“People don’t talk about it. I hear, ‘Well, it’s to grow the game.’ Bull … they paid me a lot of money.”
David Feherty is not one to mince words. And he didn’t hold back when explaining reasons why he left NBC/Golf Channel to go to be LIV Golf’s biggest broadcaster.
“Money,” Feherty told the Toledo Blade. “People don’t talk about it. I hear, ‘Well, it’s to grow the game.’ Bull … they paid me a lot of money.”
The LIV Golf Invitational Series is still without a television partner, but Feherty’s move gave the Greg Norman-led, Saudi Arabia-funded upstart circuit a known name on its broadcast team. He made his debut two weeks ago at LIV Bedminster.
Feherty, 63, gave the answer during a fundraiser event in Toledo, Ohio, with former NBC colleague Gary Koch. It brought raucous cheering from the crowd.
He mentioned there were three main reasons for the switch. Money was one. The chance to be a lead analyst was another. Then this.
“An opportunity to be myself again. It’s become more and more difficult, especially in sports broadcasting, to have any kind of character,” Feherty said. “Charles Barkley can say pretty much anything he wants because it’s, ‘Oh, that’s just Charles.’ And it’s just Charles. But I have become more and more guarded over the last few years. There are people waiting around every corner hoping to be offended by something. F*** those people.
“Our lives are being shaped by small groups of mean-spirited people who have no sense of humor. We’re in danger of losing our national sense of humor because of this.”
Feherty also commented on how the 9/11 Commission said the Saudi government was cleared of any wrongdoing in its role on that day. Recent FBI disclosures, however, say otherwise. Feherty also commented on how LIV Golf planned to donate at least $100 million to local charities.
Saudi Arabia has been accused of wide-ranging human rights abuses, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. And members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
Who calls a total stranger on Christmas to do a lengthy phone interview? Vin Scully, that’s who!
Vin Scully called me on Christmas.
Sure, I had sent him an email interview request hours earlier on Christmas Eve, but it never crossed my mind that he would phone me during the biggest day of the NBA season.
Hearing the sad news that Scully died Tuesday at age 94 made me think back (and dig up our interview transcript) to an occasion that to me said so much about the person he was. Scully may have been synonymous with baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he broadcast professional golf, too, first for CBS – including the Masters eight times from 1975-1982 – and then with NBC from 1983-1989, where he partnered in the 18th-hole tower with Lee Trevino.
As much as I would have loved to listen to him speak for hours on baseball, it was his time in golf that I was asking him to reminisce about. I had forgotten about this until I did an email search, but the person who shared with me Scully’s contact information (and shall remain nameless) gave it to me on Aug. 13, or more than four months before Christmas. No phone number but an email address – I guess at this point I’m not revealing too much by saying his email started red@ – and a fax number. Who still had a fax? Apparently, Vin did! I never faxed him but now that I think of it, I wish I had just to say I did.
This was some quality procrastination from mid-August to late December, even for me, but sounds about right – have a direct line to the man, the myth, the legend Vin Scully and wait until most of the Catholic world was at a midnight mass service to bother writing him for an interview.
Players and fans stand for a moment of silence for the passing of Vin Scully before the Houston Astros played the Boston Red Sox at Minute Maid Park in Houston on August 3. (Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)
Santa could not have given me a better gift than a call from Vin had jolly Saint Nick landed his sleigh on the roof of my downtown Orlando condo and dumped out a bag of toys. The year was 2013, and while the specifics are a bit vague, I think I had seen a movie earlier that day and was watching the NBA in the late afternoon before dinner with my parents when I answered the phone and heard his unmistakable voice.
I may have procrastinated on writing him, but I had prepped several questions and I scrambled to pull them up on my laptop and fumbled to find my digital recorder. Again, who calls a total stranger on Christmas and sits for a lengthy phone interview? Vin Scully, that’s who!
