[spaulding772]

I was about to shoot myself if I heard " Marine Layer " or " Happy-go-lucky attitude" or Johnny mentioned himself one more time. We NEED new blood in the broadcast booth. Why does everyone on the broadcast kiss Johnny's arse so much? We he tells one of his lame jokes the cronies laugh like he's Jerry Seinfeld. In my opinion he's the Joe Theisman of golf broadcasting. And secondly, there was several times when Johnny or one of the other idiots would comment how bad a ball looked right before it landed middle fairway or vice-versa. Also, Bob Costas should take a cue from Jim Nantz on his minimalist approach when he hosts the Masters coverage. Faldo and Feherty are about the only 2 guys out there that are half-bearable. Thank Zach Johnson's God that at least we have the best golfer ever to watch so at least these hacks can't completely spoil the coverage!!!

[buztech]

come on now, it ain't that bad... although I agree that Miller is an idiot.

[Hairpie]

I actually didn't notice the announcers as much as I noticed the horrible coverage....Seemed like I saw 3 or 4 golf shots in the hour and a half wait for Tiger to tee off...I actually turned it off for awhile as I knew they weren't going to show much until 1:30....I saw more commercials in that first hour and a half then in 4 days of watching the Masters. Made me realize just how good the Masters coverage actually is, especially with the limited commercials...Coupled with the pitiful coverage of the US Open challenge NBC really needs some work....

[bloodredsun]

Wow! Reading these replies makes me glad that I watch from the UK and get Sky Sports commentary.

No one is a famous name apart from Butch Harmon as an occasional analyst but they give you gems of info and better yet, know when to shut up. For example, ee all know that Tiger has never lost a major when he has a third round lead but I didn't know that Westwood had never scored below par in any of his previous final rounds at the US Open. I stayed up all night to watch and they were excellent, keeping you up to date with what was happening off screen with other players and letting the action in front of you tell the story.

The few times I've watched US coverage of professional sports, the commentators seem to think that they are commentating for the radio. They describe in painful detail what is happening on screen as if we can't see it ourselves. It's almost like they have a bonus clause in their contracts for who talks the most.

[dvgolfer]

I agree, Johnny Miller is a ****head know it all . I can't believe he continues to work as a broadcaster.

[krob]

Miller ruins the coverage! i had to watch with the volume off but they dont show golf they show tiger stories. i think nbc is the worst channel for golf. if they would show some golf other than tiger or some stupid jimmy roberts bs about tiger i could at least turn the volume down and watch. i understand that tiger is the domanite guy and people who dont really watch the other people are in the majority but i think there was over an hour of coverage of tiger walking the fairway and miller talking about himself or how he and tiger are so alike.give me faldo who has six majors and was as dominate at least fro awhile. back to my point miller is an idiot blow hard full of himself a**. thanks for the thread and bring back golf on the golf channel and cbs!

ps...please move the players to the golf channel

[leftysviewuk]

bloodredsun, on Jun 16 2008, 09:30 AM, said:

Wow! Reading these replies makes me glad that I watch from the UK and get Sky Sports commentary.

No one is a famous name apart from Butch Harmon as an occasional analyst but they give you gems of info and better yet, know when to shut up. For example, ee all know that Tiger has never lost a major when he has a third round lead but I didn't know that Westwood had never scored below par in any of his previous final rounds at the US Open. I stayed up all night to watch and they were excellent, keeping you up to date with what was happening off screen with other players and letting the action in front of you tell the story.

The few times I've watched US coverage of professional sports, the commentators seem to think that they are commentating for the radio. They describe in painful detail what is happening on screen as if we can't see it ourselves. It's almost like they have a bonus clause in their contracts for who talks the most.

Couldn't agree more, did not stay up to watch the coverage live, but really enjoyed the excitement this am after recording on sky plus.

First class coverage and I beleive additional cameras from sky above what was offered on NBC.

Commiserations to our stateside viewers on the commentary

[braincramp]

Miller does exactly what he is getting paid to do,analyze what is going on as he sees it.He is paid to give HIS opinion.That's his job and he does it well.Is he full of himself?Sure he is.And he is the poster child for Corney.But love him or hate him he analyzes the game and players pretty well.

[mjc694]

chalk me up as a guy who likes miller too. I thought the coverage was excellent, personally.

