questions and was obviously well prepared.

Wayyyy too many commercials. Made the final round of the final major of the year feel like round 4 of the Colonial (excuse me...Dean and Deluca).

Golf on TV is similar to NASCAR...only showing the leaders. In NASCAR, some of the best racing is back in the pack as guys are being more aggressive to get to the front. Perhaps golf tv producers could consider that.

[PMW]

My wife's only complaint was that she was sick of hearing/seeing that Omega ad over and over again. "What, they don't have ANY other commercials they can play?"

My suggestion to Omega is, and since they apparently have unlimited resources, why not producing about 12 or 15 different TV spots, rather than dumping everything into one ridiculous spot that drives everyone nuts after the 100th time on air?

As for Amanda Balionis. As Verne Lunquist might say, "OH MY GOODNESS, IN YOUR LIFE HAVE YOUR EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT!!!" She's (extremely) easy on the eyes, and doesn't miss a beat during an interview. What's not to like about her? If anything, she could use more air time. What a dish!

The problem with the PGA broadcast wasn't so much whatever TNT did or didn't do, but had more to do with the scheduling issues caused by the rain delays, etc. We were watching early Sunday morning and I said to the wife, "Come on, let's go to the beach. This thing will get rain delayed in another hour or so."

I expected more of what happened Saturday, when they called play with no rain on the property and seemingly an hour to go before any bad weather came through. I figured after I started seeing rain on the screen on Sunday morning that the PGA of America would call play and I'd be watching the final two rounds today and tomorrow at work.

Not that you can predict weather anywhere in the world, but it's painfully obvious after Bethpage and Baltusrol the past couple of times there that perhaps we need to find a venue more weather friendly in late July, early August. Having lived in New Jersey for the first nine years of my life, all I can say is that the only thing you can predict about the weather is that it will suck.

[Paul]

The TNT live stream online of featured groups was great. Kratzert, other guy I didn't know and Mike Breed were great. Watched Mickelson/RM/Day group. Announcers not all bravado like Faldo, especially Kratzert, low key and to follow just one group every shot is I believe the way it will be in years to come.

So announcers who do the basics and are pleasant to listen to and watching who you want to watch every group was a pleasant viewing experience compared to the norm.

Like everything, some have it some don't. Holly Sonders doesn't. Amanda better and more natural at her job.

[Redneck]

Weir was awful.
Couldn't tolerate hearing him say the word 'out' with that lousy accent.

[Jim S]

I'd really like to see a broadcast that consistently uses a bird's eye views of the course with the players locations to give us the sense that it's a playing field of enormous proportions with action happening all over. Right now, we get zoomed into a view of one player at a time (with too many on the green) and it's impossible to get an intuitive sense of what's happening around them. Maybe add a little graphic of the 3 hole trends for each player to show their current momentum. The best thing is that it will be constantly changing as players come and go. Also soccer-style ads around the edges that don't interrupt the play.

But that may take 20 years, at which point golf will get the same coverage as monster truck racing.

[Twilight Putter]

Take the PGA to Park City, Utah. Perfect weather, beautiful mountain vistas, great courses. Give the NE blue blood parkland elite clubs a rest.

[George]

Constant commercials and Constant talk are the bane of sports broadcasts. caught a bit of The Open over the Internet and it was delightful. Why not follow that lead? Just a thought.

I get to see the Premier League with commentary from US and Brit crews. Word to US crews: STFU and let the viewer decided what he sees. And JP Dellacamera (sp?) needs to be banned from USMNT broadcasts.

Perhaps the US broadcasts are trying to emulate classic radio Vin Scully, who painted pictures for an audience denied the visual experience. No need for that in today's world of HD broadcast.

[Easingwold]

A picture tells a thousand words, but unfortunatly, American network crews say a thousand words on a par 3. They would do well to ask Peter Alliss for advice.

[PABoy]

CBS is getting very stale, it must start at the top or follow the dollars must be a money loser for the network.

Jim Nantz was very good on Shackhouse podcast last week, interesting and engaging unlike during the CBS telecasts. Why no mention of the stressed look of the greens, I did not see the balls bouncing or the players complaining, thus the topic would seem to be in the safe zone but I don't expect them to stay just in the safe zone.

