"It makes you wonder whether someone told Johnny Miller what was coming so he could get out of television just in time."

In a column titled “TV networks’ lovefest with PGA Tour cheats viewers,” MorningRead.com’s Mike Purkey looks at the increasing chumminess of golf broadcasting, where “the airwaves are thick with collegiality” and “PGA Tour players are called by their first names or nicknames, as if it were the third flight of the club championship.”

He goes deeper into why this is happening and what it means for viewing, and also how the PGA Tour’s control is muting a lot of smart voices. A sampling:

David Feherty’s immense talents are being ignored and wasted. His interview show on Golf Channel was canceled, and he appears to be lying low and trying to stay out of trouble until he retires.

It makes you wonder whether someone told Johnny Miller what was coming so he could get out of television just in time.

If you’ve noticed, it should concern you. If you haven’t noticed, you should. No one ever accused television commentators of being journalists. But there was a time when they at least made an effort to appear objective. No players are critically analyzed. Anything negative is on the penalty side of the white stakes.