[troysbama1]

I agree. Personally I think Johnny is better in the booth that just about everyone else. I appreciate someone who is willing to tell it like it is. Besides, at least he has the credentials to validate his comments.

[Taylormadematt]

The way that sky sports in the uk have shown this coverage has been brillant, even more so when watching in HD

Just enjoy listening to Butch Harmon and Co given great details on what shots are being it.

[GenErr]

Miller is certainly "full of himself." For a couple of years in his prime he was arguably one of the BEST golfers in the world.

I don't mind him as an analyst, he calls the shots as he sees them. I like Feherty better.

However bad the coverage may have seemed, it beat the heck out of ESPN coverage. On ESPN you got one or two shots and 10 minutes of biography, or a panoramic view of a tree while someone "waxed poetic" about one of the players.

All in all, I enjoyed the coverage, and the drama was GREAT.

[larrybud]

I enjoyed the coverage.

[DavidR]

Who cares about the coverage, I was glad to be watching golf until 9:00pm on a Sunday. Wish they would hold more events on the west coast.

[scotchblade]

Unbearable? I never noticed. Best US Open I've ever seen.

[Bluefan75]

I think a lot of the feelings here need to be directed at the producers. Like someone else said, they are the ones who decided that the "golf coverage" would not include any actual golf until 4:30 EST. I tuned in at about 3:50, and kept changing the channel, because there was a 15 minute recap of Woods' Saturday round....I honestly can't remember seeing the group ahead of Mediate and Ogilvy tee off, it was that bad.

On a newsgroup I use to frequent, we always something complementary to say about the announcers: they manage to enunciate quite well while having Tiger's you-know-what in their mouth.

[frenchy07]

You have to wander how much of the dialog is being feed into the announcers ears and how much input they have. Some of the incessant pounding on one subject seems to bode of a lack of broadness of subjects they are working from. That's how it seems in my little world.

On a different note: I know he's good, the best putter, the best when the heats on and he is in contention but is anyone else getting a little tired of having Tiger pounded into them? Saturday night, a full 5 minutes on just the knee! I turned the Open off and left the house just to get away from the dribble.

Oh well, rant over.

[cornbred19]

the quality of the tournament mostly overshadowed the coverage in my mind...the only glaring problem i had w/it was how they constantly mentioned tiger's knee during the tournament, but when they talked about rocco's masters meltdown, they never mentioned how his back went out on 9 that masters sunday...just that he blew up on sunday...

[mkoreiwo]

first off, Miller doesn't bother me too much...

... But the coverage???? Abysmal!! I turned it on, and wondered if there were actually any players on the course. How much wasted time they devoted to Tiger rehash, and other BS was inexcusable. I particularly was annoyed at the "Sports Update" the featured Costas, Strange and Jacobson!!!!! WTF was that all bout - all they did was - once again - rehash old Tiger news....

Come on now - a lot of players out there deserve better than the air time they got from NBC (ESPN as well - they were even worse!)

[Konklifer]

I didn't think it was as bad as past NBC telecasts. But the Costas segments were terrible. He is bordering on Chris Berman territory. Just awful.

[BDLz]

troysbama1, on Jun 16 2008, 06:49 AM, said:

I agree. Personally I think Johnny is better in the booth that just about everyone else. I appreciate someone who is willing to tell it like it is. Besides, at least he has the credentials to validate his comments.

While I disagree w/ the bulk of your post, he does have some credentials to back it up. I get so tired of his disparaging comments about all the players other than Tiger. Every time someone makes a mistake, he always likens it to the beginning of them folding to the "almighty" Tiger. I was especially shocked when he said that Rocco looks like he should be "CLEANING TIGER WOODS' POOL RATHER THAN COMPETING FOR THE US OPEN". Completely inappropriate and highly offensive to a journeyman player that has worked his a$$ off for a lot of years and done it in a way a lot of the top players in the world could learn a few things from.

BDLz

[jonesy369]

I wish they'd employ their graphics more -- give us a better idea of where balls are going, where people are on the course, putt tracking, etc.

The European Tour has that great putting line graphic they use, and better ball flight graphics. There's no dumber shot in sports production than a close up of a golf ball spinning in air -- no space, no context, no nothing.

In some of the old 1950s golf shows they'd have a camera on or behind a green and get great looks at people's incoming approach shots as they hit them, but without all the zooming around that shows technical virtuosity but takes away the context. Even the old Bobby Jones videos show that -- great looks of the shots. Show the shots IN PLACE IN ACTION.

