Sky tv US open commentator Ewen Murray

IrishHomer

I miss the regular Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murray who usually commentates at all the golf majors.

Anyone know why he is not on this week?

Minister B

IrishHomer wrote: »

I miss the regular Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murry who usually commentates at all the golf majors.

I find Montgomerie painful to listen to. Of course no love lost between Ewen Murray and Monty.

IrishHomer

I love watching the majors but find this one a bit of a downer listening to these lads Monty and Howard Clark.

johntommy

IrishHomer wrote: »

I miss the regular Sky Sports commentator Ewen Murray who usually commentates at all the golf majors.

Anyone know why he is not on this week?

He is on sky this week

PhilipMarlowe

Rob Lee and Monty will be off soon and Murray and Butch will probably be back on...

WHIP IT!

Minister B wrote: »

I find Montgomerie painful to listen to. Of course no love lost between Ewen Murray and Monty.

Really, why's that?

tbukela

Monty is a pain and butch is some cheerleader.

Deeper Blue

Ewen has saved Sky's coverage from being completely unwatchable this week. Always has intelligent analysis and really knows how to set the scene. Howard Clarke and Butch Harmon are decent also.

Montgomerie is a poor commentator/pundit. They should promote someone like Tony Johnstone to the main commentary team and stop bringing in the likes of Montgomerie, David Howell etc as they add nothing to the coverage

Tim Barter's interviews have been completely pointless as usual. Does anyone really care what was going through so-and-so's mind as they were playing their second shot to the 17th?

Bruce Critchley has been just as biased and anti-american as ever

The less said about Rob Lee the better

WHIP IT! wrote: »

Really, why's that?

Ewen was very critical of Monty's on-course behaviour a few years back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/golf/europeantour/2305234/Colin-Montgomerie-apologises-to-Skys-Ewen-Murray-ahead-of-Loch-Lomond-Scottish-Open.html

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12176_3797673,00.html#Letter

PhilipMarlowe

I'm a big fan of Johnstone but I think he's more afternoon man than night-time man. I just can't 'picture' him doing the meatier events but I would like him to be on more often.

Ally Dick

I cannot stand Ewen Murray. He is like a cyborg who is programmed to spout mindless cliches the whole time. He comes across as completely passionless to me. No loss whatsoever

Deeper Blue

Licksy wrote: »

I'm a big fan of Johnstone but I think he's more afternoon man than night-time man. I just can't 'picture' him doing the meatier events but I would like him to be on more often.

I can't either unfortunately. I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot more of Monty and Rob Lee at the majors from now on.

MisterAnarchy

Ally Dick wrote: »

I cannot stand Ewen Murray. He is like a cyborg who is programmed to spout mindless cliches the whole time. He comes across as completely passionless to me. No loss whatsoever

I used to like him but he has become exceptionally bitter and jingoistic over the last 5 years.
There is a serious lack of technical analysis on Skys coverage .

Speak Now

Ally Dick wrote: »

I cannot stand Ewen Murray. He is like a cyborg who is programmed to spout mindless cliches the whole time. He comes across as completely passionless to me. No loss whatsoever

+1 Unfortunatley we haven't lost him though.

Ally Dick

The BBC commentary team are miles better. My personal favourite is Wayne Grady. Insightful tips about golf, amusing anecdotes and a good knowledge of what's going on. Ewen Murray just comes out with blasé bullsh!t like "it's all happening here at Celtic Manor"

Adiaga 2

Ally Dick wrote: »

I cannot stand Ewen Murray. He is like a cyborg who is programmed to spout mindless cliches the whole time. He comes across as completely passionless to me. No loss whatsoever

Never been a fan of Murray but listening to Rob Lee and Monty, I can see why he would be missed.

who_ru

i must be the only one here who likes listening to monty, better than clarke any day.

Uncle Mclovin

Murray is the best to be fair to him.


It's hilarious the way Butch Harmon looks straight down the camera. I'm sure the producers tell him not to do it but he just can't resist.

dnjoyce

Surprised at the love for Murray here tbh. I hate the way every single shot is the "greatest/most difficult/most stunning/insert own superlative here" shot you'll ever see - in particular any shot hit by TW. Thought Monty did ok actually - they tee'd him up a lot over the first couple of days almost forcing him to talk about the 2nd place in '97. Rob Lee wasn't as bad as I thought he was going to be in his first real anchor role in a major but Howard Clarke was as annoying as ever.

