Irony Alert: Fox Earns Golf Cred With USGA Fiasco Coverage

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Both Martin Kaufmann at Golfweek and John Strege at Golf World focused on Fox's handling of the USGA's mishandling of the Dustin Johnson ball move, and appropriately praised the network for their coverage. (Classic Sports TV also did its usual breakdown of shots and it appears the controversy coverage ate into the number compared to last year.)

This twist in the Fox-USGA saga is glorious on many levels.

To review: the USGA wanted a partner who would expand their brand, carry their water, rub their shoulders and, in general, give them the love they so desperately thirst for the one week a year the world is watching. (There has been the sense that former partner NBC covered past boondoggles too well and could not be trusted by the loyalty-over-competency ways of the modern, coldly-corporate USGA.)

In year one, Fox complied with an excess of USGA logos on the screen, daily Mike Davis booth visits, way too much Tom O'Toole in the booth and hiring folks like former Walker Cup captain Buddy Marucci, who brings no energy (both O'Toole and Marucci were back in 2016, with O'Toole as a contributor to the digital announce squad that Marucci worked).

Yet when the USGA rules staff intervened Sunday in the proceedings, most of the nation could see what the USGA still can't see--a referee agreeing with a player that no violation occurred. Fox carefully called them out initially, and then as reality set in, allowed analysts Azinger and Faxon do what they're paid to do: give strong opinions. That initial restrained skepticism also bought them a free pass for the various and inevitable mistakes when you only do a huge production once a year and on almost no sleep due to the weather delays.

Kaufmann explores the USGA fiasco element of the telecast and adds this insight into why Buck kept steering his analysts to the weirdness of it all:

Buck, in an interview late Sunday, said he received a text from a NFL head coach during the Johnson dispute who said, “It’s like the officials telling you, ‘Hey, we can’t tell you if the two-point conversion you just tried is good until the end of the game.’ It was odd to do an event where you weren’t sure what the lead was.”

In calling them "noticeably better" Golf World's John Strege also focuses on the ruling fiasco, crediting the network for showing Tweets from top players.

So it's fascinating that Fox succeeded by setting the tone for national outrage aimed at the USGA, levels of which we've never quite seen. The willingness to expose questionable decisions by their partners gave them golf street cred but helped do incredible damage to the USGA.
 
Isn't it wonderful when it all works out?

Besides the right amount of honesty from analysts Azinger and Faxon when it came to the Johnson situation we saw a more restrained Buck, a more polished Holly we used to know and love being back, and a wealth of eye-catching effects made it a much improved effort.

Highlights:

—Flight Track, showing the player teeing off with a side graphic depicting the flight of the ball and various numbers. Easily the biggest innovation in golf viewing based on the viewer reaction on social media and in the press center.

--Protracer from the side, Protracer in general, and lots of Protracer live.

—More incorporation of blimp shots, which wasn't a hard one to improve since its use was almost non-existent last year.

--The cup mic picking up Spieth chatter on 6 green Saturday and at other times when balls hit the flagstick.

—The pivot of putting on-course reporter Curtis Strange in the main booth after it was kind of obvious that the two-time US Open winner brought gravitas. More booth time and less on-course time.

--Real time shot information. It was particularly spellbinding when Dustin Johnson was playing thanks to his incredible carry yardages.

--Incorporating social media into all days of the telecast. Maybe even incorporating them on screen? But who could have seen the day social media was potentially impacting the final nine of a golf tournament.

--Bob Ford and Gil Hanse were welcomed changes in pace, styling and insight into setup/agronomics/local knowledge, but we didn't get enough of them breaking down the holes. The potential of the on screen hole drawings is exciting.

 

The lowlights:

--Azinger seemed a bit reserved the first two days, with Faxon doing much more of the talking. By the weekend Azinger was more assertive and his colleagues more deferential to his opinions, which are generally the most interesting and nuanced on the Fox team. More Azinger next year and let him go down those interesting, wonky ratholes like the discussion on Trackman, then let the others chime in as they did this week. Viewers can't get enough.

--Relying on lower right leaderboards with a handful of names was particularly annoying in early round coverage when viewers all over the land want to see names of qualifiers they are following. How about at the bottom screen, a running board so folks in 19th holes across the land can spot names?

—Too often Fox showed a great shot and didn't follow up the story. Rory drives a green, we don't see the next shot, etc...

--Not enough flyovers, especially those given the slight artistic treatment that are so hard to take your eyes off of. The straight drone shots down the fairway don't inspire much insight.

—Two course records were in play that threatened to join Johnny Miller's famous 63, yet were not treated like historic moments. Andrew Landry should have been getting non-stop coverage as he closed out round two. Perhaps because the philosophy seemed to be...

—Big name players and more big name players, meaning the network/FS1 coverage felt too often like Best Of Featured Group coverage. NBC's Tommy Roy tried to show all 156 players in the field the first two days, whereas Fox seems more about the big names. That's fine, but does undercut the USGA's message that this is the world's most democratic championship and everyone who is there has a great backstory.

—Mark Brooks has good things to say and was quite solid on last year's Featured Group coverage where he was more energetic. Worrying about being on camera may be the culprit for what seemed to be a more restrained approach, though I did enjoy his willingness to subtly indicate greens 14 on the Stimpmeter were not cool.

--Green shading and the small yellow dots were great to the trained eye but I wonder what the casual viewer thought?

—Still some struggles following shots and with sound. And what was the noise that caused Dustin Johnson to back off on 18? That could have been disastrous.

--Interviewing Rickie Fowler (+11) while Shane Lowry (-2) was on the course finishing round two bothered many. It was nice of Fowler to stick around, but since he's not a former U.S. Open winner nor was a pre-tournament favorite, make him wait a few more minutes and show Lowry.