Please add:
To improve my viewing pleasure, dear golf channel/abc/etc... if possible...

1. If you are showing the first shot off the tee, give me a quick graphic of the hole, don't need a flyover, just a quick graphic and a few distances like they do sometimes with the general 270-300 yard range
2. On par 4,'s 5s... If you are showing the second short towards the green, show me how the player got there with a graphic of how long the tee shot was and the shape a bit, etc... driver or 3 wood?
3. show me what club they hit on every shot if possible when not on the green within reason...
4. If you show me a score card and the guy had an eagle, give me a quick look of how he played that hole like this: driver --280---3wood-240, made a 40foot putt for eagle.
(some guy had an albatross yesterday's final round on the european tour in the netherlands but i didn't get any details! ).

please add! done with my rant du jour. peter

wow why don't they ask what he had for breakfast too. that is alot of info to compile into a graphic for everyone one every hole..... it doesn't matter how you get a score on a hole just the number. iam sure they would show highlights of an double eagle for you to see how it was done.

yeah, that's a bit much. however, i think a good compromise would be to show more of the camera angles that actually give you an idea what the heck is going on out there. for example:

Crane shots: used more on Euro tour due to less trees, but I think this is the perfect camera shot to convey most of what the player is up against.
Blimp shots: Getting used more and more, thankfully. much better than the traditional ball flight shot.
Worm cam: nothing better than watching Tiger's putt on the 72nd at Torrey in worm cam.

All in all, i think everyone can agree that the traditional cut from the player's swing to the ball in the air against the sky background and then falling onto the green or fairway or whatever, does very little to convey what type of shot was hit (draw, fade, stinger, etc), and what type of adversities the player faced on the course (contours, uphill, hazards, etc.).

it'd be nice if TV could do more to promote the difficulty they are playing against out there. thank you.

I like #4, some golf coverage is just putting coverage.

I just love those shots from behind the player showing the lunch of the golf ball!

draw or fade

not just putting!

brooky333

Tell the commentators to shut up once in a while. The pictures really do speak for themselves if you let them.

Tell Johnny Miller that he's not playing anymore - and it's a moot point whether he would/could have done better than the shot we just saw in his prime.

Tell Gary McCord that he's employed as a golf commentator, not a stand up comedian. The odd witty remark is fine, but a complete Royal Variety Show performance every night gets a bit wearing on the nerves. It's not a contest with Feherty, Gary.

Less gadgets and fancy, gimmicky graphics. Saying 'that one went a bit low' is every bit as good as plastering all sorts of red and blue lines over a replay of the shot like they do with that damn Shot Tracker (or whatever it's called).

Please stop using the Konica Minolta Bizhub Swing Vision Camera. The actual footage it provides is fine and quite informative. It's just the endless quoting of the whole blatant sponsorship thing and the entire 'Konica..' line every time that's starting to drive me mad. The fact I can recite it off by heart is evidence enough that it's done its job. I hate it so much that if I ever did buy a camera, I'd buy a Nikon one now just on principle.

Show more tee-to-green play. I know it's easier, from a logistics standpoint, to show the putting, but for the last twenty years watching televised golf means you spend 75% of it watching people putting.

Get presenters who look like real people and who talk normally. Some of the presenters look like they've got a Masters in smugness from Harvard Smugness School. That falseness and superior look gets on my wick - as does the 'Made For TV' diction and the Colgate smile.

Give Peter Kostis a proper 'Toupee Allowance' so that he doesn't have to resort to wearing ginger-hued roadkill atop his pate.

BALLFLIGHT that's what we really want to see. More down the line shots, more flight-tracing graphics. I don't need to watch a golfer's facial expression while the ball's in the air.

exactly.

I'll definately add to this:

1. I watch golf to watch golf. I do not want, nor need, to watch announcers talking. Do your color commentary if you wish. Babble endlessly about anything you want to (frankly, I've got you on mute most of the time anyway). But have golf on the screen while you're talking. It is amazing how many times I'm watching a tournament, and need to watch two or three minutes at a time of Kelly having a conversation with Nick (2- 3 minutes is a long stretch in TV standards, when there's usually only 10 or 12 minutes between commercial breaks).

It is one of my pet peeves ... and to this day I do not understand it. You're covering a golf tournament, one or the other of the top ten on the leaderboard are almost always hitting, and yet you'll show yourselves talking live, then show a replay of the shot the leader just hit while you were broadcasting yourselves. I mean, WTF?

2. Please ... show me random samples of the whole field. Every week some players are doing great, others not so well. The norm is that only the top few are ever covered. I can see why this would be done (to some degree) ... but I'd like to see more balance. It creates a false sense of pro golf as being something nearly unconnected to what we amateurs do - i.e., I played this Saturday, and shot a 76, and played Sunday, and shot an 85. We all have days when we're on, and days when we can barely get off the tee without trouble.

