One of my main pet peeves is when networks cover a golf tournament and focus SO much camera time on a select few golfers, and neglect the rest of the field. This was never so evident on Saturday. Everthing was Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. In fact I'm positive we saw every single stroke by Tiger. I'm surprised that Tim Clark got as much as he did. Other than Tiger, we saw a "smattering" of Goosen, Els, Mickelson, Couples, and about 4 strokes of Harrington, several from Mediate, well you get the idea.
Darren Clarke (-2) got ZERO, Olazabal zero, Mayfair once (-1) Ames (-2) ZERO, Nick O'hern (-1) ZERO. Most of these players are in the red and well in contention.
I'm tired of finding out all the scores of some of my favorite contenders when they show the 3rd page of the leaderboard every 30-45 minutes.
C'mon CBS, there are other players in the field, and your leaving true understanding fans of the game a bit irritated.
One of my main pet peeves is when networks cover a golf tournament and focus SO much camera time on a select few golfers, and neglect the rest of the field. This was never so evident on Saturday. Everthing was Tiger, Tiger, Tiger. In fact I'm positive we saw every single stroke by Tiger. I'm surprised that Tim Clark got as much as he did. Other than Tiger, we saw a "smattering" of Goosen, Els, Mickelson, Couples, and about 4 strokes of Harrington, several from Mediate, well you get the idea.
Darren Clarke (-2) got ZERO, Olazabal zero, Mayfair once (-1) Ames (-2) ZERO. Most of these players are in the red and well in contention.
I'm tired of finding out all the scores of some of my favorite contenders when they show the 3rd page of the leaderboard every 30-45 minutes.
C'mon CBS, there are other players in the field, and your leaving true understanding fans of the game a bit irritated.
Actually, they did miss one of Tiger's shots (and it was one of his best of the day). At the first hole, they didn't show his really good chip shot. Nantz and Wadkins were both like, "There's a close marker, so we guess Tiger must have hit a good shot." Then they showed a replay of it. And I'm pretty sure they showed Ollie making a birdie putt at the 13th hole. But you're right about Ames and the other guys. Not cool at all to ignore them like that in my opinion.
The main reason they show Tiger all the time is because of the ratings. In 2004 when Phil won against Ernie, which was probably the best Masters finish since 1986, the ratings were 41% LOWER than Tiger's win last year.
Do a Google search for "2005 masters tv ratings" and the 4th one down is an article from USA Today about it.
I was annoyed that they kept showing every movement from him, including eating a banana. They showed a vast majority of Retief's shots too, mainly because he happened to be in Tiger's pairing. I really wish they would have more balanced coverage, but they know what gives them the biggest payout in the ratings and that is Tiger in contention. As long as he's in contention, they'll show pretty much all of his shots and movements simply because they want higher ratings. It's lousy, I know (I'm a Tiger fan and it annoys me to see every movement between holes, etc), but there's nothing we can do about it.
I am a Tiger fan, and I admit, when he is playing, I watch. When he is not playing, something really riveting has to be happening for me to watch. And TTU is right about the ratings, and the lure of Tiger.
It was funny how as soon as Tiger birdied #3 to get to -2, CBS QUICKLY put Tiger on the first page of the leaderboard, dispatching Phil, who was also at -2 but had not started.
It's also funny when, by rights, the TV leaderboard should match the tournament leaderboard, and place players in order of who teed off first. On every network, whatever spot Tiger is in, regardless of what hole he has completed, he is always placed at the highest spot within that number under/over par. (hope that made sense)
I am a Tiger fan, and I admit, when he is playing, I watch. When he is not playing, something really riveting has to be happening for me to watch. And TTU is right about the ratings, and the lure of Tiger.
It was funny how as soon as Tiger birdied #3 to get to -2, CBS QUICKLY put Tiger on the first page of the leaderboard, dispatching Phil, who was also at -2 but had not started.
