Trouble In Paradise: Pro Golf In Hawaii Edition

It's hard to believe, I know. Apathy surrounds the season opener at Kapalua. The biggest names stay home and the new oversaturation era begins with the PGA Tour's constant loop of action already seemingly exhausting. And it hasn't even started yet!

GolfChannel.com's Jason Sobel says the Hyundai Tournament of Some Champions has been overshadowed by the missing "Magnificent Seven," a "who’s who list of special talents: Rory McIlroy; Luke Donald; Tiger Woods; Justin Rose; Sergio Garcia; Phil Mickelson; Ernie Els."

But just think, they didn't get to pre-tape NFL style introductions!

Meanwhile Ann Miller in the Honolulu Advertiser publishes several ominous quotes from Tim Finchem fishing buddy, Fred Funk favorite and all-things-Hawaii point man, Mark Rolfing. Since it's behind a paywall, SBD summarizes the key lines.

"I know the date is problematic. We've got guys skipping that never skipped before. ... The fact is, it should be one week later. Next year will be worse. New Year's Day is Wednesday of tournament week.” Miller noted the PGA Tour Sony Open, the “first full-field event of the year, is next week at Waialae Country Club.”

It's not great news for the Sony either.

Sony's commitment as title sponsor extends through ‘14, though Rolfing “worries weaker fields and the date's conflict with the International Consumer Electronics Show could mortally wound a tour stop that goes back nearly 50 years.” Meanwhile, this is the final year of Hyundai's title sponsorship for the TOC, and the tournament’s “holiday date and diluted fields make it tough on extension talks.” Rolfing said, "I've talked to a whole lot of players, and I think one week would make a huge difference."

Fifty-shmifty. Sorry Mark, we've got WGC's and the all-important fall events taking priority! Oh and Asia too.

It's not all bad news, as Hyundai's front man sounds positive talking to Jim McCabe, even though they just can't quite seem to put ink to a new contract.

“We are very bullish,” Shannon said. “We don’t have anything to announce this week, particularly because we are so focused in executing another great event. But we’ve had discussions with the PGA Tour, but we just need to get this tournament behind us and then have some more discussions with them.”

Update on 2013-01-05 04:48 by Geoff

**At least they had Chamber of Commerce weather on opening day.

Well, maybe not, according to Jim McCabe on the first wipeout of a PGA Tour round since 2005 and means 36 holes Saturday.

It’s the first time a round has been scrubbed since the Players Championship in 2005, when play was stopped after only 30 players began.

From the opening tee shot, it was a precarious endeavor. Matt Kuchar, in the second pairing, double-bogeyed the par-3 second when he landed beneath the lip of a bunker and couldn’t get the ball out. It rolled back into one of his footprints, perhaps a 6-inch hole. By the time four or five groups had played the 368-yard, par-4 third, it was clear that this was a day unlike another that this tournament had ever seen.

How crazy was it? Well, chew on this, all you moaners and groaners who think the ball goes too far: The driving average for 16 players at the third was a robust 221 yards.

“I hit mine 215,” Rickie Fowler said. “And I hit it good.”

2012 Is Golf Channel's "Most-Watched Year Ever"

For Immediate Release...

ORLANDO, Fla. (Jan 3, 2012) – In 2012, Golf Channel scored its most-watched year ever in the near 18-year history of the network. This marked the second consecutive most-watched year after a record-breaking 2011. This continued surge in viewership since joining the NBC Sports Group early in 2011 has retained Golf Channel’s status as the fastest-growing network on U.S. television (among networks serving 80 million or more homes throughout that span), according to data released today by The Nielsen Company.
 
“We share in celebrating this milestone with our partners and most importantly, with our increasingly loyal family of viewers who have watched in record numbers to help us achieve these consecutive record-breaking years,” said Golf Channel President Mike McCarley.  “While we’re grateful for this recent success, we continue to set our goals high and are committed to serving our passionate fans with more and more high-quality golf content in the New Year and years to come.”

Does that mean they'll finally cancel the Big Break? As long the Montel Williams infomercials don't get moved, we're good.