Lastly with the NFL committed to stay away from Labor Day weekend games it would seem like the best week to hold the PGA in future years. Finish on Monday and you only compete with college football during round 2.

Also Old Sandwich in Massachusetts could handle a PGA.

[Alex H.]

My biggest gripe is with the PGA, not the telecast itself. I fully understand that you can't repair the entire fourth round - but I don't think there are any rules against repairing at least the leaders. There was plenty of time after Walker, Stenson, Day, etc. had finished their third rounds...Why not repair at least the last 5 groups, leaving the rest of the field in the original pairings? That way, starting at 2.40, you would have had:
- Grillo / English
- Reed / Kaymer
- Matsuyama / Streb
- Koepka/ Stenson
- Walker / Day

Am I missing something - or would that have been simply too commonsensical?

[Mola59]

Did anybody else notice on the back nine where Jason Day teed off and Dottie Pepper said it was going left and needed help and CBS showed a ball rolling on the right side toward a trap. A few minutes later they showed Jimmy Walker tee and showed the same shot. Sure enough, they got their taped delayed shots mixed up.

[Concerned]

What are you all doing sitting on the couch watching this boring crap? Get out and play golf, or base ball, or walk, or anything, other than wasting your time on these government subsidized professional sports. How many parks and school play grounds could we have if we didn't waste so much money on this nonsense? Seeing so may healthful-pursuits used as business for profit, is a total disaster for the future health of our children!

[PMW]

@ Alex H. I was thinking the same thing yesterday, and agree with what you are suggesting. They could have "re-paired" the final five groups/10 golfers to afford the leaders the best grouping to score for those in contention. Would the result have been different if Jason Day and Jimmy Walker were paired together?

I guess we'll never know.

As for it being in the rules, these pairings and how they send golfers off are solely in the discretion of the tournament director/organization. I mean, what's stopping these guys from playing in foresomes just like we do on the weekend? Pace of play you say? Yeah, I'm sure they are already moving too slow.

[cohen]

Ian Baker Finch ruins any broadcast he is allowed to participate in.

[Persimmonious]

Anybody notice Nantz's comment about the tournament running into prime time? Possibly a jab at the PGA's unwillingness to move the tee times up an hour?

[Persimmonious]

I noticed that, at more than one point, my DirectTV split-screen simulcast had commercial ads running on 3 of 4 screens. "Spiffing."

[Tom]

Who came up with that slogan- "grow the game' ? I have been hearing that for decades- but golf never seems to grow..........well- private clubs and high priced resorts always grow, but very few quality public facilities.

[Brad]

Redneck.......what an appropriate handle

[Media Driven]

The solution is simple: the PGA simply accept a lower rights fee and CBS/TNT in turn show fewer commercials. But the PGA is far too money driven to accept such terms, even if it cheapens its championship.

[Greg B.]

The TNT broadcast is simply a CBS production with a few TNT voices mixed in. The real problem is with CBS Golf. Barrow and co. produce a broadcast that really has not changed much since the Chirkinian years. For decades they have done the same thing, just changing a few voices. Nantz for Summerall, Faldo for Venturi, IBF for Wright, Nobilo for Oosterhuis. It may well be what the powers at Augusta National want out of them, but It is a very tired style of presentation. They take few chances, seldom introduce any new ideas, and if anything have made the broadcast less engaging over they year - remember the features like "Stroke-Savers", "The Rules of Golf" and "The New Breed", which at least changed things up a bit and relieved some of the monotony, especially on a Saturday round? The PGA is their chance to show what they can do if they want to, to take a few risks and try some new things, but they choose to do it in pretty much the same old tired way. It is not at all a compelling broadcast.

[George]

@Concerned- do not be overly concerned with my lack of exercise or becoming a couch potato. Suspect many others here may feel the same.

I take advantage of a lovely invention known as the DVR and get out and walk 18. Especially on Sunday.
Masters: worked first 3 days, set DVR. Played 18 Sunday, watched the recording.
US Open: Same
The Open: set DVR for first 3 days while working. Watched the last day slightly delayed, then played 18.
USPGA: set DVR fir first 3 days while working. Geez, I must be caught in a rut. Payed 18 Sunday, watched the recording.