I’m not going to post the full transcript of the interview, but here are a few things he said about Trevino, a partner he considered a true friend, that stuck out:
“Most people think of Lee Trevino they think of a talkative, outgoing, happy-go-lucky type of guy. He’s like so many people, he’s misunderstood,” Scully said. “He’s an intelligent, sensitive human being. Very bright. We’d sit on the tower and talk about the world events. He had a delightful laugh that everybody loved, but he’s far more than that delightful jokester.
“I marveled at a few things about him. Lee told me one time that he never had a cavity. As someone who has what I call Irish teeth, he had beautiful teeth,” Scully continued. “His eyesight was remarkable. I don’t know what it would be if he read the charts but we would in the tower on a par 5, so it’s a long hole, and then we would be 20 yards away from the green, and he would watch somebody hit off the tee and he’d say he blocked the shot. He had the eyesight of Chuck Yeager. It was incredible.”
“Once in a while I had the pleasure of playing with him,” he told me. “I never asked him anything. At my best, I was a 12 handicap. I’m left-handed. So occasionally we’d be on the range and we’d be facing each other and I’d just marvel at him. He might say something like, ‘Vinny, you’re choking the club to death. Relax.’ Then I’d start hitting a few balls very well and he’d say, ‘OK, let’s go.’ We’d walk 100 yards to the tee and I’d go right back to being what I am, which is hopeless. It was a great privilege to watch him shape shots. Remarkable.”
I asked him to describe how Trevino prepped for a broadcast, and his response was telling about how he went about doing his job and what made him so great. “Technically, in any sport, I always assumed I was the reporter answering the question who, what, where and when but the how – that key word – that belonged to the analyst. I would talk about score, where they are today, the shot, the club, the distance and then get out of the way to allow Lee to give the analysis. I would sit at his feet almost like a child and listen to his explanation of why these things occurred.”
I could go on but this final anecdote he shared is arguably my favorite, because it combined golf and baseball and two athletes that captured the attention of the sporting public.
“There was a wonderful golf writer in England named Bernard Darwin,” Scully began. “He talked about a player that was out of sight in a tournament and then won. He referred to the fact that the golfer had come from the back of beyond. I thought that was such a remarkable phrasing. I used it with Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican left-hander, who really came from the back of beyond to become more than a hero. I felt that Lee was the same. He came from the back of beyond. He came from hitting golf balls with branches in the cemetery.”
At this point we had talked for 25 minutes and I had exhausted my questions and he had told one gem of a story after another. However, I didn’t really want to hang up. I had the great Vin on the line and I didn’t want this moment to end. I had a pretty good idea that this was going to be a one-and-done for me. But before I could start vamping, he said, “I hope that helps a little bit, Adam. I’ve got family here and I did want to do it before I got overwhelmed.”
I suddenly felt like the worst person in the world. It’s Christmas Day, Vin’s family is over and I’m keeping him from having a glass of eggnog with his wife and kids to do the most-non-deadline of non-deadline interviews you can imagine.
I wished him happy holidays, and that was the extent of my dealings with him, but it left a lasting impression that someone as famous as he would drop everything – even on Christmas Day – to do an interview for a sport he hadn’t covered in over 20 years.
To me, it spoke to Scully’s character and was just a small reason he was such a beloved figure in sports. I loved listening to him call a game before, but after our Christmas Day interview he had secured a permanent space in the upper tier of my sports broadcasting firmament. Vin Scully was pure class in my book, and I can’t help but think of him every year on Christmas Day.
Among the events on Vin Scully’s resume included the Masters Tournament from 1975 to 1982.
It’s been a hell of week for sports fans.
Three days after Boston Celtics great Bill Russell died, Vin Scully, the long-time play-by-play voice for the Los Angeles Dodgers, passed away Tuesday night at age 94.
The team, which spoke to family members according to the Associated Press, reported that Scully died at home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles.
