Media Roundup: The PGA Of America's Turner Problem

Martin Kaufmann of Golfweek addresses the good and bad of PGA Championship day one and he's understandably pleased to see more tracer and hole graphics incorporated into the broadcast.

Not so pleasing, as many of you noted on Twitter and in messages, were issues with crashing app's every time the ad ran. And the traditional commercial overload was noted by many of you along with Kaufmann:

The big problem with the PGA Championship, with the exception of the bigger technology package, is that it often feels less like a major than an extended version of the Quicken Loans National. The PGA Championship has a great field – arguably the best of the year – but its stature is lessened by the way it is presented on TV. It’s difficult for a tournament to feel like a major when the network has a commercial break after every four or five shots.

It’s easy to criticize CBS for this, but I suspect the PGA of America, as the rights holder, has some responsibility. At the Masters, CBS’ agreement is to air no more than four minutes of commercials every hour. At the PGA, we might see that many commercial in the space of 15 minutes.

It should be noted that Kaufmann and I had better luck with TNT's app. The PGA app, which I received numerous crashing complaints about, is supported by Turner's technology.

Alex Myers noted what TNT was showing instead of morning golf. 

The frustration with TNT and CBS commercial/promo inventory is an annual affair at the PGA Championship, and because of current (ironclad) contracts, won't be remedied until a new deal begins in 2020.