Golfweek: Fox Sports Brings No Energy To First Golf Coverage

Martin Kaufmann of Golfweek was the only person excited about Fox Sports doing golf, so it was with some amusement that I read his slamming of their first two forays into golf coverage. Even more amusing, the energy-lacking, bad-announce effort Kaufmann documents still has him somehow optimistic without any evidence other than Fox once eventually getting NFL coverage right.

More interesting is that he glosses over what time has made clear: Fox not only dropped the ball on the production side, they are not even promoting the events in a way that is resonating, which was a prime reason behind the USGA's interest in a fresh and innovative broadcast "partner." Many golfers were shocked to learn that Fox was debuting with its coverage of the men's and women's four-ball events at iconic American venues Olympic Club and Pacific Dunes.

Kaufmann writes at Golfweek.com:

Throughout the past two weeks, I got the impression that Fox was holding back, waiting to make a splash next month at the U.S. Open. I got this feeling despite assurances from Fox producer Mark Loomis that he would unveil much of the network’s new technology during the Four-Balls.

The evidence suggests otherwise. I don’t recall seeing any gauges showing wind speed and direction, an obvious omission on a seaside links such as Pacific Dunes or during the windy final at The Olympic Club. The graphic showing yardages was good, but rarely used. There were few interesting camera angles, no graphics to illustrate green contours and, despite the intimate nature of amateur golf, we heard no conversations among teammates or between players and caddies – something Loomis has said would be a point of emphasis. And there was little or no background on the players. You can do that when you’re showing Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie. But when you’re showing anonymous amateurs, you need to introduce them to viewers and share their personal stories. We didn’t get any of that during the Four-Balls.

Ouch.

He also touches on the weird obsession with former players as announcers along with Holly Sonders already not appearing in week two of a whopping eight weeks of USGA-Fox broadcasts, something I questioned in my far more kind review!

I’m so weary of producers continually trotting out former players to do godawful post-round interviews. I’ve made this point repeatedly for years. Week after week, we have to listen to Roger Maltbie, David Feherty and Peter Kostis do dreadful post-round interviews. And now we can add Gulbis and Pavin to the mix. I suppose Fox could argue that Gulbis and Pavin are new to TV and their interviewing skills will improve with time. But that’s probably not true, if our experience with Maltbie, Feherty and others is any indication. And so we go through this exercise every week – former players suddenly thrust into the role of interviewer rather than interviewee. Enough! Is Steve Sands the only TV personality capable of asking a couple of coherent, concise questions? Isn’t that why Fox hired Holly Sonders? Why was she sitting on the sidelines when she should have been doing all of those interviews?

Finally, he goes back to true believer mode that Fox will have answers for making golf more interesting and takes a poke at the guy whose team just had an epic Players telecast (no Golfweek review), and, who Fox tried to hire.

Rightly or wrongly, Fox is under the microscope. There are those who view Fox as nothing more than a monied interloper who crashed golf’s cozy little party at the country club, flashed enough Benjamins to make Al Czervik blush, and walked away with the USGA’s TV rights. Then there are those who believe that all knowledge of how to televise golf resides in the mind of NBC producer Tommy Roy. (News flash: It doesn’t.) '

Big note to Marty...Fox tried to hire Roy within hours of inking the USGA deal. Probably need to drop that one from the repertoire of potshots going forward since Fox thought he was pretty worthy. Best, Geoff.