Scully had a long and storied broadcasting career, calling Dodgers games for an amazing 67 years. His résumé included calling the Masters Tournament on CBS from 1975—when Jack Nicklaus won his fifth green jacket—to 1982.
“The big thing about being at the Masters, and unless you go there you don’t realize it, is the crowd noise,” he told Forbes in November of 2020.
Scully later called PGA Tour events alongside Lee Trevino on NBC Sports.
A golfer himself, he told Forbes that he enjoyed playing the game with his wife at golf courses around the world.
“I would never consider myself a good golfer, just an extremely lucky one,’’ said Scully. “I had three aces and I also had an eagle on No. 2 at Bel-Air Country Club. Those are my four shining moments from 45 years, along with playing with my wife. We had a lot of fun teasing each other.’’
He says he played till he was 93.
“I knew I couldn’t play anymore anyway,” Scully told Forbes. “It was an acceptance of where I am in my life, my age, and what I can and can’t do anymore. And one of the things was to recognize, in all truth, that golf was one of them.”
Scully had perhaps his most famous call in the 1988 MLB playoffs.
October 15, 1988: Kirk Gibson’s iconic injured walk-off two-out two-run pinch-hit walk-off home run off Dennis Eckersley to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win over the A’s in G1 of the World Series. pic.twitter.com/PJ4CYerMWB
July 22, 2022, marks the 34th anniversary of the box office release of the movie.
Caddyshack, it is almost universally agreed, is the best golf movie made.
It’s also almost undoubtedly true that the sequel, Caddyshack II, is the worst golf movie ever made.
The original, released in 1980, is a sports movie classic starring Billy Murray, Chevy Chase, Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight. Famous lines from the movie continue to be spoken on golf courses across the country decades later.
Released in 1988, Caddyshack II was panned, scorned, mocked, you name it. Even prominent participants in the film almost instantly regretted their decision to be involved.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s probably best you don’t.
Nonetheless, July 22, 2022, marks the 34th anniversary of the box office release of the movie.
Here are five things you should know (but probably wish you didn’t) about Caddyshack II.
ESPN+ gained exclusive rights to PGA Tour Live at the start of 2022. Less than nine months in, the price is going up.
ESPN’s streaming service ESPN+ gained exclusive rights to PGA Tour Live at the start of 2022.
Less than nine months in, the price is going up.
According to reports by Front Office Sports and Variety, the monthly subscription price of ESPN+ will go up $3 in late August.
The current price of ESPN+ is $6.99 and will jump to $9.99 per month in about five weeks. That’s an increase of 43 percent.
The Tour’s streaming move from NBC to ESPN is part of the PGA Tour’s nine-year domestic media rights portfolio that was announced in March 2020 and began with the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January.
BREAKING: ESPN+ is raising its subscription price from $6.99 per month to $9.99 per month.
Variety reports that the annual subscription price will go from $69.99 to $99.99.
For those consumers who are getting ESPN+ as part of a bundle along with Disney+ and Hulu, that monthly subscription rate of $14 will stay the same.
The move from NBC to ESPN+ increased the total number of hours of golf streaming, as more than 3,200 hours of new live streaming was added, bringing the total to more than 4,300 exclusive hours of action throughout the year.
Tirico is set to broadcast his 24th British Open this week at St. Andrews.
Mike Tirico is set to broadcast his 24th British Open this week at his favorite venue, the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Tirico did his first Open in 1997 for ESPN/ABC and after broadcasting last year from NBC/Golf Channel’s Connecticut studio, he’s happy to be back in Scotland in the Old Grey Toon.
Thursday and Friday he’ll be in the booth for three hours each day, doing what he did for 18 years at the Open. In a nod to the halcyon days of the Tirico/Paul Azinger/ Nick Faldo announce team, they will partner up once again on Friday from 1-2 p.m. ET in a final tip of the hat to Faldo, who announced he is retiring later this year.
