Announcers - The apologists for the players ?

[Hunt]

One of the best phrases of the day came from David Feherty:

Refering to Ricky Barnes-"He's got the face of a naughty angel."

You all, of course, bet the over on at least one Fred Couples-Jim Nantz roommate snuggle.

[stevencollins]

Just three comments on a thread most have said enough on:

1)  I enjoyed Feherty's "Oh Canada" exclamation, even if it was predictable--at least it had some emotion.  Actually, I thought he would say "Go! Canada!" which is a headline I thought for sure would be in some newspaper, particularly north of the border, but haven't found yet (though I liked the Toronto Star's "Weir So Proud!"--hey, I like puns).

2)  Tigers first eight holes were the worst I've ever seen him play on a Sunday in a major and I was waiting for some kind of comment about it, but none came.

3)  As I said in a post on a different thread: I also give Kudos to the Crenshaw replay on number 10.  It was weird for me.  The first thing that came into my mind as Mattiace was over the putt was "Crenshaw."  Then he made it and I couldn't believe the resemblance.  By this time, the announcer had also refererenced it before the putt and then they went immediately to the replay.  I thought that was great direction.

steve

[Mike_Clayton]

Anyone who has ever listened to the BBC radio coverage of The Open will know how much better golf is on the radio.
They can't just talk about what is on the monitor.
As we do with cricket here turn the TV on and turn the sound down.

[ForkaB]

Dan K

Sorry!  I guess that "spot on" is a phrase that doesn't travel.  From now on I'll revert to my normal time-warped in the 60's mode, as in "Right on, Brother!"  Vis a vis my CBS dream team, while McCord did get a little stale, anything has to be better than Calmpett and Wadkins.  Of course, it has all been downhill since Henry Lnghurst last climbed that ladder to the 16th......

Mike C

My grandfather used to watch/listen to Red Sox (baseball) games in the 50's in the same manner.  It works for that sport and for cricket, each of which is played in a confined space, but I'm not so sure about golf which is happening over a broad arena, unless the announcers were following the TV feed pretty closely.  If they were doing so, however, what would it add to the equation?

[Steve Hyden]

Anyone else think it wrong of Tiger Woods to imply Stevie Williams led him astray...

I agree.  The backtrack let him have it both ways.

[RJ_Daley]

Just for some background on how Feherty thinks about the role and effectiveness of TV coverage...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/golfonline/columns/feherty/email/2003/0328/

[Dan Kelly]

Dan K

From now on I'll revert to my normal time-warped in the 60's mode, as in "Right on, Brother!"  Vis a vis my CBS dream team, while McCord did get a little stale, anything has to be better than Calmpett and Wadkins.  Of course, it has all been downhill since Henry Lnghurst last climbed that ladder to the 16th......

Right on, Brother (except for that "a little" before "stale")!

Re: "anything has to be better than Calmpett [sic -- but funny!] and Wadkins": I have no doubt that any half-dozen of us here in this group could produce a far more entertaining and informative telecast. Any half-dozen! Even ... you didn't think I was going to NAME anyone, did you?

Of course we'd likely look and sound like crap, but at least we'd have something to say!

I'm working, right now, on my pronunciations -- beginning with "loblolly." If you can say that five times in a row, you could be Bobby Calmpett!

[Jeff Goldman]

The most memorable comments for me both came from Oosty.  I think he was the one who said (someone did), "it's now a very narrow golf course."

Second, on the Golf Channel pre-game, he came out and said something like, "yes, we call it the second cut, but its really just rough."  He then proceeded to talk about the "rough" at some length, making me wonder if anyone from the masters saw it and he get punted.  During the tournament, he (and others) kept getting mixed up and sometimes calling it the first cut, other times the second.  Shows how condescending the guys who run the tournament are when we cringe when someone calls the crowd "fans."

Jeff Goldman

[Jeff_Brauer]

We should remember that the announcers need access to players to get good material.  Getting that access after a thourogh trashing would be more difficult.

Besides that, one of the supposed appeals of ex jocks in the booth is "they've been there".  Can we help it if most players are "left brained" (to use Whittens phrase) and their announcing reflects it?  Unfortuneatly, thats how they play, narrowing their game down to as little creativity, and as much mechanical as possible.  They announce the same.

Thank God for Fehrety and McCord, in my book.

I do recall one of them referring to the customers, and then quickly changing it to  patrons, apparently fast enough to stay on the broadcast.  Not quite as bad as the old "masses" or mobs comments Whittaker (?) made, that caused Augusta to remove him.....

[Jamie_Duffner]

I believe Mike Weir thanked the "fans" in his green jacket ceremony speech.  I wonder if they'll let him back!  

[Mike_Clayton]

Rich

I imagine they have broadcasters out there with the groups rathwer than just following the TV.
Obviously they need to be more descriptive but from memory -I havn't been there for a while - they talked more about 'golf'

[Mike_Clayton]

Rich
Yes you are right - they would have to follow the feed on the TV to make the exercise of using both work.It was always fun in the car though.

[RT]

Rich,

For those not getting BBC coverage a great Seve moment Sunday was when Hay was refering to the total Master's prize money in '53, $26,000.  Seve replied quickly that's about how much he made last year..........