It's also funny when, by rights, the TV leaderboard should match the tournament leaderboard, and place players in order of who teed off first. On every network, whatever spot Tiger is in, regardless of what hole he has completed, he is always placed at the highest spot within that number under/over par. (hope that made sense)
Actually, they do that with Phil, Vijay, Ernie, Goosen, etc. Tiger isn't the only one who has his name ahead of others when it should be listed behind based on who has finished more holes. Since Tiger is #1 in the world and the most popular player by far, they list him ahead of Phil, but if it came down to Phil and Vijay, they would list Phil first because he's more popular. They want to be able to hype up the big names and show their names as quickly as possible to keep the audience from changing the channel if they go through the leaderboard and Tiger or Phil or whoever isn't in the first 2 pages. LOL. It's silly but it falls right in line with the obsession with ratings.
Edit: Some of you OG's on here will have to give me a hand on this one, but I'm pretty sure the phenomenon of placing Tiger and other popular players higher on TV leaderboards started with Tiger. In other words, when he hit the scene they started doing it. I could be wrong on that. Someone help me out and tell me how it was with Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, etc.? Were their names placed above others simply because of their popularity even if they hadn't finished as many holes? Thanks for the help on this. I'm too young to know. LOL.
I always notice that on the leaderboard...every network does that, except TGC. Instead of grouping the scores by hole like they use to, they now do it by popularity. If your name is Woods, Singh, Goosen, Els or Mickelson, you're going to be put on top of everyone else just so their name shows up further up on the leaderboard to increase interest.
If several players are tied for a position, no one should have an objection regarding who's listed 1st. When they start listing Tiger ahead of those in front of him, then I might have a problem. ABT (anyone but Tiger) fan here.
when tiger's winning, people will watch. when tiger's losing, people will watch. when tiger's sleeping, well you get the idea. if there were a truman show of tiger it would probably receive competitive ratings. cbs is catering to the demands of the fans. can you really blame them?
Well, to me, Tiger is just another guy on the course. I know I'm in the minority, but it vexes me to no end when I tune into ,say, a major, put my weekend time aside, and end up adjusting my plans only to end up watching the "Tiger Show."
Here's an example : Darren Clarke is one of my favorite golfers, has been for many years. I have Steven Ames in a Master's pool- I'm the only guy out of 23 that chose him. Darren Clarke is playing along side Phil Mickelson. In the 3 hours of Saturday's telecast, I NEVER saw either of them. I had to wait for that rare time CBS actually flipped the pages of their leader board display more than once to see if a score changed. These idiots were cutting off the board at -1 when the next page would have concluded w/ the rest at -1. I thought my guys dropped- but no they just neglected to turn to the next screen.
Sorry for the rant, but this is years of aggravation for a guy that simply wants to see the competition, regardless of his name.
We're seeing a little bit of Ames this morning...of course, we're seeing all of Tiger and will probably see a lot of not only the leasders but Phil, Vijay, Ernie and Retief as well.
Well, to me, Tiger is just another guy on the course. I know I'm in the minority, but it vexes me to no end when I tune into ,say, a major, put my weekend time aside, and end up adjusting my plans only to end up watching the "Tiger Show."
Here's an example : Darren Clarke is one of my favorite golfers, has been for many years. I have Steven Ames in a Master's pool- I'm the only guy out of 23 that chose him. Darren Clarke is playing along side Phil Mickelson. In the 3 hours of Saturday's telecast, I NEVER saw either of them. I had to wait for that rare time CBS actually flipped the pages of their leader board display more than once to see if a score changed. These idiots were cutting off the board at -1 when the next page would have concluded w/ the rest at -1. I thought my guys dropped- but no they just neglected to turn to the next screen.
Sorry for the rant, but this is years of aggravation for a guy that simply wants to see the competition, regardless of his name.
I, like millions of others, want to see golf regardless of who plays. Every negative thing I've read is right on the mark as regards telecasting golf. I want to add one more complaint: Why are we subjected to every inane statistic they can conceive, like number of practice putts, average length of sock, number of bananas consumed, ad infitum
I know it's a major, but thank God for my TV remote control. I prefer to watch golf - not "tiger show"
Although I admit to being a huge Tiger fan, I agree that I'd rather see a contender hit a good shot or miss a short putt than watch him eat a banana! That said, I though USA did an excellent job this morning of showing almost every shot of everyone on the top of the leaderboard, giving us taped coverage of approach shots when necessary and then going right to the live putt or short iron. Good job, USA network!
Speaking of CBS...anyone see who's on 60 Minutes after the event? None other than Miss Michelle Wie. Should be an interesting show to follow up the main event.
April 9th, 2006, 01:10 AM
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