“We did one couple-hour stint at the Players a few years back, maybe three years ago I think it was,” Tirico said. “That was the only other time we’ve done it since we did it many moons ago (at ABC/ESPN) since we stopped. This will be the second time in the last 15 years.”
Since coming over to NBC, Tirico made a smooth transition into the host role.
“I guess my job is get us on the air, set the scene a little bit, especially since we’re on for so long, resets, highlights, things like that,” he said. “I think here it’s a little bit more perspective I can add because I’ve been here for 23 of them, this being the 24th, so I can add just some historical stuff, things I remember from being here and all the stuff we’ve seen over the years with Jack and Tom playing their last, Spieth going for the career Slam, all that stuff.”
Tirico has been involved in the U.S. and British Opens, the Players Championship and the Tour Championship, and the occasional odd event here or there.
“This is 25 years for me of doing golf as a whole,” he said. “It’s made this 25 years great, absolutely great.”
Brandel Chamblee on Banks: ‘There’s a level of competence that comes through, like she could handle anything.’
Nearly 10 years ago now, Cara Banks switched on the Golf Channel in her hotel room at the PGA Championship and watched Kelly Tilghman host “Live From” onsite at Oak Hill Country Club. Banks, who was there working for Sky Sport’s Golfing World, immediately knew that’s what she wanted to do.
“It is a bit pinch-me,” said Banks of how that dream became reality.
Banks, 37, heads over to Scotland on Saturday evening to prep for the 150th British Open Championship at St. Andrews, three nights after husband Ollie’s departure. She’ll stay through the week working as host for Golf Channel’s “Live From” shows as well as play-by-play of streaming coverage from the Old Course.
Ollie, managing director at CM Management, will head from the Scottish Open to the British and then home for a few days before flying to meet client Kipp Popert at the U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst.
They’ll then meet back home in Connecticut, pack up their two young children and return to the U.K. to visit family. What sounds slightly chaotic actually makes a lot of sense given that the children tend to do better at home in their routines with a nanny, while mom and dad work the long hours of a major championship.
“Everyone warns you that having two is like 100,” said Banks, who gave birth to daughter Tiggy in November. Son Jesse turned 3 in June.
“One is one and two is 100. … I was joking with my friend, why didn’t you shout this from the rooftops? This is mental!”
Banks family left to right: Ollie, Jesse, Cara and Tiggy (courtesy photo)
Obviously, neither of the Banks would change a thing. There are no typical days in the Banks home, with both traveling and Cara heading into the studio at varying hours when not working from the kitchen table. They’re currently in the midst of a remodel of their Fairfield home, turning the garage into a second office.
“What I say to everyone,” said Banks while in the midst of a 12-day trip in Augusta, Georgia, last April, “is that I think working makes me a better mom.”
***
Cara Banks’ (formerly Robinson) career inspiration began with Davina McCall, a British presenter who rose to fame as the host of the television series “Big Brother.”
“I loved how it felt like she was talking to you,” said Banks, who studied politics at Newcastle University but took her first job as a runner on a Saturday night chat show making cups of tea.
Banks realized early on, however, that sport suited her more than entertainment and the 6-foot-1 netballer, having been brought up in a golfing family, took a job as production secretary for European Tour productions at IMG. Then, when managing director Rupert Hampel’s personal assistant went on maternity leave, Banks reluctantly put in for the job on the advice of others.
“It was the best thing I ever did,” admitted Banks, who had the post for two years.
During the week she’d take minutes for the European Tour board meeting but on the weekends, she’d travel to places like Scotland and Wales to log video for the European Senior and Challenge Tours. While her friends were at the pub, she’d be angling for a seat next to the producer on the flight home to watch him put together the run-of-show.
When Sky Sports’ Golfing World first launched, Banks took on the role of “preditor,” which is industry slang for a job that combines the duties of both producer and editor. She traveled the world with her camera in tow as a sort of one-woman band, setting up the interviews and equipment to put together her own voice-over features.