Thing is, so do the pros. Paddy won the last major. Others like Goosen, O'Hair, Rocco, Villegas, Ogilvy, and Baddeley did pretty well at various points. But ... none of them even made the cut last week at the Barclays. This is just golf. Everyone has hot weeks, and off weeks. But that's not the impression you get from watching golf. I'm not saying the total focus should be on those playing badly - obviously, it is exciting to watch whomever is "on" during any given week - but I'd bet golf would feel a lot more accessible to fans if there was a bit more balance. Secretly, it feels very good (to many weekenders) to see a pro duff one in the sand, totally fly a green, to see a great golfer having an off week. So don't just show us the guy on track to shoot 65, show us at least a bit of the guys that are struggling, and will finish with a 78 (and quite often, they'll be the ones that were at the top of the leaderboard the week before).

3. If you're going to do "color" ... get rid of the bland, banal crap. Flesh the game out a bit more, make it more real to its fans. Hopw about some spots where you do a sort of TV version of "WITB"? Pick a player, ask about his clubs, about the grind on his wedges, the shafts he uses, the reason he swapped a 3i for a hybrid in this tourney, but not the last. Drill into how players think about the choice of weapons (obviously the OEMs are chosen for sponsorship ... I'm talking about the dozens of little tweaks almost every pro makes). Interview caddies now and then. There's a couple of dozen that have been looping for a looong time, and are quite colorful characters. Ask about how they get into the minds of their players, how they do their yardage books.

Well, I could go on and on here, but the point is, what currently passes for "color" is usually so bloody dull its nearly impossible to watch. If the time is going to be spent, IMO it could be spent actually adding color ... making the sport, and what lies behind it, become both more alive, and more personal.

Well, enough for now.

Good question OP ... shame that no one will listen to us here ...

Give Peter Kostis a proper 'Toupee Allowance' so that he doesn't have to resort to wearing ginger-hued roadkill atop his pate.
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"ginger-hued roadkill" ... now that is a turn of phrase ...

You should be doing color commentary (though probably not be in the studio with Kostis) ...

Yeah wtf feel free to yap pointlessly but at least show us some golf footage while you're at it. such a waste.



There is definitely a bit of censorship going on. They don't like to show the mishits, LPGA coverage especially. There should be more mis hits shown. It's part of the game and the competition. But the tours really like to play up the ability of the pro's. It's a little cheap. In all other sports you generally get to see every ugly play, every misplayed ground ball, every fumble, every airball, etc etc. At the very least do a highlight reel for every tournament showing the weeks finest shanks, tops, chunks, wormburners, missed 1-footers, etc.

I feel the best way to watch golf is with Tivo or some sort of DVR. Period. Nothing you don't want. Commercials zapped, sponsor interviews deleted, and if Kostis' rug scares you...bye bye.

I've been watching golf this way for 20+ years, first with my old VCR and now with Tivo. I can watch it in half the time and love speeding through the "junk". Usually I don't see it live but if no one crosses my path that blurts out who won, I'm in good shape.

I am actually in the broadcasting business and support the commentators and crews that put on a truly amazing production week in and week out for any network...but watching it is sooo much better on my DVR provided my 4 kids don't screw the recording up or delete anything!

Actually, there's times when I'd probably rather listen to your 4 kids than to Kelly and Nick and Ian Hyphenate-Myname.

When I watch golf the MUTE button if my best friend.

Give us swing vision from the rear and shot trace the outcome of that swing. The frontal swing vision teaches me nothing.

I want to see plane, i want to see ball flight and shot shape, I want to see open/closed club face through the swing, i want to see rotation, etc.

For most of us, a Trackman with a live feed would be a wild extravagance. For a network, having one on EVERY tee , plus a mobile setup or six for shots from the last six par 4 and par 5 fairways, would be a cupful of water in a big production cost bucket. Buy a few of those things, and use them! Even if Johnny Miller might be off by a groove or two on how high on the face a shot was hit. I want to see shot shape on approaches, tee shots, ALL full shots. The networks have started to get putting right by worm cams and distance lasering. This is the next logical step.

Oh, and Mat... rather than buy a Nikon camera, you'd want to buy a Xerox photocopier.

i think it's fair to say that the networks are far more concerned with attracting viewers who don't like golf; they could care less about loyal and knowledgeable viewers such as us. hence, 70 replays of the same amazing shot and seemingly endless hyperbole. it's why Tiger is apparently in a horrific "slump" when he doesn't win and can also come back from 9 down with 6 to play on Sunday. It's all about the story. thank god we get even a little analysis from Faldo, Miller, etc.

TV wise, look at how much technology and analysis is dedicated to football. i know the TV money for golf is not even close to the NFL, but come on. the major networks, for the small handful of important tourneys they show each year, can certainly afford to roll out the big technological guns on Sunday at least.

when they start talkin.. I start zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzin'

I agree with alot that has been mentioned already especially the show some golf shots statement. I wish they would play coverage of more approach shots and short game stuff, I can only watch someone make par from 3 feet so many times in one round I am more concerned on how they got it to 3 feet to save par.

