When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
Check out the priceless and must-watch opening to the Feherty interview with Bill Clinton that airs tonight (10 ET, 7PT). It is in reference to this year's first tee Tavistock Cup shenanigans. And thanks to the former President for playing along.
Ed Sherman interviews Feherty about how the interview happened and impressions of Clinton.
Stephanie Wei on Golf Channel confirming the reassignment of Morning Drive co-host Erik Kuselias, revealed not by press release but by John Hawkins in a Golf Channel online chat.
To be clear, Kuselias, a former ESPN personality whose contract wasn’t renewed in 2009, was not fired, according to Golf Channel spokesperson Dan Higgins.
“Erik has been working with the NBC Sports Network and been on assignment with ‘NBC Sports Talk,’ where he’s done a great job, so his focus is being shifted to that, instead of Morning Drive,” said Higgins via phone.
Kuselias has quite the interesting Wikipedia page.
More importantly, you've seen the fill-ins over the last few months. Who do you like to replace Kuselias? I smell an instant poll coming this week!
**Okay, I caved. Here's an Instant Poll...
In the Masters press center the Lords provide the lowly scribes with the most amazing little console to track a golf tournament. A Stylus is provided to move around the IBM laptop screen where you can view stats, leaderboards and of course, every channel imaginable displaying golf (including the option to pick the camera coverage for any hole).
Working on various writing duties, I couldn't watch a lot of the telecast but I had headphones on and took in a fair amount of the coverage, which visually appeared to be a classic in terms of the number of shots we were shown. Sure, there are still the awkward delays when someone makes hole-in-one, we hear the roar, and it isn't shown for 15 minutes. But all in all, there is no better telecast of golf than CBS's presentation of the Masters.
Yet astoundingly, the 2012 Masters was but another example of the sound folks picking up some fantastic player-caddie conversations, only to be trampled over by the announcers. Now, I understand the broadcasting team has many voices coming through their headphones, and they may even be working under orders to explain a situation instead of allowing the player-caddy dialogue to tell the story. But I feel confident stating that I have yet to experience an announcer insight to be as interesting or informative as what the player and caddie are discussing.
Furthermore, there is no other sport where we are afforded the chance to literally hear the athlete's thoughts as the action is unfolding.
So what can we do to convince networks and announcers that these conversations are vital to the viewing experience?
Thoughts?
For Immediate Release...
ESPN’s live telecast of the first round of the 2012 Masters Tournament on Thursday, April 5, averaged 2,661,000 viewers with a 2.3 household coverage rating based on fast nationals, according to the Nielsen Company.
The rating was an increase of 10 percent from last year’s first round, which earned a 2.1 rating. Viewership was up four percent over last year’s 2,550,000 average.
Daily Variety's Stuart Levine talked to CBS's Sean McManus about a variety of deals, including the latest PGA Tour deal through 2021.
"In the most recent PGA tour deal we did, we did not assume that Tiger was going to be as dominant as he has been in the past," McManus said. "We did a very conservative projection on ratings. If Tiger finds his groove and plays a number of PGA tour events, that's all upside for us, but when you look at Rory McIlroy or Luke Donald, and put Phil Mickelson in that group, there is still an awful lot of really appealing golfers on the PGA tour."
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
