Woods Win and Low Scoring=Great Ratings

According to AP:

Tiger Woods' victory at the PGA Championship helped the TV ratings increase 22 percent from last year.

CBS' final-round coverage Sunday drew an average overnight household rating of 7.2 with a 16 share. That's up from last year's 5.9 rating with a 13 share for Phil Mickelson's victory. This year's rating was the highest for the final round since 2002, when Rich Beem's one-shot victory over Woods earned an 8.0 with a 17 share.

That's quite a contrast to the U.S. Open, which saw its worst ratings in 12 years. The USGA will blame Tiger, but the buzz at Medinah brought on by birdies had to help too.

Peter and Tiger XOXOXOXO...Next Up, Middle East Peace?

With a major at Medinah looming, I'm under doctor's orders to limit this month's viewing of pro golf on back-and-forth, soulless designs. So I did skip most of Tiger's 50th (!) win at the Buick, though I did listen to portions of the telecast at the beach, and by golly, Bobby Clampett's bored tone did help induce my afternoon nap.

But more importantly, I understand from those who insisted on watching that Tiger Woods allowed himself to be interviewed by his favorite on-course reporter and swing commentator, Peter Kostis.

Whoever engineered this short-but-sweet reunion really should be included in any upcoming Middle East peace negotiations. If these two egos adversaries can patch things up for an exchange of inane post round comments, surely this middleman could help Condi and Koffi out too?

The Tiger Effect

Golfweek's Gene Yasuda kicks off a "Special Report" on Tiger's impact 10 years after turning pro, with other contributions posted here. Meanwhile the Washington Times' Tim Lemke focuses on television ratings.

Over the years, tournaments with Woods in contention have 10 percent to 20 percent higher television ratings than those without. And the exposure for sponsors, particularly Nike, can be worth $10 million for a big tournament, according to one report.

But this year, Woods has played in only 10 events and just three since the Masters in April. Woods went nine weeks without entering a tournament as he dealt with his father's death. During his absence, several key tournaments Woods normally enters saw major ratings drops. Sunday ratings for the Wachovia Championship in May were down 32 percent, while the Memorial saw a 39 percent dip in viewers.

Overall, ratings for golf on CBS and ABC are down more than 10 percent from this point last year, and ratings on NBC are down 3 percent.

It hasn't helped that the non-Tiger events have been won by a host of relative newcomers with little following, including J.B. Holmes, Chris Couch, John Senden and Brett Wetterich. And in six of those nine events, the winner prevailed by five strokes or more.

But this year's ratings dip clearly has not scared broadcasters away from the sport. CBS will expand its coverage from 16 events to 19, and NBC will broadcast 10 events instead of five. Meanwhile, the Golf Network is locked in to a 15-year contract as the PGA Tour's exclusive cable provider, and ABC will show the British Open through 2009.

Golf Channel, Golf Network. Eh, what's the difference.

"There's no question that having Tiger on the leader board has an effect on the ratings," said Brian Walker, Sports spokesman for NBC Sports. "That being said, NBC is bullish on golf in general as evidenced by our recent extension agreements with the PGA Tour, USGA and PGA of America, which will more than double our golf coverage beginning next year."

Unprecedented Multi-Platform Simulcast!

From the folks at TNT:

In a first for a U.S. golf event, Turner Network Television (TNT) and PGA.com, one of golf’s leading interactive Web sites, will partner to bring golf fans inside the ropes with 11 hours of live coverage featuring TNT and CBS’ on-air announcers, camera coverage and editorial content as they call the 2006 PGA Championship from Medinah (Ill) Country Club. The coverage tees off on Thursday and Friday, August 17 - 18, with PGA.com simulcasting six hours of TNT’s on-air content with coverage from 2 – 5 p.m. ET for both the first and second rounds. Also, PGA.com will webcast five additional hours of bonus coverage from the first two rounds of the championship. The exclusive bonus coverage will stream on Thursday and Friday from 12:30 – 2 p.m. ET, and then again on Saturday and Sunday from 10 – 11 a.m.  TNT broadcast partner CBS will follow late-round coverage on Saturday and Sunday to the championship’s conclusion.

Oh yeah, I'm up at 7 a.m. on PGA Sunday to watch that!
 

Here's the money quote:

“One of the benefits of providing six hours of simulcast coverage on Thursday and Friday is to build interest and viewership of the PGA Championship on TNT,” said David Levy, president, Turner Sports. “This landmark multi-platform experience is the perfect example of how, with the help and tremendous access provided by our friends at The PGA of America, we can leverage our expertise and technology to enhance our network coverage giving the fan the most complete two-screen experience. We wanted to debut this big idea at a big event, and what could be better than to do so at a major championship."

