NBC - No Broadcast Complete?

Well it looks like summer has finally arrived in Calgary, so I thought I’d switch gears a little and talk some golf, particularly about this past weekend’s United States Open Championship. Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland was able to take home the trophy, after making it around famed Pebble Beach at even par for four rounds. But I’m not here to talk about the tournament; I’m here to talk about NBC’s atrocious coverage of the tournament.

Am I talking about the commentary, including Johnny Miller’s out-dated and self-indulgent ramblings? No, although I could go on for hours on that one too, even longer than Miller can talk about his 1973 Open triumph. Am I talking about the schmaltzy attempt at tear jerking that is rampant in every golf broadcast? No, although I could talk endlessly about why Davis Love doesn’t win because of a nearby rainbow or why Tiger doesn’t win because he has a father or has lost a father; every player on tour is in the same boat. Nay, every person on earth is in the same boat. (It’s a big boat) But I digress; I am here to rant about NBC’s awful camera work on Sunday’s US Open telecast. This was without a doubt the worst sports broadcast I’ve ever seen.

Since I simply don’t have the time to go through the entire seven hour broadcast (although I’d like to), I’m only going to talk about the final few holes of play on Sunday. And to narrow it down even more, I’m only going to talk about the final three groups, playing those final holes. The problem I had as a viewer over this final stretch was all the ___ shots ___ missed while _____ ____ ___. That was the experience watching golf yesterday afternoon. Fill in the blanks, a fun game to play with the kids!

Okay, we’ll start with the Mickelson-Els pairing hitting their tee shots on 14. Actually, maybe that’s not the best place to start, as we didn’t see Mickelson’s drive on 14, nor his second shot, nor Els’ second shot, and they cut away to show something else before Mickelson’s third shot stopped rolling. In fact, it ended up rolling back forty yards before it stopped, but I had to deduce that as I never actually saw it finish.

At this point in the tournament, Mickelson, Els, Woods, Havret, and eventually winner Graeme McDowell, were the only players in contention, and hence the only players being shown. I can understand that, who wants to watch Dustin Johnson limp home to a final round 82? But if you have only five players to show, you’d think you’d be able to show all their shots! Through the final five holes, those five players took a combined 111 strokes in about 150 minutes, and NBC missed almost 25% of them. Unacceptable.

When they joined the Woods-Havret twosome on the fifteenth hole, we were left to figure out for ourselves how Tiger’s ball ended up in the rough beside the green, not having seen either his drive nor his approach shot on that hole. Fortunately, after his chip, Dottie Pepper was able to tell us that after hitting his tee shot into the rough, Woods hit his approach a little heavy, and found himself short of the green, in the rough, chipping for birdie. Well, I’m glad I didn’t have to see all that! It was much better hearing about it. Ironically, while Dottie was telling us about what we missed on 15, the viewers missed two more shots on 16, forcing Brad Faxon to tell us about Mickelson and Els’ shots there. If only there were a medium featuring only sound, and no picture; golf coverage would be almost perfect.

I could continue ad nauseam about other missed shots, but rather than waste your time, I’ll merely use one of NBC’s favourite lines from yesterday’s broadcast, “while we were gone, [insert player name here] made/missed his putt for birdie/par/bogey and tapped in for par/bogey/double bogey.”

Now let’s talk about the few shots they did show. Hmmm…there was Tiger’s putt on thirteen, which used such an odd angle, from below the putting surface, that you couldn’t see the hole, only the ball. When Tiger did putt, we watched it roll along and then wondered why all the commentators were gasping. On a reply we saw the ball burn the edge of the cup, and figured out their gasps were because of how close it was. I’m not sure why we couldn’t have seen that the first time around. Or how about Mickelson’s tee shot on 17, which we joined mid-backswing. You could hear the commentator rushing his words, “…Mickelsonon17withasixiron,” trying to squeeze it into the half second it takes for Mickelson to hit the ball. The same thing happened on Mickelson’s chip shot on 17, (an amazing shot from the deep rough near the grandstand that was merely glossed over by NBC), his bunker shot on 18, Els’ fourth shot on 14, and a Havret birdie putt.

The best instance of joining a shot at the last second however, was Mickelson’s approach on the fifteenth hole. While Mickelson addressed the ball, we were shown a head-on camera angle, but as he brought the club back they switched cameras, revealing Mickelson’s ball lying on a bed of TV cables! We see this for about half of one second before the ball goes sailing into the air. The ball finds its way into the rough near the green, but before it stops moving the cameras cut away to Johnny Miller and Dan Hicks joking about still being on the air after having their cables chopped at. Not only did they not set the shot up at all, they never offered any explanation as to why he hit it either. I don’t think I’ve ever seen somebody hit a shot off of TV cables in the US Open, in the final round, while in contention, but I guess NBC didn’t feel it was worth talking about. Imagine if that shot ended up finding the green, only a couple of feet from the pin. It would be one of the more dramatic shots in US Open history, but relegated to a mere footnote in NBC’s coverage.

Perhaps this is why hockey’s TV ratings are lagging in the United States. Is NBC doing the same thing for hockey games? “While we were gone, Ovechkin and Crosby each scored their third goal of the game and began arguing over whose hat trick was nicer. They then dropped the gloves in probably the most exciting hockey fight in the history of the game.” This of course would be told as the camera showed a young fan sleeping in his seat. Why watch it live when you can be told about it later? Of course it wasn’t all bad this weekend and the optimist in me always finds a silver lining in every storm cloud. The good news is, there isn’t another golf tournament on NBC until September 5th at the Deutsche Bank Championship. Enjoy.


-TheRev