Eventually, it was decided that the show needed a presenter, and Banks moved to on-camera work, now traveling with a preditor.
“I’ve always found it helpful that I know how it works behind the camera,” said Banks, “I understand how to run a highlight show and script-writing. I know what the guys in the control room are looking for.”
In the midst of this on-the-job training, tragedy struck the Robinson family in 2009 when Cara’s brother Myles never came back from a night out at a Swiss ski resort. The entire family was there on holiday, and he was found dead at the bottom of a cliff. No one could answer the how or why.
Myles was 23 years old and on the cusp of a career in finance in London. He and Cara were very close.
“We were just so lucky,” said Banks, “the four of us were so blessed living in this bubble and then real life struck. I just remember being very pragmatic about it, probably to support my parents, who were going through hell.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNmn_IbB1uz/?hl=en
Myles loved golf and his favorite player was Luke Donald. All Cara wanted to do while working the range at Doral for Golfing World was call her younger brother to tell him all about it. As fate would have it, she met Ollie while working at IMG, and he happened to manage Donald during the Englishman’s stint as World No. 1.
The Myles connections continue on now as son Jesse’s best friend in nursery school is a boy named Myles, even spelled the same.
“I think you just have to think of things positively,” said the strong and affable Banks.
***
After several years of working as a presenter for Golfing World, Banks was approached by Golf Channel, coming aboard in 2015 as a co-host for “Morning Drive.”
She now serves as studio host of “Golf Central” and hosts “Live From” shows at big events, occasionally working as a reporter, too.
“She is the point guard,” said Golf Channel analyst Paige Mackenzie. “She sets the tone for everything going on on the desk.”
Coordinating producer Matt Hegarty notes that Banks stood out immediately because she worked straight through commercial breaks, no matter how long the show was on the air. That was a first.
Banks loves a good nugget, and often weaves in interesting tidbits to make the storytelling as full and rich as possible. Her passion for the game and genuine curiosity shines through everything she does – whether as host or reporter.
She likes to treat the camera as another person in the room, remembering what it felt like to watch McCall growing up.
“I always try to be the same person on camera as I am off,” said Banks, “because the audience isn’t stupid. They’ll see through you.”
Ollie marvels at his wife’s ability to compartmentalize as a working mom who still has time for the gym and friends. He also appreciates her “inane skill level of being able to remember facts.” Though the same can’t be said for song lyrics.
“I think she likes to understand not just on the surface level what’s going on,” said Ollie, “but the deeper-rooted cause of why things are occurring.”
Cara Banks with children Tiggy and Jesse (courtesy photo)
Before Banks took on play-by-play duties for the first time last year at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Mike Tirico reached out to offer not only his congrats, but the use of his templates so that she could see how he prepares.
“He has an excel document, and he has everything on one page,” said Banks. “It’s all split like a mathematical equation. It’s fascinating.”
Banks hopes to follow in the footsteps of a Jim Nantz or Tirico as a host and play-by-play announcer for a variety of different sports at the highest levels. She has recently covered the Premier League for NBC Sports and reported on a variety of events during the Summer and Winter Olympics.
“For me, I feel like I’m a bit on a back foot because I didn’t grow up here,” she said. “I didn’t watch the NFL my whole life or have a college team.”
Banks’ ambitious personality, coupled with a love of learning, however, certainly makes that next dream appear achievable. She wants to do all she can to push the barrier for women in sports.
“She’s really become as well-rounded as anybody,” said Hegarty.
From left, Cara Banks, Notah Begay, Mark Rolfing and Michelle Wie West on the Golf Channel set during a practice round prior to The Players Championship on The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2020 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
Mackenzie first started working with Banks on “Morning Drive” and says their conversations often revolve around the search for a good nanny.
While the nonstop juggling act can get crazy at times, Mackenzie has always admired Banks’ ability to navigate what can be the chaos of live TV to deliver a product that’s exceptionally smooth.