Golf Channel averaged 95,000 viewers in 24-hour Total Day (6AM-6AM) during 2012, an increase of six percent more than a record-breaking 2011 (90,000) and 36 percent more than 2010 (70,000). Contributing to a banner 2012 were seven PGA TOUR events on Golf Channel reaching audiences in excess of 7 million unique viewers, led by the BMW Championship with 8.4 million unique viewers. Additionally, an unprecedented 14 million Golf Channel viewers watched some or all of the PGA TOUR Playoffs, which was the most-watched ever in the PGA TOUR Playoffs’ six-year history.
 
GOLF CHANNEL’S MOST-WATCHED YEAR EVER
2012 now represents Golf Channel’s most-watched year ever in its near 18-year history. Contributing to this milestone were the following achievements:
·        Three quarters in 2012 were most-watched quarters ever
·        Seven months in 2012 were most-watched months ever
·        100 days in 2012 were most-watched days ever
·        33 rounds or telecasts exceeded one million average viewers
·        115 additional rounds or telecasts exceeded a half million average viewers including coverage of PGA TOUR, European Tour, Champions Tour and LPGA Tour as well as several airings of Golf Channel’s signature news programming Golf Central and Live From.
 
FASTEST-GROWING NETWORK ON TELEVISION
Golf Channel continues to be the ‘fastest-growing network’ on television among all widely distributed networks (available in more than 80 million U.S. homes during that span) since joining the NBC Sports Group. Golf Channel in 2012 is up 36% vs. 2010 for average audience delivery.
 
GOLF CHANNEL DIGITAL SCORES BEST YEAR EVER
Mirroring Golf Channel’s success on-air, GolfChannel.com saw tremendous growth in 2012, setting best year ever marks for unique visitors (20.5 million, +60% vs. 2011), visits (41 million, +47% vs. 2011), and video starts (11 million, +45% vs. 2011). Golf Channel’s Apps garnered a 113% increase vs. 2011 with 145 million page views.
 
GOLF CHANNEL’S MOMENTUM SINCE JANUARY 2011
The momentum for Golf Channel has been building since becoming part of the NBC Sports Group in January 2011. A wide spectrum of tournament coverage, news and original programming has contributed to this success including:
 
Most-Watched Ever on Golf Channel:              vs. 2011      vs. 2010
Masters Week                                                     +40%          +22%
PLAYERS Week                                                    +42%          +13%
U.S. Open Week                                                  +31%          +40%
PGA TOUR Playoffs                                             +84%          +63%
Ryder Cup Week                                                                    +33%
 
High-Quality News and Original Programming: vs. 2011    vs. 2010
Monday Primetime                                             +23%          +26%
(includes Feherty, Haney Project and Big Break)
Golf Central                                                         +17%          +69%
Morning Drive                                                     +12%          +77%

That needs work.

On The Range                                                      +45%          + 7%
War By The Shore                   Most-watched documentary in network history (241,000 average viewers)

Wasn't it the first documentary?

Poulter Doesn't Expect A Monty Ryder Redux

Alex Miceli quotes Ian Poulter expressing his dread at the question of Tom Watson getting the 2014 Ryder Cup captaincy and, with plenty of stipulations to not get in trouble, his surprise.

He's also is asked if Colin Montgomerie has a shot in the next few weeks to get the nod to match the buzz surrounding Watson's choice.

“I think it's between Darren (Clarke) and Paul McGinley.”

Entire Golf Digest 100 Greatest Now Posted

...with capsules and photo(s) for each course.

PGA Tour Officials Working Kapalua Without A Contract

Rex Hoggard reports that negotiations broke down between the PGA Tour and its union-affiliated rules officials and this week the guys who run the tournaments will be working without a contract.

“We’re operating without an agreement as of Dec. 31st. They are (in Hawaii) right now and unless the Tour says otherwise they are going to work,” said Christian Dennie, an attorney with Fort Worth, Texas-based Barlow Garsek & Simon who represents the officials’ union. “These guys really take their job seriously and we’re going to try and help them as much as they can.”

“Like we do with other negotiations we don’t comment on the status of those discussions,” said Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of communication and international affairs.

Hoggard also notes where the PGA Tour officials fall on the pay scale and they are well below colleagues in other sports. And while most people think they just sit in carts all day, they do a little bit of everything to ensure that tournaments go off without a hitch.

It's pretty amazing that a tour which lavishes absurd pay on an army of eminently replaceable vice presidents would nickel-and-dime the people who run their tournaments. Well, amazing, but considering the commissioner also laid low-level people off while not touching bloated executive pay? Not really that amazing.