Golf Channel Prez On Ratings, More College Golf & Protracer

Golfweek's Martin Kaufman sits Golf Channel President Mike McCarley down for a three-part interview as part of the channel's 20th anniversary celebration. Part one is here, part two and part three.

Most interesting were his comments on ratings and Tiger in 2014.

GWK:Tiger Woods has been the big ratings driver. How do you feel about golf as we’re beginning to approach the post-Tiger era.

McCarley: This year was a great example. Tiger was out for basically his entire season, and for Golf Channel, the rating for the year was exactly the same as it was last year, which was the best year in the history of the network. That’s a testament to a lot of things. There’s a lot of programming and production changes and improvements that have been made that are reflected in those numbers. And two, there are a lot of things in the game that are working well. The LPGA had a terrific year. There are things like the Drive, Chip & Putt, which was new. The NCAA Championships were back on TV. The “Arnie” documentary (aired).

We had the highest-rated April in the history of the network, and there was no Tiger in April at all.

McCarley explains the channel's interest in college golf after years of not showing much:

One area where we’ll focus more because it’s an important piece of the fabric of the game is youth. So what we did this year with the NCAA (Championships) got a lot of people’s attentions, we saw a really nice lift in ratings, but more importantly we introduced the stars of the professional tours to the audience at a younger age. And hopefully that will start to make those kids more recognizable, so they . . . arrive on the professional scene with more cachet. I think college golf has been an overlooked and under-covered part of the game, and a lot of that is on us. We’re diving in and the response we’ve gotten from both the college golf community, the professional tours and the industry as a whole has been really positive.

The other topic of interest for those who (like me) want more Protracer will get it in 2015.

I think Protracer has been terrific, and we’re going to have Protracer at nearly 40 events this year – not only using it in tournament coverage but in our news coverage. One of the most interesting news shows we had (in 2014) was one of the pregame shows from Doral when Tiger was on the range and we had Protracer, and you were seeing the ball go left and right, and really didn’t know what was going on with this guy. Later that day, he had to get out of the event because of his back. There’s something weirdly mesmerizing about watching the path of the ball flight, especially when the players are on the range and are working on things. And there will be more things like that.

Robert Allenby’s Credit Card Thief Nabbed; His Kidnappers To Remain At Large In Perpetuity

Honolulu strip club regulars and tourists walking of the Amuse Wine Bar can breathe a big sigh as police have caught the man who took Robert Allenby's credit cards while the Australian PGA Tour golfer lay passed out after hitting his head on a rock.

Though Allenby concocted for multiple television interviews a story of kidnapping and ditch dumps and what sounded like offspring of the Manson family beating him up for national television, the Honolulu Police Department spokesman tells the Herald Sun's Aleks Devic that the media exposing the contradictions made their job more difficult.

A Honolulu PD spokesman said Allenby’s version of events as “very consistent” throughout and criticised media coverage of the incident, which he said had made the police’s investigation more difficult.

When asked if police believed the suspect had obtained the cards from a passed out Allenby, the police spokesman said: “We’re not speculating as to how he got it. We know he had it and he used it.”

Update on 2015-02-13 05:12 by Geoff

**Allenby issued a statement through the tour signaling the saga is over and presumably, the results of his drug test to prove his story of drugging will be kept to himself.

"I want to thank the Honolulu Police Department for their on-going work in this investigation. As I have continually said, these detectives are the best at what they do and I was always confident they would discover what happened. I continue to fully cooperate with the HPD and I look forward to this matter being fully resolved.

I also want to thank the many people who have expressed their support and concern for me in the last month." - Robert Allenby

New R&A Chief Makes Growing The Game His Focus; Could Start By Helping Out The Pete Cowen's Of The World

Alistair Tait reports that incoming R&A Chief Martin Slumbers, who takes over this fall for Peter Dawson, is already beating the grow the game drum.

Don't worry, he'll learn soon enough. In the meantime...

