The Golf Watch

Golf Channel Masters coverage excels

Hats off to the strong effort put forth by The Golf Channel team during Masters week—in particular on Sunday. 

One would think a three-hour pre-game and two-hour post-game would be too much, but TGC kept the material insightful and interesting.

Outside experts such as John Feinstein, Jim Gray and Larry Dorman were brought on to keep the analysis fresh, and they did just that. 

With new management at TGC, this is a sign of good things to come. 

Golf Channel continues to build up Web team

GolfChannel.com has added another senior writer to its staff in former South Florida Sun-Sentinel golf writer Randall Mell.  Mell joins former Golfweek staffers Jay Coffin and Rex Hoggard, along with Brian Hewitt and a number of other contributors on the Web team.

The Golf Channel's Web site still doesn't do enough to promote the writers' columns, and unless someone has the drive to scroll down on the front page, the columns will get lost for the most part.  Displaying the streaming video clips and online columns on the top of the page more prominently would be a better way to showcase the writers and their columns. 

Golf Channel pushes back programming, format still needs work

Because of inclement weather, the tee times for the Arnold Palmer Invitational were pushed back, resulting in a late finish (7:51 pm EST to be exact).

This season, The Golf Channel has been airing Golf Central live at 6 pm, regardless of when the tournament ends on network television.

On Sunday, executives decided to move the airing of the show to begin exactly at 7:30 pm., to accommodate the late finish.  This resulted in 20 minutes of air time in which it's safe to say that almost everyone was tuned in to the last hole at Bay Hill, rather than the analysis of Kraig Kann, Frank Nobilo and Tim Rosaforte.

I understand TGC wanted to air the LPGA tournament at 8:30, but it's a waste of their on-air talent if they start providing analysis before the network telecast is even over. 

I'll say it again--starting Golf Central immediately following the conclusion of the network's telecast, just like last year's Sprint Post Game, makes the most sense.

Does Maricopa County jail even get The Golf Channel?

So there's some good news related to the Charles Barkley jail sentence.

The sentence has been reduced from ten to three days, meaning that Barkley will be able to leave jail on Monday--just in time for episode two of the Haney Project. 

At least in the picture below from Rob Schumacher, Barkley seems to be working on his takeaway.

Haney Project surprisingly enjoyable

I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I sat down to watch the debut of The Haney Project.  But after giving it an honest first viewing, I really enjoyed it. 

Despite his recent legal trouble, Charles Barkley is an endearing guy.  His dysfunctional swing makes the tv series that much more intriguing. 

Watching Hank Haney push Barkley to the limit on day one (including the use of some profanities) made the show seem more authentic.

And as someone interested in audio production, it was good to hear The Golf Channel throw in some music from the De Wolfe Library.

And they're back...

The accomplished on-air duo that is Jerry Foltz and Curt Byrum returned to the booth at the Mayakoba Classic.  Let the greatness ensue. 

Barkley show still scheduled to air

Despite Charles Barkley's recent jail sentence for driving drunk last New Year's Eve, it seems that The Golf Channel will still air the debut of The Haney Project on March 2--a show geared to fixing Barkley's swing.

Even though Barkley will be in jail serving a sentence beginning on what looks to be March 21, TGC continued to air promotional commercials for the show throughout the day today.

"I’m not paying twice as much for tape delay"

Jon Show provides some concrete numbers on how much it could cost tournament sponsors to cover production costs with the most recent Golf Channel-LPGA deal...

One thing is known: Individual television production costs will increase for most events due to the structure of the new deal.

In its current deal with the tour, the network keeps most of the advertising inventory and subsidizes the production costs. The new deal provides inventory to the LPGA and its sponsors but no production subsidies.

Events now pay in the low to mid-six figures to cover production costs under separate five-year deals with ESPN and Golf Channel. Two-thirds of domestic LPGA events pay about $250,000 for production on Golf Channel, while the others on ESPN pay $350,000 or more.

Weeks before the Golf Channel deal was announced, tour officials told tournaments that production costs would likely be around $400,000, and a tournament source briefed last week by the LPGA said that costs could rise into the mid-$400,000s.

And then there's a concern I've raised--with the European Tour, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour telecasts broadcast over the weekend--when will the LPGA's weekend telecasts be aired?  Show writes:

Golf Channel now airs a mix of weekend coverage from the European Tour, PGA Tour, Champions Tour, Nationwide Tour and the LPGA. Tournament directors fear they will be relegated to live morning coverage or late afternoon tape delays.

“I’m not paying twice as much for tape delay,” declared the head of one tournament.

On a brighter note though: Martin Kaufmann raises an excellent point in the February 21 edition of Golfweek (sorry, not online) that if the LPGA Tour telecasts are produced anything like the Nationwide Tour telecasts, we will be in good shape:

In locking up the LPGA rights, Golf Channel will have an arrangement similar to the one it has enjoyed with the Nationwide Tour.  That's a good thing...Golf Channel has done much of its best work on Nationwide Tour broadcasts. Not coincidentally, GC controls those productions from start to finish; the network boys (CBS and NBC) aren't there to interfere.

The result: The Nationwide broadcasts have been some of the most watchable tournament golf on TV. 

Golf Central Sunday continues to miss mark

As mentioned before on this site, it still doesn't make any sense to me that The Golf Channel continues to air Sunday's edition of Golf Central live beginning immediately at 6 p.m.  Really, how many people do you think are watching TGC from 6-6:30 pm when the Northern Trust Open is still being televised live on CBS?

Starting Golf Central immediately following the conclusion of the network's telecast, just like last year's Sprint Post Game, makes the most sense.

Lucky for TGC, there was no playoff this week...

Magee absence from Approach unrelated to comments

I received a note yesterday asking if Andrew Magee's absence from The Approach on The Golf Channel Tuesday was at all related to his 'controversial' comments as an on-course reporter at the FBR Open. 

Even though Magee was disciplined for his comments, he wasn't on the show this week because he is playing at Pebble Beach.

I still say The Approach is incredibly flawed, but Charlie Rymer and Alex Miceli did have much better chemistry than the Magee-Miceli tandem.