And I knew sticking with AOL would finally pay off:

In addition to the live coverage on TNT and PGA.com, AOL.com users will have exclusive access to live video coverage of select par-3 holes.  This coverage will be available free and open on the Web on Thursday and Friday at http://sports.aol.com. Announcers Grant Boone, Beau Estes and Christine Pullara will provide users with an in-depth look and analysis of the world’s greatest golfers as they make their way through the challenging par-3 holes at Medinah (Ill.) Country Club. Also offered is a unique interactive open forum where golf fans can email, log on to chat or send AOL Instant Messages to our anchors and expert analysts.

Does this mean we can IM Bobby Clampett?

Feherty and McCord On Pavin's Shotmaking

Not sure what to make of this exchange today between Feherty and McCord during the final round at Milwaukee as Corey Pavin prepared to approach the 4th hole: 

FEHERTY: You know it's really kind of interesting to watch this because he's playing the game the way it used to be played, but with modern equipment. He's exactly where Hogan would have been, but he's hitting a metal wood from here. He's got 212 yards. And this is a hard green to hit. These are little push-up greens, they slope off at the sides. It's a task for the amateur player to hit these greens with a wedge.

McCORD: I used to play a lot with him early when he was playing balata golf balls, he used to curve the ball so much it was unbelievable. He'd hit 40 yard hooks and slices out there.

FEHERTY: And that's why he plays so well on these courses. At Colonial, at Hilton Head, you know because you can move the old ball. You can't...this ball just wants to go straight. That's why players like Corey Pavin can still play. And it's great to see them.

Faldo-Azinger Pairing May Return For Future Opens

Richard Sandomir writing in the New York Times:

Faldo has already signed a new deal with the Golf Channel, but he said that he could work for ABC during the next three British Opens, while he expects Azinger to return to playing more regularly.

Norby Williamson, the senior vice president for production for ESPN and ABC Sports, said: “We’re interested in pursuing a course of action that keeps them together. We’re in discussions with Paul.”

Sandomir also has this on Sunday's rating:

Perhaps the thought of such an unsightly delicacy sent Sunday’s final-round overnight rating down 4 percent, to a 5.0.

Everywhere else it was reported as being up (4.9 to 5.0 generally seems like an increase, but maybe not to the paper of record?). Toni Fitzgerald in Media Life reports the rating was up 2%:

Ratings for this year’s two previous majors were down compared to last year, and the Tour, desperate to end its late-summer and fall declines, is one year away from instituting a first-ever season-ending playoff structure in hopes of goosing viewership.

Thus even a small boost for Sunday’s British Open ratings had to be considered good for the game. Woods’ victory, his first major championship of the year, averaged a 5.0 overnight household rating Sunday, up 2 percent over last year’s 4.9 when Woods also won the tournament.

If final ratings released later today hold, the final round could rank as the second-best final round in the past two decades, trailing only Woods’ record 6.4 for his 2000 victory...

Got To Get You Out Of My Life

Let's get right to the good stuff:

Clampett on the preparation Phil Mickelson will take for the PGA Championship in Medinah, IL: “I think he’ll get there very early.  His whole focus after this championship will be on Medinah.”

Profound.

Clampett on Sergio Garcia being paired with Tiger Woods for the final round of play:  “I think it’s going to be intimidating for Sergio to play with the world’s number one player, especially Tiger.  Look at Tiger’s record, the last 10 times he’s held a 54-hole lead he’s gone on to win.”

Gosh, I wish I had said that.

Clampett on Luke Donald:  “He’s like a duck on the water, he looks calm on the outside but he’s paddling like hell underneath.”

Bet you can't wait for the PGA!

While My Head Gently Sleeped

Yes, shocking as it may seem, I did not rise at 4 a.m. to hear more of Bobby Clampett's supreme wit and wisdom. Besides, I have TNT's PR department to capture the highlights.

Clampett: “You know what (the media is) going to do?  They are going to write about Phil Mickelson if he doesn’t do that great this week and say that he over prepared.    What a bunch of hogwash.  The poor guy just can’t win.”

"Poor" would not be a word I associate with Phil.

Clampett on the definition of a “links course:”  “I thought for years that a “links course” meant that the 9th hole didn’t return to the clubhouse, but that has nothing to do with a links course.  It’s the stretch of sandy soil land along the edge of the ocean or the sea that really describes links land, and thus a links course.”

He gets it right, but then Gannon can't resist shoveling some horse puckey on top:

Gannon:  “It links the town to the sea.  You can’t farm on that land…but it’s great for golf.”

It links the town to the sea?!?! Hopefully he was joking.

Oh, and I missed more of Clampett on bunching.

Clampett on the difficulty of the course:  “This golf course lends itself towards “bunching.”  You have to take your medicine on a certain number of holes and birdies are hard to come by.  And the combination of the two leads to bunching on the leaderboard.”

Birdies are hard to come by at Hoylake?

