I also agree with the waste of time of the ball against the sky shots and the greater value and enjoyment of the tracer technology. All in all, I think the hole graphics and aerial views of the hole corridors are pretty good these days. I like Pat's idea of pretaping the earlier action (they do to some extent) and then keying in on the real action or drama of the competition as it unfolds in the latter holes. Obviously that works even better on the Sunday round.
I think the pounding down our throats the Tiger effect when he is on the course, showing too much of him, particularly when he isn't even in the hunt to win, is just hurting the marketing of the game, and opposite of what they seem to be trying to do, sell the game and sell more merch. I think the sport would be more compelling to watch if they did focus on the competition and shot making than the cult of personality.
At the end of the day however, the TV execs and producers know what they have to do to appeal to the golf TV consumer, and that means playing the personality-celebrity game, emphasizing the prodigious length of drives, and how much the sponsors give to charities, the fluff stories and idyllic golf courses, which leads to selling more golf resort travel, more beer and boner pills.
