The Lee Corso Ad ESPN Ran 18 Times And Other Atrocities Brought To You By The PGA Of America

To be clear, the mostly NBC produced pictures, sound and announcing from Friday's Ryder Cup made the fantastic golf that much better.

Unfortunately, over the course of 11.5 hours, we were actually deprived of coverage.

We all know they have bills to pay, but showing a promo 18 times over the course of 11.5 hours? Obnoxious.

The primary atrocity committed by ESPN and the PGA of America was the call in three instances to leave live, thrilling Ryder Cup golf. Twice they showed a Scott Van Pelt narrated highlight package and most painful of all, an interview with PGA of America president Allen Wronowski that not a single person on the planet wanted or needed to hear.

John Strege noted the intrusions in his media column.

Thankfully, the Sky Sports feed was online (thanks reader Tim) and showed twice as much golf with solid commentary from Butch Harmon and Colin Montgomerie, among others.

Too many times in the past decade the PGA of America has shown a complete lack of interest in requiring their partners to present a fluid telecast and instead allows networks like ESPN to run every promo imaginable without regard for the viewer. (Including on-air spots read by the announcers plugging broadcasts competing with Saturday's Ryder Cup telecast.)

The agony was compounded by the unwatchable RyderCup.com stream, which was avoiding competing with ESPN's telecast, leaning heavily on pre-packaged highlights and full screen graphics.

For the 19th and final time (hopefully), the Lee Corso spot...

Comments

[Chema]

I still can't figure out what Corso says to the Mountaineer after 18 viewings.

[RickABQ]

"Yeah, what's that guy looking at?"

[jjshaka]

Here's the tipoff that ESPN didn't give a crap about the telecast- there was zero forward promoting on their shows in the days leading up to today.
Zero, nada, zilch.
Reason - they knew NBC would cut into their college football rating otherwise even more.

[John R]

I think you counted wrong. It was closer to 108 times. I still don't know who West Virginia is playing.

[ol Harv]

A little off subject here, but listening to Faldo on GC and he has been very good. Seems to have gotten rid of the constant need to be funny and witty and is just giving good honest opinion and insight. Wish he gave us more of this.

[Media maven]

Shame on the PGA for allowing this...they just let "partners'' turns their big events into promotional platforms. It's one of the reasons they're a distant fourth among majors. Br. Open is no better but they can get away with it because presented much differently, commercial free, in their "home"" market; I think you'd find the Japanese broadcast of Masters if a little more cluttered than CBS is allowed . Keep hammering away Geoff they deserve all the criticism they get. Joe Steranka can walk away with his head held high amid effusive praise.

[Geoff]

ol Harv,
Faldo is always good when he talks about the game because he knows it well. Azinger made him fun and interesting because they could play off each other. But when he doesn't have that, I think his attempts at humor are tough for us to get. But when he's at an event he knows so well, like the Masters or the Ryder Cup, he's got a lot of wisdom to share.

[Pasaplayer]

Just like politics. What on earth are those bozos doing?

[walkie talkie banks]

solid commentary from Monty?Really?!!

[donnylimo]

could we live without the DVR?

[Kangy Boy]

Promo spots are a function of unsold airtime. If ESPN had done a better job of selling their airtime, there would have been less promo spots. So I guess corporate America was not prepared to pay the asking price.

[Nospin]

yes, monty does a good job...the PGA ? wow, what a failure as producers of big events. You knew we were in trouble by the ceremonies...Justin Timberlake and a truly awful rap thing...god, Finchem, get a grip.

[e9golf]

Nospin, what does Finchem have to do with any of the production? You've got your PGA's mixed. The Ryder Cup is run by the PGA of America (which was astutely pointed out in previous comments), not the PGA Tour.