Use the technology for good, not evil.

I'm not a Miller fan, but it's not the worst thing in the world.

[dminn23]

The coverage was okay...that being said, I would REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like to see them ditch Johnny Miller, and in the exit interview, let all the viewers/players tell HIM like it is.

"About a groove too low on the face"...its like he pulls half of the stuff he says out of his you know what. He gets on my nerves. Yeah, he's part of golf history, but he is annoying in my opinion.

This has been an absolutely GREAT open. I'm a huge Tiger fan (worshipper as the haters say)...but I would not be the least bit disappointed if Rocco won. He has played fantastic and his demeanor and sportsmanship is top notch.

[Matt10]

Wow you guys are never ever going to be satisfied. That was the most amazing tournament I've ever watched live and y'all are complaining about the coverage. Take two seconds to think about what you are complaining about - there should be no negativity whatsoever towards this entire tournament or coverage - it is a moment that we probably won't see for a long time; absolutely amazing, don't ruin it for yourself by being a stickler - just let yourself get absorbed into it.

It feels great by the way.

[bulldog8b]

I didn't think the coverage was any worse than normal. I was sick and damn tired of hearing about the "marine layer" and how "that is what the locals call it". No we don't. We call it fog. The only people who call it the marine layer are the weather people on TV and radio. Other than them, I have never heard anybody else say marine layer, ever and I have lived in SoCal my entire life.

I did notice that they (Miller especially) would guess where the ball was going based on the player reactions and were wrong at least half of the time. That was kind of lame. If you have no idea where it is going, shut up. We can all see Tiger leaning and talking to it.

However, the worst crap TV I have ever seen was the hour before the US Open on Sunday w/ the Golf Digest thing. It was exactly what I predicted it would be. 1 hour show means, 15 minutes of commercials, 15 minutes about what's his hack and his cancer, 15 minutes about Timberlake, Lauer and Romo and 15 minutes of golf, which means we get to see maybe 3 shots per person, which means we only get to see the few miracle shots they hit. It was absolute grabage. It really annoyed me that every time tyey mentioned his cancer they called it non-smoking lung cancer. Lung cancer is lung cancer. There is no such thing as non-smoking lung cancer like non-Hodgekins Lymphoma or something. It just really irked me that they had to keep adding that in to make him look like the poor victim who is so strong, blah, blah blah. I know that sounds harsh, but come on, I'll watch Lifetime if I want to see that stuff. I do feel for the guy and I'm happy for him to have had such a great experience, but that whole non-smoking thing and just how sappy they made it. But, I had no illusions that it would be anything but that.

BTW, am I the only one not buying that the regular Joe Schmoe chop in that thing is not an 8? Romo I buy at a 2, Timberlake and Lauer I might even buy at 6's, but I am not buying Choppy McHackster is an 8.

[ghodges]

Dan Hicks drive me nuts. He is just sooooo over the top...drives me crazy.

[jamesduncan]

no complaints here either

amazing open i thought all around.

[Simp]

braincramp, on Jun 16 2008, 07:19 AM, said:

Miller does exactly what he is getting paid to do,analyze what is going on as he sees it.He is paid to give HIS opinion.That's his job and he does it well.Is he full of himself?Sure he is.And he is the poster child for Corney.But love him or hate him he analyzes the game and players pretty well.

Exactly. I wonder why it's so hard for people to realize this????? Personally, I think that the NBC team (Miller, Koch, Murphy, Hicks, Maltby, Pepper) are by far the best golf team on TV today. Except for Dan Hicks, they've all been there-done that and actually give you insight as to what a player could be thinking or feeling.

As for Johnny being full of himself.... Given his record of touraments won, I think he's fairly entitled to remind us of what he's done every so often. If I'd have shot 63 at Oakmont on Sunday to win a US Open do you think I'd keep my mouth shut about it?

[Cwing]

Hairpie, on Jun 16 2008, 03:03 AM, said:

I actually didn't notice the announcers as much as I noticed the horrible coverage....Seemed like I saw 3 or 4 golf shots in the hour and a half wait for Tiger to tee off...I actually turned it off for awhile as I knew they weren't going to show much until 1:30....I saw more commercials in that first hour and a half then in 4 days of watching the Masters. Made me realize just how good the Masters coverage actually is, especially with the limited commercials...Coupled with the pitiful coverage of the US Open challenge NBC really needs some work....

