YAPPY GOLF TELECASTS
Not too long ago I was scrolling late night TV channels and stumbled across an old broadcast on the Golf Channel featuring John Daly winning the 1995 Open Championship in a tense playoff over Constantino Rocca by four strokes. The historic event was played July 20-23 at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
After Daly posted a 6-under par total, Rocca needed to birdie the par 4 eighteenth to force a four-hole playoff. Talk about drama, Rocca proceeded to hole a massive 65-foot uphill putt with a sharp break to stay alive. BTW – Daly’s first place check was $125K with Rocca pocketing $100K.
What was strikingly impressive about the telecast was the lack of television commentary by the announcers. The cameras told the entire story and it was invigorating to watch. When is network TV going to realize viewers can figure out what’s going and we don’t need nonstop blabbermouths in the booth, especially in the last 10 years. Message to Jim Nantz & Dan Hicks and their teams: Just shut up once in a while!
TGL DEBACLE
I watched very little TGL on ESPN the last few weeks. Watched the first two matches & remember one match where Keegan Bradley three-putted the final hole to force his team into a playoff situation where they then proceed to lose. By any fair analysis it was a major choke, but it was indoors on a fake green so who cares, which superbly defines the TGL – Who cares?
Some golf fans in Boston who know Bradley’s team refer to them the Boston “Ball Frauds.” The team included Rory McIlroy and Adam Scott, who finished with a record of 0-4-1, actually splitting $1.5 million for showing up.
I tuned into one of the TGL playoff matches on Monday night March 24 and watched Rickie Fowler over a putt toward the end of a match against I have no idea who. A simulator graphic appeared on the screen above Fowler’s head stating the putt length: “8 feet 12 inches.”
I’m forever done with TGL. Game! Set! Match!
LIV GOLF DERANGEMENT SYNDROME
The golf media landscape has fallen into a swill hole and can’t get out. The Golf Writers Association of America and those who cover the sport on TV and print are not known for going deep on any other topic other than golf, but since LIV Golf arrived in 2022 some major personalities have crossed the line of commentary into hate speech.
Consider the judges in the mysterious and morbid GWAA awarded Golf Digest writer Dan Jenkins an award for a piece that appeared in the December 2014 edition of Golf Digest titled “My (Fake) Interview with Tiger.” When Tiger Woods refused several interview requests by Jenkins, he made up a story of how the interview would go. It was 100 percent fake news. Jenkins won first-place in the GWAA non-daily columns for the fake Q & A.
On Golf Channel we are forced to listen to blabbering mouths like Brandel Chamblee, Paul McKinley, Eamon Lynch, Johnson Wagner, Mark Rolfing and others like Tripp Isenhour, Jim Gallagher and Damon Hack, rail incessantly about the evils of LIV Golf. These and almost every chump host on SIRIUS PGA Tour radio suffer from LIV Golf Derangement Syndrome.
First. let’s look at symptoms of LIV Golf Derangement Syndrome to see if they are a match for No. 1 talking head Brandel Chamblee.
Webster’s dictionary states derangement is the ‘act of deranging or state of being deranged; disorder or confusion; a mental disorder or serious mental disturbance.’
Syndrome is defined as (1) a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition. (2) a set of concurrent things such as emotions or actions that usually form an identifiable patten.
For those watching & listening to Brandel Chamblee the past four years, it’s obvious he checks all the boxes and has a problem. The Golf Channel’s million-dollar man (according to my sources that is his pay range) was recently a guest on “Dan Rappaport on Golf” YouTube Channel and Chamblee went absolutely ballistic with his anti-LIV Golf rant.
For the good of the game Chamblee should be terminated by Comcast ‘s NBC Sports Group.
GARY WILLIAMS & JAMIE DIAZ TALK GOLF HISTORY
As we anticipate the the first major of the year here let’s move to a positive note. If you enjoy golf history, you’ll like the YouTube show featuring Gary Williams & Jamie Diaz, both extraordinarily qualified golf journalists. It was a conversation unlike any other. The show runs about 50 minutes but the Diaz segment starts after the 17-minute mark and it’s a treasure chest of golf knowledge shared between the two.
https://www.5clubsgolf.com/golf_channel/jaime-diaz-joins-5-clubs-on-golf-channel