“You would never know as a viewer what kind of storm or hurricane may be going on in her ear,” said Mackenzie. “She’s just always had such command.”
Ollie was en route to the airport when he took the call to talk about his wife. The couple started dating in December of 2011 and were married in 2017. He’s fond of sharing her story with others who want to build a career in sports.
“Look, if you really want something badly enough, don’t say no to any opportunity,” he said. “Show your personality, show your skills. You never know what might become of it.”
Brandel Chamblee, a former PGA Tour player and longtime analyst for Golf Channel, worked with Tilghman for years and describes her as formidable and competent, with a great sense of levity. Tilghman, who became the first female play-by-play host for the PGA Tour, understood that TV is meant to be entertainment.
Banks, he says, is much the same.
“She has a commanding and I would say comfortable presence on-air, the same way Kelly did,” said Chamblee. “But above all that, there’s a level of competence that comes through, like she could handle anything.”
One of the things Chamblee said he enjoyed most about late-night host David Letterman was that he’d take a funny comment at the top of the show and find a way to thread it throughout, giving the show a beginning, middle and end. Banks does the same.
She’s also keen to challenge analysts to expound on a point, not so much to hold them accountable, said Chamblee, but to let them shine. While Tilghman, who left the Golf Channel after more than two decades to focus on her family, was very organized, he continued, host Rich Lerner is more in the moment. Banks is a blend of both.
“As an analyst,” said Chamblee, “you feel very comfortable sitting next to her because you know she’s got it. She can bring us in, she can take us out, she can keep the ball in the air.”
“I am excited for Trevor; he will be excellent in this role and the team is incredibly well positioned for the future,” said Faldo.
It’s official. Trevor Immelman will replace Nick Faldo as lead golf analyst for CBS Sports beginning in 2023.
Immelman, 42, was confirmed in a press release just hours after Faldo announced on social media that he would retire at the end of the PGA Tour’s regular season at the Wyndham Championship in August, the site of his PGA Tour debut as a player in 1979. Faldo, who turns 65 on July 18, had served as lead analyst for 16 years.
Immelman won the 2008 Masters and is the current International Presidents Cup captain. He joined CBS Sports’ golf team in 2019, and signed a new multi-year deal that begins with the network’s 2023 season, when he assumes his duties alongside Jim Nantz in the 18th tower for the Farmers Insurance Open. Immelman has been perceived as a rising star in the CBS ranks.
“We are thrilled to name Trevor as the lead analyst for golf on CBS,” said Sean McManus, chairman of CBS Sports. “He brings the credentials and experience as a major champion, along with a unique perspective and knowledge of today’s stars, having recently competed alongside them. Trevor has developed terrific chemistry and relationships with our entire team, and we look forward to him sharing his insights, as he informs and entertains viewers for many years to come.”
Trevor Immelman has served in various roles since joining as a TV broadcaster for both NBC/Golf Channel and CBS Sports since 2019. (Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
A native of South Africa, Immelman won 11 times worldwide during his career, and was named the PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2006. Two years later, in 2008, he won the Masters, becoming at the time only the second South African to win at Augusta National. He has also played on two President’s Cup teams (2005, 2007) and in 2019 was Vice Captain for fellow countryman Ernie Els. Immelman has also worked for Golf Channel, where he has been a lead analyst and a regular contributor to the network’s Live From coverage at The Players and all four major championships.
“I am excited for Trevor; he will be excellent in this role and the team is incredibly well positioned for the future,” Faldo said in a release.
Nick Faldo started in TV on ABC in 2004 before switching networks.
Nick Faldo’s 16-year career as a golf commentator on CBS Sports is coming to an end.
Faldo announced Tuesday that he’s stepping out of the booth, which he currently shares with Jim Nantz, and retiring. Faldo was last seen in the 18th tower for CBS at the RBC Canadian Open nine days ago, just ahead of the U.S. Open, and will be working this week at the Travelers Championship.
