If your cable system picks up ESPN 2, you might have been lucky enough to catch a few hours of the U.S. Amateur from Winged Foot last week. This storied, important tournament was sandwiched in between the Little League World Series preliminaries and whatever other junk sports they had lying around in Bristol, CT.

The situation reached its nadir on Sunday, when we had to wait for the conclusion of the pro lacrosse game in order to pick up the Moore-List match as they completed the front nine of their second 18. And as soon as Ryan Moore holed his birdie putt on 18 and started shaking hands, we were off to the Wendy's LPGA Tournament for Children sponsored by Dr. Pepper and Tylenol.

Really, could this great event have been treated any more shabbily by ESPN and the USGA? If the "all-sports" network can't find any more time to give to the Amateur on one of its spin-off channels, then why doesn't the USGA sell the rights to the Golf Channel? Yes, the penetration of the Golf Channel is less than ESPN2, but at least you know they'd have given the event the wall-to-wall coverage it deserves.

I'm already heartsick at the thought that the same thing is going to happen next year at Merion -- a course we're all dying to finally see on TV again.

E-mail ESPN. Button-hole your closest USGA official. We have to do something before next year, or the Am at Merion is going to get about as much TV time as white-water kayaking got on NBC this weekend.

People aren't going to watch the US Amateur.  Ask your typical weekend golf viewer who won the US Amateur and see how many of them know.  Actually, see how many of them even knew the US Amateur was being contested last week.  If people were watching golf yesterday, they were watching Firestone except for dorks like us.  I'm grateful the event got as much coverage as it did.

If you think amateur golf has it bad, what about NHL hockey?  Recently, a hot dog eating contest on ESPN 2 got a bigger audience than the Stanley Cup Finals.  Ouch.

John,

I doubt it, because on the hockey boards I frequent, I think it was running about concurrent with the finals,which ended three weeks earlier. Maybe not though.

Still hard to believe anyone could spend even a few minutes watching a hot dog eating contest, except perhaps to be amazed at what they put on TV these days......

Rick, apparently it does have less appeal.   I wish all six match play rounds would have been on, especially a repeat at night when I could have checked it out a little bit.  Your point is a good one--look at all the crap that finds its way onto ESPN2.  If the audience were going to be there, there is no way that the Am wouldn't be on over the hot dog eating contest.  There are a bunch of problems though.  Most of the action during the week wouldn't have been seen by the golf audience because most of the people who would watch are at work.  Then you've got Firestone on over the weekend.  How many hardcore golf enthusiasts are there who would watch the Am during the week?  Probably a lot less than the number of curiosity seekers who would leave in on the dial to watch the hot dog contest.

It would be great if TGC picked up the Am, or at least grabbed some of the earlier rounds.

Jeff B.,

You really need to move to Canada... Windsor, Ontario's a perfect spot for you!

It's close to the USA. Near a major airport (Detroit Metro). And the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation rarely misses televising NHL games. We have "Hockey Days in Canada" a few Saturdays a year, when CBC televises NHL hockey all day long - from one morning to the next!

Plus, in Windsor, you can become a Red Wings fan  

Jeff,

Some people are born in the wrong era, others in the wrong country....I might move to Windsor, if it didn't mean having to fly "Northworst" airlines everywhere.....

I just came in from the Annual Dallas Stars "State of the Stars" banquet, where we get to talk to the GM, President and Broadcasters to get an idea of whats coming up.

In short, it seems as if all hockey fans are going to be SOL this year.....The players and the payers (Owners) seem determined to cancel the season, thus alienating the 34 or so of us in DFW who embrace hockey.

PS - It would be a cold day in Windsor before I ever became a Dead Wings fan!

Hey wait a minute.  I know these players.  Believe me, Holly McPeak, even before augmentation, is better to look at than Winged Foot.  And she likes men too.
Seriously two things.  The best part of the US Amateur telecast was the helicopter shots.
Secondly, just where does Ryan Moore's summer rank in the history of Amateur golf.  I think Phil Mickelson won an NCAA and Amateur in same year, but how many others?  Maybe Tiger?  Plus Moore won other major amateur events, including Public Links, which may have as good a field as the Amateur (more college players).

As for beach volleyball, I'll leave it at this.  If we play it at my family reunions, it ain't a sport.  What's next horseshoes and croquet???

Next thing you know, they'll even have badminton or trampoline at the Olympics...
 


PS Jeff is right: The. Best. Olympic. Sport. Ever.

