U.S. Open Ratings "Tank"

The headline on this Media Life Magazine story: "Without Tiger, U.S.Open ratings tank."

Toni Fitzgerald writes:

Woods exited the tournament on Friday after shooting 12 over par for two days and missing the cut by three strokes. Thus Saturday’s Tiger-less third-round coverage of the U.S. Open on NBC averaged a 3.2 household rating, according to Nielsen overnights.

That was the lowest Saturday average since Nielsen began measuring the tournament in 1982. It was down 27 percent from the previous year, when Saturday averaged a 4.4.

Sunday’s final round averaged a 5.1, down 12 percent from a 5.8 the previous year, when Woods finished second. It was the lowest-rated final round in three years and second-lowest-rated since 1994.

NBC’s two-day average of 4.2, if it holds when final ratings are released later today, would be the worst two-day average since 1988 and tie for second-worst ever.

McCleery's TV Review

Peter McCleery's Golfobserver.com review of NBC's telecast:

What ranked as one of the more boring TV golf marathons suddenly turned riveting in the last hour or so. Before that, Johnny Miller & Co. failed to explain for the most part exactly why Winged Foot was playing as difficult as it did. Was it the narrowed fairways? The slow, bumpy greens? Did it make sense for a course to play almost as difficult 32 years later as it did in the infamous 74 Open? We never got any answers from watching NBC or ESPN during the long four days of coverage.

And...

NBC's big letdown was when Mickelson drove 70 yards left into the hospitality area on 18, NBC couldn't come up with a low-behind camera angle to reveal the exact nature of his predicament. It was a wild scene with Mickelson and his caddie warning spectators to move out of harm's way. We knew he was in trouble, but it wasn't clear what was in front of him or between him and the green. It came as a surprise, then, when Roger Maltbie told us he hit a tree with his second shot--we never saw the results (were was a blimp receive shot?), until Mickelson hit a similar, slashing third shot. With the tournament on the line, one would have hoped for a more revealing shot or multiple angles, but Mickelson was apparently so far off line that NBC couldn't scramble any better than the fast-fading runnerup.

The pictures were generally spectacular. Even the grand old Winged Foot clubhouse seemed to sparkle. None of the commentators stood out, but at times they could have said less and allowed us to eavesdrop on the players and their caddies' conversations.

1972, The Last 72?

The Golf Channel's "Live from the U.S. Open" just offered a trivia question asking when the last time was that a par of 72 was played for the U.S. Open.

The answer, they claimed, was 1972 at Pebble Beach.

But the Opens in 1990 (Medinah), 1991 (Hazeltine) and 1992 (Pebble Beach) were all played at par-72.

Good Thoughts For Judy Rankin

Ron Sirak writes about Judy Rankin's battle with breast cancer.

Note To Karl Ravech...

...that first Memorial honoree was Robert Tyre Jones, not Robert Trent Jones.

Hawkins on Ratings Decline

John Hawkins looks at the dismal PGA Tour ratings with his latest blog entry:

The first four months of 2006 did not bear good news for the PGA Tour in terms of its popularity with television viewers. Figures published in the most recent issue of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal indicate some frightening drops in TV ratings. The Shell Houston Open, for example, had a Sunday audience about one-third smaller than in 2005. There were double-digit decreases (10 percent or more) at the first three events on the Florida Swing, a whopping 56.3-percent decline at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic and a 50-percent loss at the season-opening Mercedes Championships.

February’s AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, a tournament once capable of attracting five million viewers, checked in at about 2.5 million on Sunday, down 37.5 percent from a year earlier. Not every tournament’s numbers were off. The Players Championship actually rose almost 32 percent, but there’s a catch—rain delays in ’05 forced NBC to televise live third-round action that Sunday.

So you're thinking, he's going to point out how the juiced up power game is not relatable to fans, course setups are not producing more consistently exciting finishes and that the Tour has left too many classic venues for contrived ones?

The PGA TOUR has not downsized enough and it is going to have to become leaner and meaner to survive.

I say bring back "blood and guts" competition to the PGA tour as played by Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, a young Arnie, Gary and Jack and other great players when men were men as well as golfers.

When men were men as well as golfers? Oh lordy. Still, he's headed to the old bring shotmaking back argument? Nope.

Cut the number of tour cards to a max of 100, cut the number of players in the field to 100 and cut the cut to the top 50 and ties.

Put some damn fire back into the competition and maybe golf will be interesting as a spectator sport once again and not seem to be just a gathering of nice fellows content to make a good check and have a good time. Screw the good time, get serious!

