The Snake Pit vs. The Bear Trap

[Carl Nichols]

Which is the lamer moniker?

[Anthony Gray]

  I like them both.

  Anthony

[Tom_Doak]

The lamest moniker is the "Cliffs of Doom" for the oceanfront holes at Pebble Beach -- six through ten.

Twenty years ago I wrote a U.S. Open preview for GOLF Magazine for the upcoming tournament at Pebble focusing on those holes, and the headline writer titled the piece "Cliffs of Doom," though I had never used that phrase in my piece.  That was the year Brent Musberger was called in to be the host for the golf coverage, and he latched onto that phrase and used it every half hour for the entire golf tournament.  God, it was awful.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

I thought I was done with "The Bear Trap" until next year.

[Jim Sherma]

"Cliffs of Doom" - that story is as great as the moniker is awful.

[Gary Slatter]

both are lame, and not required more than once per season.  same for the Masters, Amen Corner works once per day.

[Howard Riefs]

The lamest moniker is the "Cliffs of Doom" for the oceanfront holes at Pebble Beach -- six through ten.

Twenty years ago I wrote a U.S. Open preview for GOLF Magazine for the upcoming tournament at Pebble focusing on those holes, and the headline writer titled the piece "Cliffs of Doom," though I had never used that phrase in my piece.  That was the year Brent Musberger was called in to be the host for the golf coverage, and he latched onto that phrase and used it every half hour for the entire golf tournament.  God, it was awful.

Meanwhile, the editor, David Barrett, sees his headline as a trophy:

In 1992, I was editing a story for Golf Magazine about the stretch of holes at Pebble Beach that line the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean, the magnificent and treacherous sixth through 10th. The writer, incidentally, was Tom Doak. He was then barely getting started as a golf architect, and was better known (if at all) for writing about golf design. His own Pacific masterpiece, Pacific Dunes, was in the future.

The headline I came up with was “Cliffs of Doom.” It turned out to be my one contribution to the golf vernacular.



http://davidhbarrett.com/golf/golf/181/pebble-beach-s-cliffs-of-doom/

[Bill_McBride]

"Cliffs of Doom" - that story is as great as the moniker is awful.

...and as awful as Brent.  Is he not the worst ever?

[mike_beene]

Nothing tops "Famed Rivera" for lameness.

[Kalen Braley]

Nothing tops "Famed Rivera" for lameness.

On a related note...I almost lost my mind during this years telecast as you couldn't go 5 minutes without hearing about "Kikuyu this, or Kikuyu that".  I was about ready to chuck the remote at the TV.

P.S.  I'm also looking forward to CBS piping in back ground bird noises during thier telecast at ANGC...      

http://www.worldgolf.com/wglibrary/ross/ross14.html

[jeffwarne]

Nothing tops "Famed Rivera" for lameness.

On a related note...I almost lost my mind during this years telecast as you couldn't go 5 minutes without hearing about "Kikuyu this, or Kikuyu that".  I was about ready to chuck the remote at the TV.

P.S.  I'm also looking forward to CBS piping in back ground bird noises during thier telecast at ANGC...      

http://www.worldgolf.com/wglibrary/ross/ross14.html

Kalen,
nothing in that article indicts CBS for bird piping at ANGC, in fact the author says they have the best live bird sounds on tour.
If you've been to ANGC in April you'll know those birds and sounds are real.
The article does reference other sites that they've used the ambient noise, but not specifically Augusta, although the author kind;ve loses me towards the end.

[Kalen Braley]

Jeff,

I was trying to be in tongue in cheek, but failed.  They were caught doing it years ago at select tournies, but supposedly don't do it anymore...although conspiracy theories still abound in plentiful fashion in Internet forums!!  

P.S.  I did read an interesting post that said they set up bird feeders near a few of the mic's to increase thier chances of hearing a good bird chirp!!

Here's an article from when they supposedly fessed up to it in 2000.

http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/2009/04/28/the-golfers-are-real-though-right/

[jeffwarne]

Jeff,

I was trying to be in tongue in cheek, but failed.  They were caught doing it years ago at select tournies, but supposedly don't do it anymore...although conspiracy theories still abound in plentiful fashion in Internet forums!!  

P.S.  I did read an interesting post that said they set up bird feeders near a few of the mic's to increase thier chances of hearing a good bird chirp!!

Here's an article from when they supposedly fessed up to it in 2000.

http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/2009/04/28/the-golfers-are-real-though-right/

nice picture but still no indication of use at ANGC.
"various" PGA tour events
CBS definitely did this and they admit as such.

The amazing thing is the birds are SO loud at ANGC, they SOUND fake

[Matthew Rose]

Ugh. Musberger. Thank the Lord he doesn't do golf anymore.

I went to a Nebraska-Oklahoma football game when I was 16. I went with my siblings and a couple of cousins. They wanted to make one of those "A-B-C" acronym signs that people do at football games.... someone came up with the slogan "Another Bone Chiller" since it was exceptionally cold that day, so I made the sign and gave it to my brother. He got on TV with it in the first quarter. Brent Musberger used it about 100 times during the game, from that point on.

Back to the topic.... they're BOTH lame. "Bear Trap" is lame because Tom Fazio designed that course and built those holes.... maybe Jack built a couple of back tees there, but if I'm not mistaken, he had little if nothing to do with the original design of those holes. They talk to him like the entire thing was his idea.

Snake Pit is lame because, well, apart from the tee shot on 16, there's really nothing on any of those holes that says double bogey.

[Michael Tamburrini]

Jeff,

I was trying to be in tongue in cheek, but failed.  They were caught doing it years ago at select tournies, but supposedly don't do it anymore...although conspiracy theories still abound in plentiful fashion in Internet forums!!  

P.S.  I did read an interesting post that said they set up bird feeders near a few of the mic's to increase thier chances of hearing a good bird chirp!!

Here's an article from when they supposedly fessed up to it in 2000.

http://legendsrevealed.com/sports/2009/04/28/the-golfers-are-real-though-right/

nice picture but still no indication of use at ANGC.
"various" PGA tour events
CBS definitely did this and they admit as such.

The amazing thing is the birds are SO loud at ANGC, they SOUND fake

A couple of days ago I was listening to Chris Evans on the radio here in the UK and he mentioned the bird sounds at Augusta.  He said that he'd never heard them sound anything like they do on TV (inferring that they were TV add ons).  One of his co-presenters did joke about him never being invited back if he continued to make such blasphemous suggestions.