OK, I'm gonna come out and say it as well:

I would rather watch Olympic beach volleyball than the US Amateur at Winged Foot.  Oh sure, I too enjoy seeing that course.  But hell, I've seen enough of it as it is, from previous Opens.

I have enjoyed the heck out of the Olympic beach volleyball... Main interest is that Kerry Walsh is a local - my family's been following her for a long time.  She and Misty May are such a damn dominant force, well... it's fun to watch, to see them make history... and to see if anyone can come close to beating them!  McPeak and her partner gave them their best match yesterday, and they still got relatively blown out.  Man, Walsh/May are just incredible.

But beyond this, I have become a big fan of the game itself... you can't deny that it is action-packed!  Serve - dig-set-BOOM!  I dunno, I really like the game.  

I actually wish they'd show MORE - I want to see some teams besides Walsh/May.  But what the hell, too late now, gold-medal match awaits... and that should be epic against the Brazilians.

I also didn't know NBC had a contract with beach volleyball... I've never seen it before on network TV.  Every once in awhile you get a match on some obscure cable channel... but NBC?  Assuming that is true, I say COOL!  I'll watch more.  And I don't think NBC has force-fed this event.. hell it pales compared to gymnastics coverage... all they've shown are basically each May/Walsh match, and even then it hasn't been the match in entirety, but usually just the 2nd game with quick highlights of how they kicked ass in the first.  If that's force-feeding beach volleyball, well...

So anyway, the US Am can and should take a back seat to this in my book.  Olympics are a pretty big thing, and beach volleyball is a damn fun sport to watch.  I have no problem at all with this getting more coverage than the USAm.

Now if they pre-empted the open or one of the other professional majors, or any important tour event, well... that might be a different story.  Sure I do dig beach volleyball, but there is a limit to everything.


TH

PS: the men's game is even better.  You wanna talk skill, quickness, POWER?  Those guys are freakin' animals.

PSS - notice I didn't mention at all how HOT damn near all of the women players are?  That doesn't exactly hurt one's viewing interest.  

shivas:

To each his own.  I disagree whole-heartedly with each one of your points.

1. Again, all they have shown is May/Walsh, and only half of each match each time.  That's too much?  And yes, I too grew up as a fan of the big Russian bear Alexeyev, but I can live with less weighlifting coverage.  They did show the great Pyrras of Greece get his bronze... and that was enough really.

2. What the hell do you want them to wear?  And again, it's beside the point.  I'd watch if they were wearing parkas and pants.  I do like the game.

3. The pumped in music between points is stupid.  But they do that at damn near every event, not just beach volleyball.  It's a Greek thing.

4. Sure it's a made-up game... but what game isn't?  And really what it is is a condensation of 6-man indoor, that's all.  And in the condensation it makes for shorter points, more quick action.  Oh man I LOVE the 6-man game, you wanna talk power and action... but the beach version is great by me also.  And it's played world-wide, with a darn big tour and pretty big following... In terms of silly Olympic sports, oh it's in the bottom half, I'll grant you that.  Perhaps they could just have the 6-man indoor and that's enough volleyball.  But come on, there are FAR worse sports included.  Trampoline?  Synchronize swimming AND diving?  15 different kinds of sailing?  20 different types of shooting?  The list goes on.  Beach volleyball remains a great game to watch, with a large following and big international tour, so it remains fine by me as an Olympic sport.

TH

I'm Shocked, just shocked. Nobody has yet bashed the usga for scheduling such an event during beach volleyball.

I was thinking of bashing the USGA for scheduling the Amateur against the NEC Invitational.

Why not play it this week, up against the extraordinarily-weak-fielded tournament in Hartford?

BTW, where the hell are the cool one-on-one bike races where they stop at the top of the cylinder oval and then sudeenly race around real fast for the last lap or two until hopefully somebody crashes?

They still have that - it's called pursuit.  There's individual and team.  And that is a really weird event also...

As for inclusion of women's sports, well... they are rapidly catching up in terms of skill.  I have a feeling at some point, maybe in our lifetimes, the separate events will start going away.  But we shall see.  In the meantime, since the distinction between male and female remains thankfully pretty clear, I have nothing against separate events for the two sexes.  Those who only want to see the strongest or best can choose to do so.

TH

To date there is no men's synchronized swimming.  But I did see a replay recently of a CLASSIC Saturday Night Live skit where they spoof this... Harry Shearer and Martin Short... absolutely hilarious.

But yes, female wrestling is new to the Olympics this time.

TH