Shouldn't there be a rule that you only get to question the passion or manliness of players if you actually played the Tour?

Feherty Advocates Ball Change

Ron Green Jr. in the Charlotte Observer talks to David Feherty, who talks about Tiger, how technology is not hurting the game, and what he'd do if he were Commissioner for a day:

Q. If you had Tim Finchem's job and could change one thing, what would it be? I would change the size of the ball. I'd make it .02 bigger. With one fell swoop you would cure a bunch of problems. The ball wouldn't go as far. It would spin. It would be harder to hit straight. It would be harder to hit far. It would be very slightly harder to get in the hole.

On the upside you'd bring a lot of old courses back into relevance.

It also sits up nicely around the greens. The amateur player has more fun playing with it. I grew up with the 1.62 (ball) and I remember changing to the 1.68 and thinking, wow, this is so much more fun playing with this ball.

For the high handicapper, those shots around the greens are difficult. When the ball is a little bigger, it makes such a difference. There's more of it to get underneath.

We've done it once before. I don't see a reason not to do it again.

I've added Feherty to the list of those who advocate something be done to de-emphasize distance in the game today. He's in good company!

TNT Wins British Open Coverage Emmy In Spite Of Bobby Clampett's Presence

And most of us would still pay to get the BBC announce feed...

The rivetting details are here.

Did You Hear...

Stu Schneider in his Golf World TV Rewind column: 

Did you hear about Tiger Woods' latest daredevil stunt? He's photographing Steve Williams' wedding.

Take That Carolyn!

I wonder if Carolyn Bivens called Tim Finchem to congratulate him on this news of coterminous brand pollination, courtesy of PGATour.com:

NEW YORK -- PGA TOUR star Vijay Singh will appear on NBC’s “The Apprentice.” on Monday, April 24, from 9-10 p.m. ET/PT.

Singh, winner of three major championships and 28 titles on the PGA TOUR, joins Donald Trump and Season 5 candidates at the new Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Don't miss Singh's grand entrance by helicopter with Trump.

Donald Trump’s children, Ivanka and Donald Jr., watch as the candidates engage in an all-out street war while creating a souvenir program for Ellis Island. The teams race against the clock to take pictures, write copy, create and finally, sell their souvenir programs.

Gold Rush tries to break Synergy’s four-week winning streak and struggles amongst themselves while half of Synergy’s team misses the boat and gets left behind. The winning contestants travel to the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. to play golf with PGA TOUR player Vijay Singh and Trump.
 Who’s on each team:

• "Gold Rush" -- Charmaine, Lee, Tarek, Michael

• "Synergy" -- Allie, Andrea, Roxanne, Sean, Tammy

The team with the most revenue from the one-day sales event wins and hits the links with one of the world’s best golfers, Vijay Singh. The losing team heads to the boardroom where another candidate is fired.

Network Shakeups

Stu Schneider reports in Golf World's Bunker on Mark Loomis' departure at ABC, and the battle between CBS and NBC to get the British Open. Try not to laugh at Dick Ebersol's claim that he and Johnny Miller were talking to Peter Dawson about golf in the Olympics!

Page 2 features Schneider's TV Rewind on the Masters. I thought about waiting to read it when it comes in the mail, but since I'm still waiting on the Golf World Masters Preview, I went with the online read. 

It's Official...

...The Players Championship is a major because essayist Jimmy Roberts is dressing just like Jack Whitaker (well, minus the newsboy hat and tweed, but nothing says major like a turtleneck and bright red sweater vest).

What's next, Barry White and the Love Unlimited Orchestra's "Love's Theme?"

Hannigan On NBC

Frank Hannigan's latest Golfobserver column looks at the work of Tommy Roy and NBC. A few highlights...

It's a primary reason why, for me, NBC is the toughest listen in golf. I'm not sure producer Tommy Roy knows better. He allows Miller to get away with murder, with an open mike at all times, allowed to say whatever he feels like saying, at any time.

Roy is a very good producer in the sense that his images of golf are terrific and it is, after all, television. Producers matter in golf more than in other sports because they have so many choices. You don't just follow the bouncing ball.

Roy told the writer John Feinstein that if he hadn't gone into TV sports production he would likely have become a tour player. Except that he had never won anything.

Indeed. And if I hadn't drifted into the management of golf I would likely have become Marcel Proust.

And...

TV producers have to suck up to people, but putting PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem on camera at the top of shows, as if it's The Masters and we should be thankful we are allowed to watch, is over the top. I can only imagine what NBC will have to do for the USGA when the US Open rolls around, especially since the USGA has a new president, one Driver, who excels in self-celebration.