Clampett on Phil Mickelson’s demeanor after completing 10 holes of Round #3 with a score of 75 (+3 over par):  “(Phil Mickelson’s) just about got the demeanor of a guy playing with his buddies in a practice round.  The competitive spirit is just gone.”

Clampett on Tiger Woods’ demeanor as he steps onto the course:  “(Tiger Woods) reminds me of a boxer entering an arena.  That look, all business like, and the stare down.”

Almost poetic. Almost.

Ringo Schmingo

TNT actually send the following quotes out as part of a press release highlighting the first round Open Championship commentary, but neglected to include Bobby Clampett's declaration that John Lennon hated golf (which he corrected later). Clampett confused Ringo and Lennon. These things happen when you are making it up as you go!

Before we relive his most captivating quotes, here are my favorite Clampett redundancies from round 1:

dry hardpan fairway
big oversized driver
past history

Nice! And from TNT:

Clampett on Mike Weir: “Mike’s been licking his chops this week, because he saw the course set-up playing hard and fast, and that plays right into his game.”

Clampett on Hoylake: “I would not be surprised to see the scores this bunched throughout the whole championship. It’s a course that lends itself to bunching.”

Clampett on the wide open field this year at Royal Liverpool Golf Club in Hoylake, England: “I believe there is a better than 50-50 chance of a player out of the top 50 winning here. The reason for that is it’s a golf course that doesn’t necessarily favor the longer hitter. The guys who are the short, accurate strikers have equally as much a chance to win here as one of the bombers.”

Clampett on Faldo/Woods: “There is no bad blood here, there just isn’t, and regardless of what the media is trying to build up these guys have no problem with one another. Tiger gets that (criticism) from everybody. All of us that are in the TV business have an opinion on what he is doing. We express our opinion and he respects that we have an opinion.
 

Clampett Blues

We're not even 50 minutes into the telecast here on the west coast and already Bobby Clampett is in rare form.

In the opening he declared that there was a 50-50 chance that someone outside the top 50 in the world ranking would win. On a Mike Weir approach to 18 that was 15 yards right of the ideal line he declared that the ball finding the bunker was "unlucky."

On an Ernie Els putt he asked us to note the brown patch where the putt would roll faster (and declared that the less green the greens are, the faster they are).

And of course, the usual redundancies (a variety of different shots, etc...).

Thankfully, Mike Tirico and Ian Baker-Finch are talking a lot.  

Schneider On TGC's Next Moves

Stu Schneider offers some sound advice to The Golf Channel on who they should hire next.

Will Tiger Force Golf Telecast Delays?

Reader JPB passed along this Reuters story by Brooks Boliek on the FCC's obsenity crackdown:

In its continuing crackdown on on-air profanity, the FCC has requested numerous tapes from broadcasters that might include vulgar remarks from unruly spectators, coaches and athletes at live sporting events, industry sources said.

Tapes requested by the commission include live broadcasts of football games and NASCAR races where the participants or the crowds let loose with an expletive. While commission officials refused to talk about its requests, one broadcast company executive said the commission had asked for 30 tapes of live sports and news programs.

"It looks like they want to end live broadcast TV," said one executive, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity. "We already know that they aren't afraid to go after news."

I Guess John Hawkins Doesn't See Much Weekday Coverage...

...because his Thursday evening rant describes just about every USA Network telecast...

I wish I’d kept track of all the dim-witted, apologetic, banal and otherwise unlistenable comments uttered by Bill Patrick and Jim Gallagher during USA Network’s first-round coverage of Michelle Wie this afternoon. Such a list surely would have reached several dozen—no small chore given that Wie was midway into her back nine when the telecast began.
   
For the next hour, neither Patrick nor Gallagher managed an original thought or even a syllable of brazen analysis as Wie chopped her way to an opening 77. It was TV golf at its worst, at least five strokes higher than Wie’s own performance, full of inapt pity for the young lady and every she’s-just-a-girl excuse a couple of cliché machines could borrow from a manual.

Sorry I missed this one! 

TGC Adds Faldo, Will He Have To Fly Coach Too?

The Golf Channel makes it official, Nick Faldo is on board as the lead analyst for their PGA Tour four-round coverage events. Will he have to fly coach like the rest of the Golf Channel talent?

Jerry Foltz To Be TGC's 2007 PGA Tour Analyst?

Will this master of saying nothing be named The Golf Channel's lead analyst on early round PGA Tour coverage, or will the cable network lure Bobby Clampett away for the starring role he so richly deserves? 

We have until Tuesday to speculate: 

***CONFERENCE CALL ADVISORY***

The Golf Channel to Announce New Analyst

The Golf Channel will introduce the newest addition to its broadcast
team and main analyst for its PGA TOUR coverage, which will commence in
2007 as part of its 15-year deal as the exclusive cable home of the PGA
TOUR.

Tuesday, July 11
12:15 p.m. Eastern Time