Van Cynical: Fox Needs The Fresh Approach Of Golf Channel!

I must say that Gary Van Sickle has filed quite possibly the strangest column of the year, taking the angle that everyone needs to pipe down on this USGA-Fox deal because it's time for a fresh take on televising golf. "We need a whole new approach to attract new viewers, maybe even to keep the old viewers," he writes.  And the people at Fox are just the ones to do it. Especially if they would just watch the Golf Channel.

Yes, he cites all the ways golf broadcasting could be better, noting the many things Golf Channel has done to make major championship coverage better.

Psst...Gary...Golf Channel is part of NBC and they were the ones who lost to Fox! Uh Dwayne, I gotta go, I'm due back on the planet Earth...

Watching players warming up on the range seems mundane and yet at majors, I find myself slightly mesmerized. It puts you, the viewer, on site at the major. I hated it when Golf Channel first started doing this. Now I think it’s smart. Watching Phil Mickelson sign autographs for 20 minutes after a PGA Championship practice round might have been a bit much but still, the scene puts you there.

Televised golf is ripe for change. Any change. Greg Norman is supposedly the big name Fox Sports is trying to land as its analyst. With this much money at stake, Fox needs to make as big a splash as possible. Norman is a big splash, bigger than, say, Paul Azinger, Brandel Chamblee or Colin Montgomerie.

It’s time to quit putting golf viewers to sleep and give us something more. You know what I really like? The nightly wrap-up shows Golf Channel does live on-site from the major championships. You see highlights, clips of interviews, a little reporting and insight from a panel of glib experts like Chamblee, Monty and Frank Nobilo. It’s fast-paced, edited and filled with golf nuggets. I’d almost rather watch the recap show than the live golf. I can get the feel of the whole day in two hours instead of six hours. Perfect.

 Hey, maybe Fox can take that to the bank! Why didn't I think of that?

Meanwhile, John Ourand reports that on the eve of Saturday's Fox Sports 1 launch, three of the four big cable providers have not come to terms with Fox Sports, which promised 90 million homes on launch day.