I would love to see a Mic'd up segment, there would definiatley have to be a tape delay on some of the comments esp Tigers after some of his bad shots, I thought his "Damnit Woodrow" at the masters was classic and glad they caught that on tape not the usual f bomb. Plus the caddy to player conversations offer some good insight to shot planning.

Here would be the ultimate mic'd up conversation
During a sunday round with a Tiger, Sergio,and Phil, grouped together playing the 16th hole of any course. Tiger up by one
Phil hits his approach to about 4 feet for birdie
Sergio hits his to 3 feet and Tiger is 12 Feet away both for birdie

Phil "Man I knocked that one stiff

Sergio" Sooommmeboooddddyyyssss Cloooossssseeeeeerr" ala Happy Gilmore

Tiger " Dont worry Phil you will still manage to give it back on 18" and
Tiger to Sergio " Nice shot too bad putting still counts as a stroke"

haha, Woodrow, so good.
much better than when he calls himself "Woody". i friggin cringe when i hear that.

1.When a player and caddie are talking about yardages and what kind of shot is required it would be nice if the announcers shut the f- up.
Countless times I have heard them talk over Bones and Phil in a big spot. dumb.

2. If the broadcast does not show a player all afternoon and then suddenly cuts to him lining up a 75 ft putt, you know the putt goes in. So the suspense is not there. So stop doing it.

3. If Tiger is not playing do not talk about him.

4. If Tiger has an impossible shot do not say he cannot pull off the shot because he will and you Mr.Announcer will look foolish.

5. Silence is golden, especially on the golf course.

6. Tell me more about whats in the bag, about the golf course and/or architect. Please more info would be nice.

7. Knowing club selection is fine but I do not need to hear it before every single shot.

Personally, I would like to see Azinger back in the booth with Faldo. They had great chemistry. Faldo and Nantz are like oil and water for me, one is extremely quirky and the other is so dry.

Couple more thoughts:
+1 on swingvision - one of my favorite things
+1 on shot tracer/laser/whatever that thing is called - pretty cool watching them shape shots, especially when they compare two players shots.
+1 on equipment discussions with players - would be cool to hear them discuss their gear even though they get paid to play it. plus, the network could follow that up with a "30 second commercial spot" for titleist, tm, etc, and selling that spot would be the easiest sale ever.
+1 on the "get to know me" interviews with the players. kinda nice to see a human side (how they started, where they went to school, what they do away from course, etc) to them.

Simple solution.

Fire all the commentators, and hire Mat!

More insight and wit than the whole crew combined, times 10!

.

1) To me the most value comes from the "on-course reporters" ....guys like Feherty & Kostis walking with the lead-groups provide much needed insite....

The least value comes from Faldo who IMHO adds little to the production..... how about replacing Faldo with another on-course reporter, like Andy North or Charlie Rymer for example..... Faldo's air time could be easily be replaced by the likes of Oosterhuis & other cats already reporting from the towers

2) How about putting a mike on the caddies?

This made me thing of the thing that would be the ultimate cool (and the technology probably exists to do it) ... take a page from NASCAR "in-car cameras", and embed a wee little camera in the players' caps. Let us actually see the player set up. Look down the fairway, address the ball, hit it, and then pick his head up and follow it's flight.

It has been mentioned already but I have to say it again - more shot tracker!

The shot tracker is the coolest technology, I wish it was shown more often. For example, show one of Tiger's normal drives on the shot tracker, and then show one of his stingers. Show a Mickelson high cut on a long par three, then show a Rocco Mediate low running draw on the same hole.

I love me some shot tracker - NEED MORE OF IT!

Great Idea!
Love to see It!

Yes!

And when the players and caddies are talking before shots, I wish the announcers wouldn't repeat over and over about how they are "such a great team----have made great decisions over the years----are meant to be together----have such a good chemistry!" We know! We really do know, Mr. Nantz. I'd like to hear some of that player/caddie talk.

Gary Koch needs to realize that people do not enjoy hearing him talk as much as he thinks they do. More face-on and down the line camera angles. Most importantly, less putting, more full swing shots.
CBS would bring in a lot more viewers and would probably stop me from muting the TV if Ian Baker-Finch was the only commentator and said, "Thats right in the mayor's office," after every shot/putt.

After watching a bit of last night's coverage another one came to mind.

Kelly Tilghman and her verbal equivalent of front page headline end-of-the-world font. Why does everything she says have to sound like it's the biggest and best thing you've ever seen - in that put-on voice with all it's false urgency and importance? I know she probably got taught it at TV Presenter School but it really does grate on my nerves.

An example was Tim Clarke last night, playing into his 18th, having a conversation with his caddy. Full marks for letting us hear it rather than waffling on over the top of it all, but do we really need to be told that it was 'fantastic work by our sound people..' as if one of them had just discovered a cure for cancer whilst he was standing there with his microphone?

Kelly. It's a golf tournament. It's not life and death and you don't need to make it sound like it is. Calm down and drop the sense of importance.

Oh, another one. Can someone please put the stops on the trumpet fanfare whenever the scores come on atop the screen? It sounds daft and I keep turning round expecting to see Julius Caesar standing behind me in the living room.