Gushing Johnny

Thanks to reader Noonan for this item from Phil Mushnick's NY Post column:

 It can't get much sillier than this:

Johnny Miller, forthright NBC golf analyst since 1990, until two weeks ago never pointed to a car sponsor and gushed how great its cars are. Until two weeks ago he was never moved to blatantly shill for any sponsors' products.

But two weeks ago, as the Doral Ford Championship was being played on NBC, Miller began to appear in Ford commercials. And then, during NBC's coverage of the Ford Doral, Miller, on at least two occasions, saw fit to interrupt that coverage to tell us what fabulous cars Ford makes.

For that, Miller was scolded in newspapers and golf magazines. The sarcastic question was even raised whether Miller, during NBC's coverage the next weekend of the Honda Classic, would see fit to give his automotive take on Hondas.

And then, during the Honda, Miller, with a straight face - and for the second time in two weeks after having never acted similarly in 15 years with NBC - volunteered his automotive take on Honda, even stating that Honda makes better trucks than Ford and Chevy.

And some folks felt his comments about Honda were evidence of Miller's integrity as opposed to having painted himself into a ridiculous corner, a corner far, far away from the golf commentary he'd been entrusted to provide.

Perhaps this newfound interest in affiliations will force an assessment of the relationship that other announcers have with corporations, and how that may influence their commentary? 

Letter from Saugerties, March 13, 2006

Frank Hannigan, who last wrote to this site about the USGA Executive Committee's use of private jet travel, spotted the recent Gary McCord-CBS-Masters post and offered his second exclusive "letter."

Dear Geoff,

I notice you ran the weird Golf World story about Gary McCord and the Masters with a straight face.  The story said McCord is no longer persona non grata at Augusta, that CBS can assign him as a Masters announcer whenever it feels like doing so.

BUT (and it says so on page 13) “McCord turns down Augusta National’s offer to return to CBS’ Masters telecast.”

The likelihood of the following is infinitely higher than Gary McCord’s return to Augusta:  Osama bin Laden turns himself in, the president says “no hard feelings” and Osama is seated next to Laura Bush at next year’s state of the union message.

Golf World (owned by the Newhouses, who know less about golf than Osama) also whispers it has long heard that there is a clause in McCord’s contract whereby he will not permit the network to assign him to do the Masters.

For l5 years I had a contract with ABC to lurk around that network’s golf telecasts. If I insisted to my agent, he would have inserted a clause which the network would have accepted as the harmless earmark of a nut, that under no circumstances could ABC assign me to be the host of the Oscars telecast.

Yes, it is true contractually that CBS has the right to put McCord back on the telecast. That would be the last Masters ever to air on CBS. Augusta would not turn it over to NBC because the last thing it needs is a Johnny Miller Masters.

But the Disney Corporation, owner of ABC and ESPN, which recently pulled out of Tour golf effective 2007, would get back into golf in a New York minute given the chance to do the Masters.

McCord’s work was disliked intensely by Hord Hardin and Jack Stephens, the two predecessors of current Augusta National chairman Hootie Johnson.  McCord was seen as trying to sell himself, not the golf, during the Masters. He was warned to cool it.

After the warning McCord, assigned to the 17th hole, then managed to work into his commentary the phrases “bikini wax” (which I personally thought amusing) and “body bags” (which I found miles beyond tasteless.)

Then CBS producer Frank Chirkinian didn’t even have to be told.  There would be no more McCord at the Masters.

So why is the story of CBS new independence being planted in Golf World? I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because the president of CBS Sports, Sean McManus, has also been made president of CBS News. It doesn’t look right for the president of a network news operation to be shoved around and pocketed by the management of a golf tournament.

Meanwhile, the content of the Masters telecasts is determined as it has been – by the club, not the network.  When Golf World’s girlfriend Martha Burk (whatever happened to her?) failed utterly three years ago, the decision to not so much as mention Ms. Burke’s threatened protest--which had been THE golf story of that year--was that of Augusta National, not CBS.

When McCord did his “bikini wax” and “body bag” shtick my friend Peter Alliss, the great British golf announcer, first sided with McCord. Peter said that if you do live television long enough some things are bound to come out of your mouth you wish hadn’t.

I told Peter that the folks at Augusta were guided by their understanding that McCord’s little witticisms were logged in by him in advance on a laptop.

Peter said “Oh, you mean he wrote down his jokes in advance?  Oh well, that’s cheating.”