Faldo, a six-time major winner, once said he never imagined himself doing TV work at all.
“Just the complete opposite,” he said in 2013 at Oak Hill Country Club ahead of the 95th PGA Championship. “I said ‘There’s no way I’m going to be on tour for 28 weeks a year, and then retire and be on tour for 28 weeks a year and sit in a TV tower. No way.”’
Nick Faldo (left) and Jim Nantz are joined by Memorial Tournament host Jack Nicklaus in the CBS Sports booth at Muirfield Village Golf Club on June 3, 2017 in Dublin, Ohio. (Photo: Chris Condon/PGA Tour)
It was a stint on ABC at the 2004 British Open that changed his mind about doing TV work. He was with that network for three seasons before CBS brought him on in 2006, replacing Lanny Wadkins as lead analyst.
“My job is the how, what and when guy,” he told the Democrat & Chronicle. “I let the viewer know what it’s like to be a pro golfer in a certain situation. How is he going to do, what is he going to do and what went wrong.”
On social media, Faldo noted that the first PGA Tour event he played was the Greater Greensboro Open, and that the last event he will work as an analyst will be that same event, now called the Wyndham Championship, 43 years later. He also said that he intends to settle at Faldo Farm, which is currently under construction in Montana, with his wife Lindsay, and devote more time to family and fishing.
Faldo, 64, won 33 times internationally, another nine on the PGA Tour and he won six majors: three green jackets at the Masters and three British Opens. His best finish in the U.S. Open was solo second in 1988; he also tied for second in the 1992 PGA Championship. Along the way, he held the top spot on the Official World Golf Ranking for 97 weeks.
Faldo also has a successful golf course design company, which has done work in more than 20 countries.
Whan is looking to make improvements after the social media outcry.
USGA CEO Mike Whan has heard the criticism.
The social media backlash from countless viewers who found NBC’s broadcast across multiple networks bordering on unwatchable due to the endless ad breaks didn’t fall on deaf ears.
“I’m on it!” Mike Whan tweeted from his personal account. “We have the best sports production team in the world here with our partner NBC Sports (Olympics, Super Bowl, etc.) and if the amount of interruptions are problematic, we will work with our partner to do better.”
Golf.com, citing multiple sources, reported that “stakeholders from both the USGA and NBC held conversations on Saturday to address the social media backlash to the broadcast, specifically in regard to the commercial load.” It is common for the network to have daily conversations with USGA officials, including to discuss elements of the coverage.
The USGA and NBC are longtime TV partners. But the USGA struck a lucrative deal with Fox that began in 2015. This is the second year that NBC has returned to broadcasting USGA championships after buying out the back end of Fox’s bloated 12-year deal. Of the USGA’s 15 championships, the U.S. Open is far and away the most in demand among advertisers. To recoup expenses, the U.S. Open has more frequent commercial breaks.
I’m on it! We have the best sports production team in the world here with our partner NBC Sports (Olympics, Super Bowl, etc.) and if the amount of interruptions are problematic, we will work with our partner to do better!
NBC’s coverage also has been derided this week for asking viewers to flip channels between Peacock, its premium (paid) streaming service, USA Network and NBC, but not Golf Channel.
Whan is in his first year at the helm of the USGA after previously serving as LPGA Commissioner. He tweeted back at No Laying Up, who was highly critical of the coverage and tagged Whan in one of its missives.
“More TV people here than the Super Bowl (true!) so we/the USGA will work to free them up to do what they do better than anyone,” Whan wrote. “This has been a great U.S. Open and we will work to make 2023 at LACC even better!”
More TV people here than the Super Bowl (true!) so we/the USGA will work to free them up to do what they do better than anyone. This has been a great US Open and we will work to make 2023 at LACC even better!
The last hour of Sunday’s broadcast of the final round should be more to the liking of viewers as it will be shown commercial-free thanks to Rolex, which is an official USGA partner.