“I think we have to get back to grassroots. We have to find something that appeals to different generations. I think the answer for under 15- to 20-year-olds is going to be different than the answer for 30- to 40-year-olds is going to be different than the answer for 50- to 60-year-olds.

“Absolutely I think the R&A can help. What we want to make sure is we help the unions, help the PGA, do everything we can, use the benefits of the commercial success of the Open and really work to go, over a number of years, find a series of solutions that get people wanting to play this game."

Mr. Slumbers need not look far: The Daily Mail's Derek Lawrenson opens his weekly column with a look at the struggles of noted instructor and all-around nice guy Pete Cowen, who has developed many top golfing talents.

Cowen's Rotherham-based academy hosts all kinds of aspiring players, from disabled children to elite amateurs, but has been broken into recently and faces funding issues.

Picture a British tennis coach so good he pulled off the equivalent of tutoring the top three the last time The Open was staged at St Andrews. This is a man whose teaching skills are so respected 11 of the 12 players who contributed to Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Gleneagles last year were coached or asked for his help at some point. The untold largesse the Lawn Tennis Association would lavish in his direction.

In golf? ‘I’ve been in touch with the various bodies but when you ask for help it falls on deaf ears, unfortunately,’ says Cowen. ‘I’m not looking for any massive handouts. I don’t think you produce great sportsmen and women that way. But we do need a helping hand.

‘My fear is golf is dying at grassroots level. If places like mine are forced to close, what hope is there?’

Sounds like a perfect place for the R&A to spend its new Sky money!

Oh and on that topic, it seems Slumbers' predecessor and mentor for the next six months, Chief Inspector Peter Dawson, has been hearing from his constituents about leaving the BBC for Sky.

In a roundtable with reporters, Dawson suggested the BBC did not even make a final offer (or cynics might suggest the Beeb saw where things were headed and didn't want to help drive up the price).

James Corrigan reports on this and the hate-mail received by Dawson.

“We have had plenty of hate mail, mostly from people who clearly haven’t read our rules regarding etiquette judging by the intemperate language they contained,” Dawson said here at the R&A clubhouse.

“It is a natural reaction for people to be upset, but when you analyse the two bids we received, they shouldn’t be. If they could see what those bids involved, everyone would have made the same decision that we reached.”

Everyone! He will be missed.

Ewan Murray of The Guardian noted Dawson's stance that moving from BBC to Sky would not in any way matter with regards to the state of the game, and sadly, Dawson probably is right. Though I can picture some serious jaw-clenching as he says this...

“I think it is actually borderline absurd at this stage to suggest that, given where we are at in golf and broadcasting, four days of the Open is going to make a dramatic difference in participation in itself,” he said. “I don’t think that’s the case, frankly."

But as The Scotsman's Martin Dempster writes, Dawson also contradicted himself in defending the BBC's decision.

He was asked if the BBC had lost interest in golf due to the game losing some of its appeal, a fact backed up by a drop in both participation and membership numbers. “I think it’s certainly something that crosses one’s mind from time to time. I think BBC, as anyone does, has to make choices as to their priorities,” replied Dawson. “I think it’s down to the economics of it all and the commercial pressures that free-to-air TV is under.”

Lawrenson, in his column also took on the R&A's stance after surveying golfers.

Rarely in 30 years writing about golf can I recall an announcement provoking the depth of anger that has followed the Royal and Ancient Golf Club’s decision to take live coverage of The Open away from the BBC.

Indeed, you’d probably have more luck finding business CEOs who support Ed Miliband than golfers who think our leaders have got this one right. I’ve had emails from readers asking me to organise petitions, even a boycott of this year’s Open at St Andrews.

At my local club on Saturday, the verdict was unanimous. ‘Even my friends who are R&A members think it’s a dreadful decision,’ said one influential member, who really would know plenty of R&A types.

Meanwhile, as Brian Keogh notes based on a radio interview Peter Alliss gave today, this year's Open may be the last for the announcing great.