On Sunday Tiger/Lee were on 15 ------------- I think all we saw were Tiger, Rocco and Westwood. I'm guessing no one else even hit a shot. I guess I did see Appleby in the background once or twice.

[wntbtw]

No complaints from me either. I`ve been watching golf on TV for a long time and fortunaelty am able to somehow 'tune out' most of the commentating.

I would rather watch golf on TV, w/ all of it`s 'bad and good' than to accept the other options of not watching it etc.

Everyone who complains should realize that 'this is the way it`s going to be' and use their 'mute' control or not watch it at all.

To me it is a great privilege to watch live golf at it`s highest level!

[grunt]

Have to say I am sick of the coverage not showing any more than one or 2 players. There are other golfers out there aren't there?

[finalist]

I like Miller and I loved the live feed via usopen.com feed!! I thought I got to see tons of great golf while at work. Love technology.

[qtlaw]

I watched all of Friday, Sat. and Sun. and had few complaints about NBC. Certainly they are better than CBS. CBS is always so sanitized, when was the last time you heard Nance criticize anybody? Faldo is enjoyable but Nance and the rest of CBS is so blah.

Miller spices things up and is not afraid of being wrong. On both eagles on Sat., Miller wondered aloud as to what Tiger was pointing towards but he owed up to it later. He is so good, before Tiger's eagle on 13 on Sat., he said this could change the whole tournament if Tiger made the putt. Rather than being sanitized, Miller is not afraid to criticize and second guess. Although did not hear much second guessing about Tiger's lost ball on 13 on Sun.

I love the "ball tracer" graphics, they really give you a look at ball flight that TV cannot give you live.

NBC shoves Tiger down your throat because he's the driving force behind the majority of the viewers. If you know what's good for your ratings, and thus $$$, you kiss up to the viewers and give them what they want, which is Tiger. The ratings when he is in the hunt double. That's the reality.

[vwgolfer]

The announcers need to let the game breathe abit. They talk too much. Case in point is when they talk over the banter between Tiger and Steve. And stop trying to figure out if its a hook wind or a push pull wammy draw wind that kind of talk is so pointless because 80% of the audience has no idea what you are talking about. NBC PRODUCERS ---IT IS OK IF NO ONE IS TALKING FOR 30 SECONDS I WILL NOT CHANGE THE CHANNEL...Thanks.

[transientgolf]

braincramp, on Jun 16 2008, 06:19 AM, said:

Miller does exactly what he is getting paid to do,analyze what is going on as he sees it.He is paid to give HIS opinion.That's his job and he does it well.Is he full of himself?Sure he is.And he is the poster child for Corney.But love him or hate him he analyzes the game and players pretty well.

Exactly

[charlesdupuy]

I'm starting to feel very fortunate that I get the UK commentary having read some fo the venting going on here, one thing that I will join in with is the poor production and editing, you'll see a player other than Tiger (and normally in front) hitting their appraoch to a hole, and becuase it's not Tiger they haven't pre-analysed the shot and then do an extreme close up of the ball rolling across the green, is it getting closer to the hole or rolling away from it!? Zoom out!

As well as that still way too many adverts, and on a seperate note I was slightly surprised to see the etiquette of some of the spectators, I know we normally complain about how long these guys take to play golf but if you have people running around screaming they have every right to wait until they shut up and stand still, where's the respect? Today in the play off there were even spectators standing in the bunker that Tiger was hitting his appraoch out of to the 15th.

[theothertwo]

The more you guys don't like Johnny Miller, the more popular he gets. He used to bother me but now it's just sort of amusing, you'll never know what he's going to say next and in that context, he keeps it interesting.

[withdrew]

First of all:

Secondly, the golf was too good for me to even hear what either commentator was saying.
What a great final. I enjoyed every minute of it, and I was rooting for both of them.

[Von Diesel]

As a fairly recent golf fan/player, I'd definitely like to see "new blood" in the announcers. They are perhaps the one aspect of the game that could use some freshening up. We've got new technology, new players, new outlooks/attitudes, new audiences, etc., it'd be great to have new perspectives and dialogue about the game as well. They don't need to be flashy, or super-accomplished, but just nice/fun to listen to.

[mont86]

I like Miller, that aside, Miller has good insight on golf and the possible outcomes with the different shots.

Berman is the guy I don't like.