When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
During the WGC Bridgestone final round, Jim Nantz delivered the news that Frank Gifford had passed and then paid tribute to the quarterback and broadcaster. Gifford loved his golf and did some golf broadcasting for ABC as well.
Nantz's tribute:
Reveals that ESPN showed many more shots during Monday's final round from St Andrews than last year at Hoylake.
From their write-up, which includes links to the breakdowns at the year's other majors.
ESPN showed 358 shots during this period which worked out to 1.23 strokes per minute - a sizable increase over the ESPN shot rate of 1.01 from the 2014 Open Championship.
This was also a higher shot rate than I tracked for CBS from the 2015 Masters and Fox from the 2015 US Open, but trailed the rate that NBC showed during the 2015 Players. The Masters post contains links to the shot charts I did for the 2014 majors.
As WatchESPN was blocked here in the UK, I wasn't able to see much of the Road hole coverage or other digital feeds. Anyone watch and any thoughts?
While ESPN had a great week under difficult circumstances according to Golf World's John Strege, BBC's coverage was pretty weak visually. While I couldn't hear the announcing, apparently Peter Alliss made a few remarks that haven't gone over well. 
An unbylined Telegraph report says two comments in particular didn't go over too well.
Alliss, 84, had already sent social media alight on Sunday night with his comment about young Irish amateur Paul Dunne being hugged by his mother as he came off the course with a share of the third-round lead.
"Ah, that must be mum," said Alliss. "Perhaps he likes older women. I don't know but I hope I got the right one."
And this when Zach Johnson's wife Kim was shown congratulating her husband.
As the camera focused on her, Alliss mused about how the couple would spend the prize money: "She is probably thinking - 'if this goes in I get a new kitchen'," commented Alliss.
The BBC has one more Open to televise in 2016 before handing the rights to Sky Sports.
Going first out in Sunday's third round at The Open, David Duval posted a 67 and signaled that he's not ready to stop playing just yet. 
While the chances of another 67 are unlikely given the weather forecast, Karen Crouse with some stellar insights from Duval and his veteran caddie Ron Levin into one of golf's most fascinatingly complex personalities. (Thanks reader Tim.)
Levin added: “He wants to win golf tournaments. That’s all he’s ever wanted to do. He didn’t grow up and say, ‘I want to be a golf announcer.’ ”
The broadcast booth is where noncompetitive players go to reinvent themselves. But for Duval, analyzing the performance of other players has reinvigorated his game.
“When you’re playing well, you forget immediately about the bad shots,” Duval said. “But when you’re not playing well and you’re struggling, you feel like everybody else is hitting it beautiful and perfect all time.”
Duval said, “Sitting up there when you’re announcing and recapping the tournaments, you realize, ‘Man, these guys hit some really ugly shots.’ ” He added, “Seeing that, it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah, everybody screws up and does bad things,’ and so it removes a little bit of the pressure of ‘I have to go out and play perfectly.’ ”
I always thought Holly Sonders was hired by Fox Sports to be their Erin Andrews in the studio and sidelines, and after tough reviews for her U.S. Open interviews along with the horrible effort by Curt Menifee, the former Golf Channel star is headed back to the studio. Where she was always meant to be?!
Aaron Kasinitz reports.
"We're not reassigning Holly because she did a bad job," Fox's coordinating producer Mark Loomis said. "I think Holly's been great for us. It's just that she can't do both the postgame show and the interviews."
The show Sonders is set to host will be on-site at the Lancaster Country Club.
The golf commentary world has missed his solid presence on broadcasts since the start of the year, and as Jaime Diaz wrote in Monday's Golf World that longtime CBS and Golf Channel commentator Peter Oosterhuis has admitted to stepping away due to early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Diaz writes:
Oosterhuis is revealing his story publicly because he wants to do what he can to help Alzheimer’s treatment and research. That means joining the major fundraising efforts of Nantz, who in 2011 founded Nantz National Alzheimer Center at Houston Methodist Neurological Center. Nantz’s father, Jim Jr., was afflicted with Alzheimer’s for 13 years before he died in 2008, an ordeal his son chronicled in his 2009 tribute book, Always By My Side.
Since December, Oosterhuis has been treated by specialists at the center and has been in a program for an experimental drug in its third trial that is designed to break down the formations of plaque in the brain that cause Alzheimer’s, and which has given scientists hope that a breakthrough might be near. Last month, at a fundraiser for the center played at Pebble Beach, the Oosterhuises each took the microphone during a Saturday-night gathering of 140 invitees and revealed that Peter was suffering from the very disease they were all there to fight. (Click here to watch a video of their announcement.) They received a standing ovation, and Nantz was later told that the money raised represented the most ever by a private fundraiser at Pebble Beach.
Here is the video of the Oosterhuis' revealing Peter's condition.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