Yes, I FF through the commercials and the fluff pieces. Wore out (almost) the FF function during the PGA.
YMMV.

[TLB]

Golf along with most sports telecasts are way "over produced". Too many fluff pieces on participants, statistics, stupid interviews, etc, that take away coverage of the actual event. I don't mind, in fact I like, overviews of the course and surrounding area, except when they stick a big graphic over it, i.e. the leader board, which could be down sized or run at the bottom of the screen. This is a big fault of the European tour telecasts which have could show some really spectacular shots of the courses and local scenery.

[Benseattle]

So let me get this straight: the way to improve a golf broadcast is to clutter up the screen with more graphics and information... you know, the information you sould easily get from your tablet or smartphone. At the same time, I would prefer LESS when I see Protracer used on a par 3 and I'm told both ball speed and height. I'm thinking, "What completely and utterly useless information." I would simply like to see more golf shots from the leaders and - - of course - - few commercial breaks. And Mike Weir? He of the reed-thin voice and content-free comments? I think that was a one-off.... assuming there IS a God. The contrast between the interviews from Amanda Balionis and Bill Macatee was stark. Macatee simply makes a statement such as "It was a very tough day today," and then expects a response. I believe Amanda asked an Actual Question virtually every time. No contest: the lady wins.

[PG]

First three deals Bevacqua added were Bethpage, Trump, and Westchester.

[BrianS]

Besides the commercials, I didn't think it was that bad, I liked Weir - in his subsidiary role mind you, and Balionis did great on the interviews - you could tell the guys actually liked talking to her, but that is probably a result of her being with the Tour for the past few years along with her fun personality, nice girl next door hotness and so on.

But, here is what I had going on to watch this thing: Main screen w/DVR enabled, if I had discipine I could pause and forward through the commercials, but then you aren't live, so I usually just let run.

Laptop with featured group on one "tab", they had Phil all day Sunday, and all afternoon on Friday.

Tab 2 showing the (pretty lame compared to other majors) website for scoring info and so on.

I agree I'd rather take the leaderboard to some extent off the main screen and let me see it elsewhere. I guess that is why I didn't mind TNT's "old school" leaderboard that had like 5 names on it in the bottom right hand corner.

I thought they used a lot of tracer, both on tee balls and even on fairway or rough shots. Nice. The side by side view with the hole layouts was very nicely used, someday there will be a dedicated screen for that I hope. And again hopefully some time soon we can watch 8-10 of the "featured" groups, all with announcers and walk along cams.

[Savuti]

What "accent" do you have Redneck?

[Redneck]

Sorry fellas, but the Canadian pronunciation of 'out' is the worst. Unless it was a toothless Bob Probert mumbling it.
Get Weir off the air.

As for Baltusrol, it's history keeps it ranked so highly. Throw away the history and you have a nice private club. Nothing more.

[PG]

CBS gave up US Open tennis due to weather issues (Five straight PGAs with a delay)

[John C]

Caught the CBS start on Saturday online AND....

there was NO announcing - just golf shots with crowd roars... it went on like this for about two minutes and was expecting to see some comments on twitter about this. Eventually, Nantz and Faldo came on mid-sentence.

Not sure if it was like this on the regular telecast.

Anyway, it would be interesting to watch a golf telecast for an extended period of time without ANY talk but still have the course mic'd up.

[Ghost of Ed Furgol]

" Give the NE blue blood parkland elite clubs a rest."

Sure, cause you don't want to play at the best courses in the country.

[PG]

25 years since Turner started with PGA, the year of two weather fatalities

[PG]

https://twitter.com/PopsandSunshine/status/759812929323761665

[Don]

Skip button my VCR makes commercials irrelevant. The only time I see any is when I fall asleep and wake up while one is running.

Skip is also great for removing the 10 minute golf-free intros and all of the fluff pieces. With play getting slower, I often use 30 second skip to remove all the putting green routines before a putt'

I can't imagine that ANYONE watches golf live....