PhilipMarlowe

Ah here, Rob Lee not bad? Are you mad?
*A Garcia chip runs along green, hits flag and goes in - "Slam Dunk" says Lee.
wtf? It might have been a slam dunk if he hit a 64 degree wedge 30ft in the air and it pitched in the hole
I think he's a muppet.

dnjoyce

Licksy wrote: »

Ah here, Rob Lee not bad? Are you mad?
*A Garcia chip runs along green, hits flag and goes in - "Slam Dunk" says Lee.
wtf? It might have been a slam dunk if he hit a 64 degree wedge 30ft in the air and it pitched in the hole
I think he's a muppet.

there's a difference between "not bad" and "NOT AS BAD AS I THOUGHT"

staker

Sky are running with that "honey,honey" crap on their sports news. Pure crap stuff!

Bazzmundo

I was in my Mother's when Rory tee'd off so was watching an American stream online, legg'd it home after about 5 holes to watch the completely characterless banal coverage Sky had. Pure crap. The main guy is terrible. As was said above just superlative after superlative, no insight or real commentary. Normally I would accuse US sports commentary of this but the difference between the CBS (I think) and Sky was amazing.

death1234567

Monty is the worst commentator of all time. How many times did he mention being ryder cup captain or how he played in the Us Open in 1997? Tosser. Rob Lee is also awful. I have learned to accept Butch now and I don''t mind Murray or Howard Clarke.

JerryHandbag

I'm in the minority, but I dont mind Monty at all tbh. What annoyed me was Sky doing those musical pieces before some ad breaks....FFS just dragging it out, get to the ad break already! :rolleyes:

saintastic

death1234567 wrote: »

Monty is the worst commentator of all time. How many times did he mention being ryder cup captain or how he played in the Us Open in 1997?

To be fair, that's why they wanted him there and him talking about the Ryder Cup and his US Open brings a different angle to the coverage than someone like maybe David Howell who brings zero.

I thought Monty was really annoying at times and then at other times, he was not bad. It was his first proper tv spot so hopefully he can improve.

Bring on the BBC and The Open though! I love Ken Brown and "Ken on the course".

aster99

I actually enjoyed Monty, wouldn't mind him on there again

Ally Dick

Count the number of times Ewen Murray says "It's all happening here at...". He is to golf commentary what Richard Keys was to football

Mountjoy Mugger

Monty and his "fits of giggles" did my nut in.

dvemail

Thought Monty was useless, everything is either about him or its fantastic for european
golf. It really got quite tiring after a while.
Thought Rob Lee was good, not afraid to have a laugh on air and is much better than the
rest of the Sky crew imo.

BBC still miles ahead.

BoardsMember

I watched it on Sky Sports, the first time I have watched so much golf on Sky Sports when watching it properly, i.e. not in a pub. I began thinking that their commentary would be good, I dont know why. But having watched a lot of it, I can honestly say that there was not one piece of input that I found in any way interesting, or a revelation, or informative in a way that you might hope after 12+ hours watching. I dont expect pearls of wisdom all night long, but I would have expected some interesting analysis of some of the swings in slo-mo (which I think the do in studio usually), or interesting in-depth info on how they made the changes to the course, or the input of the new head of PGA, or how the course was not nearly as difficult as they would have wanted etc. IT was just a load of white noise, bland yadda yadda.

ssbob

Uncle Mclovin wrote: »

It's hilarious the way Butch Harmon looks straight down the camera. I'm sure the producers tell him not to do it but he just can't resist.

I love that, I burst out laughing when I read this, I think it is a real american thing to do though, you see it all the time on the American football.

My Analysis:

1. Rob Lee: Seems a bit childish at times, can't believe he was ever a professional golfer
2. Ewen Murray: His columns on SkySports.com are very good and opinionated but feel he is not given the same reign on air so comes across as very repetitive, nothing to add.
3. Howard Clark: Will never be Ken on the course, he should stop trying.
4. Butch Harmon: In fairness its great to have someone who knows so much about the technical aspect of the game and has coached some of the greatest players of all time, has a real passion for the game
5. Monty: I think he realises his golfing career is over, if I was him I would get practicing because he is never going to be a likeable character on the telly especially when he licks his lips and pauses every 5 seconds mid sentence:eek:
6. Di Stewart(Dougherty): If she wasn't hot she wouldn't be there- FACT!
7. Bruce Critchley: More concerened about the Flora/Fauna of the world than the golf.
8. The others that were left at home: I like Denis Pugh, Mark Roe is a tosser, Tony Johnstone, extremely likeable, Hawksworth-mediocre and Faldo's old coach is coaching nobody now so he adds nothing!!!

Would much rather watch Sam Torrance and co. on BBC anyday!!