Capelle On Golf

In part one I talked about pet peeves among players and people in golf. This second installment focuses on TV coverage.

Bogus swing analysis
The slow motion replays of players’ swings are great, but they typically come only after a poor shot. The announcer will then spout off some cliche explaining why the shot went off line. I wonder if these guys would be able to tell you where the shot went without prior knowledge of the result.

NEW: I propose that we have The Great Announcer Golf Swing Challenge. Show the TV swing gurus 50 swings without disclosing where the ball went. Based on seeing the swing only, see how many they call the ball’s direction - left, right, or straight. And no fair overloading this with Tiger’s tee shots!

“We’re in match play”
Saying that a stroke play event is now in a match play situation is about the dumbest comment the announcers can make. Just ask Jean Van de Velde. He had a three up lead with one hole to play in the 1999 British Open which would, of course, have closed out the competition in match play. But not in stroke play where anything is possible.

“A pull goes a half club longer”
I heard this comment at least three times in one afternoon during the Farmers event. This is no longer super inside pro knowledge. We get it! It is almost as obvious as using too much club results in a shot over the green,

The colored track line to the hole
The track line to the hole is the worst innovation in televised golf history. At least they changed the color from purple (I think) to green. If they must use it, reduce the line to a ball’s width, or less. And cut down on the size of the target graphic!

Excessive commercials at the end of a broadcast
I understand the need to show commercials, but we are bombarded with them at times, especially at the end of a tournament. I am going to time the intervals some day. But I do know that I sat down following a commercial, but had only enough time to eat three almonds before they took another break. Enough already!

Not showing players who are in contention (playing favorites)
How many times have you watched a couple of hours of coverage and never seen Player X - then he magically appears within a stroke or two of the lead? Why was he not shown mounting his charge? Was it because they were following some big name who was out of contention?

“Good success”
Definition of success: the favourable outcome of something attempted
Question: is there such a thing as bad success?
So why do the announcers continue to modify success?

No leaderboards in the key stats
The PGA Tour supposedly improved their leaderboard on thier web site, but omitted the field averages that used to sit next to the list of players. On the European Tour an easy to find link shows all of the players and their stats so you can easily discover how your favorites stack up with the field in GIR, fairways hit, putting, etc.

Sand saves is a stupid stat
The tour shows sand saves on each player’s stats page, but not their total scrambling. A player will miss an average of about six greens a round but only 1.5 of those (on average) will be sand shots, so scrambling is obviously a far more important stat.

No stat for par 5s hit in two
The percentage of par fives hit in two would be a super stat, the equivalent of baseball’s home run. They keep this on the Japan Tour - Ryo Ishikawa led the tour in 2009, hitting 19.73% of the par fives in two.

No ShotLink for the fans
ShotLink, which would provide fans with a wealth of valuable information, is only available in the media centers.

The World Golf Rankings
Steve Stricker, winner of the Northern Trust, is a great guy. Still, during the two year ranking period, his best finish in a major is a 6t. Question: how can a player be the second best in the world and not have won, or come very close to winning, one or more majors within the ranking period? Maybe the majors need greater point values.