Golf coverage/commentator discussion thread!! Mod note #12

Loafing Oaf wrote:

Not mad on the American commentary, but I sort of prefer the 'featured groups' approach to regular golf coverage.

As long as they are featuring the people who matter.

Yea pretty shocking scheduling- golf almost over

maestroamado wrote: »

We are eejits to pay a license fee.
The only real Irish Golfing event on our calander.
Yet RTE decide to delete most important 30 mins of the event..

It was on RTE News Now for those 30 minutes

fred funk }{ wrote:

Haven't heard of it either TBH.

Really?

Its a 24 hour news channel operating for about 10 years and is carried on just about every platform from Facebook to Saorview.

Hard to miss.

fred funk }{ wrote:

Rings a bell but wouldn't know where to watch it. I have Sky and have never stumbled across it on that platform.

Try 521

What has Sky done to the Cricket World Cup?

Their coverage of it has been brilliant.

All about the $$$

callaway92 wrote: »

As a viewer, their coverage is far beyond what anyone else could do, so I don't mind in that regards.

I do think Sky do a fantastic job but when you boil it all down I don't really give a rats ass about their Open zone or any of the additional stuff they do. It's not what I remember the next week or the next year. Ultimately, I just want them to show golfers playing golf. That's it. I'd much much much prefer to see it on the BBC or any free-to-air channel.

slave1 wrote: »

..but the "golfing authorities" don't control the majors.
The Masters is a standalone competition with no input from anyone other than the Augusta committee, technically it's an invite competition.
The PGA is a PGA competition (nothing to do with the PGA Tour).

Neither of these events have anything to do with either the R&A or the USGA who are the Governing Bodies of golf so they can't intervene.
Up until the formation of the PGA Tour in the US the PGA (Major) played to different rules even than those of the USGA/R&A

Well the last few comments are related to the Open which the R&A have full control over. In my view, it is their responsibility to grow the game and it should be on fta tv for this reason.

First Up wrote: »

Fair enough but BBC have only two channels and have a lot of things other than golf to fit in.

It was customary for BBC Northern Ireland (which we get) to switch away from the final round of the Open or Scottish Open to cover Armagh v Tyrone or suchlike.

Yeah, that is one issue with the BBC. It is hard to block out entire days for golf and I don't really mind it being on BBC 3 on Thursday/Friday. It should be made part of the contract that the final x number of groups on Saturday and Sunday are shown on BBC1/2. Their snooker coverage can be appalling at times. If the BBC don't want it, I'm sure ITV or some other fta service would pick it up.

First Up wrote: »

ITV has no relationship with golf and it doesn't fit with their advertiser profile.

Sky's golf coverage is immeasurably better than what BBC can put into it as a "public service" broadcaster. Golf attracts the right kind of audience for higher end advertisers and as a result they pay more.

If you are serious about watching golf or indeed almost any sport, then you get Sky. There is no point in arguing about it.

Plenty of greats of the game become familiar with it by watching it on the tv as a kid. They may or may not have come from families interested in golf.

With it moved to Sky it takes it out of the living room of a huge amount of households, and would be future golfers will end up doing something else.

It's not just about keeping the serious golfers watching, it's about keeping the numbers up of people who are serious about watching golf.

Golf is less of a talking point than in years gone by, the same way the Ashes became less visible has become relative to what it was 10 years ago, and the same way people's interest in Wimbledon would collapse if it went to Sky.

First Up wrote: »

ITV has no relationship with golf and it doesn't fit with their advertiser profile.

Sky's golf coverage is immeasurably better than what BBC can put into it as a "public service" broadcaster. Golf attracts the right kind of audience for higher end advertisers and as a result they pay more.

If you are serious about watching golf or indeed almost any sport, then you get Sky. There is no point in arguing about it.

I was just referring to ITV so as to not restrict any fta discussion to the BBC.

How is Skys coverage "immeasureably" better? Do the players hit better shots because there's a Sky camera on the course over the BBC? Sky do have a much more professional setup and it is nice to watch the build up etc. but when the golf starts theres little to no difference between the two.

I disagree there's no point in arguing it. Yes, if you're "serious" about sport you buy Sky but only because Sky have the rights. I think we'd all prefer everything to be fta (obviously not possible). Do BT (or Sky back in the day) do a better job than RTE for the Champions League? Do Sky do a better job than RTE for the Ireland friendlies? No, just because it's on a premium channel that doesn't mean it becomes an immeasureably better sport in some form.

Just in relation to your speculation comment the ESRI, Fair Play? Sport and social disadvantage in Ireland is research that has studied some of the effects of this. There is a plethora of research indicating that free to air television leads to higher participation rates.