Running 2018 golf thread

Count me as a fan as well. Will miss his work, for sure. Not a huge fan of Zinger.

 

There aren't many better examples of a commentator perfectly capturing the moment. My dad, who loved Phil, was beside himself. Wanted Bones to go full Tin Cup and break Mickelson's driver. And his 3-wood.

 

With all due respect, you guys are golf nerds.

Johnny Miller in no way whatsoever has ever moved the needle with the average fan. Hell, I watch practically every golf tournament from January through August and Johnny Miller has never said one memorable thing I can remember, except that he sounds like an old crank.

 

So you were okay with Chris Berman doing “happy hour” (which is kinda cryptic considering the actions of his wife) at the U.S. Open? How about Greg Norman having no reaction after DJ choked away the 2015 Open?

Is it a make or break thing, no? But a bad announcer can make the difference between a telecast sucking and not sucking.

 

I like Jim Hello Friends Nance and Faldo. I like the whole CBS crew.

The only thing that sticks out with me with the NBC crew is the number of times Hannah Storm's husband says "Bear Trap" during that one tournament.

 

The biggest mistake any network can make is trying to cater to non-golf fans. Or non-golf nerds. That's how you get Curt Menefee saying "Jordan Speith doesn't really do anything special, so it's hard to figure out what makes him so good." (Spoiler: He was, for a good stretch, the best iron player in the world and a Top-5 putter.) Casual fans only care about players (See: Tiger, and Tiger only) and so putting someone in the booth thinking that the casual fan will tune into hear them is the Dennis Miller experiment, just in a different scale. Johnny Miller was great at his job, and fearless. Yes he was a crank, yes he talked about himself way too much, yes he pissed off plenty of players. But he put in the work and he offered insight. Faldo is a joke compared to him. Greg Norman was a joke of a joke. At least Johnny was willing to criticize a player when it was deserved, and I don't think he was every unfair to a player, at least repeatedly. Maybe he was harsh to Phil over the years, but he was also the one guy ever willing to be remotely critical of Tiger, which was needed. Imagine if, in the NBA, the financial structure of the sport was so wedded to LeBron James' success that no one was every willing to criticize him. Or the same with Tom Brady. (You can joke that it's exactly like that, but it's not. Not like Tiger.) That's where golf was, and Johnny was still willing to call Tiger out when needed, like the infamous (and clearly bullshit) drop at the Players that Casey Wittenburg signed off on because what Web.com player would ever challenge the GOAT.

Azinger is great, and will continue to be great. I'm stunned Fox is cool with him doing both Fox and NBC, but I suspect since he's an independent contractor they don't have much choice.

 

I thought the Fox crew for this year's tourney was fantastic, surprisingly enough.

 

I think a bad announcer does more to wreck a viewing experience than a good announcer does to enhance it, if that makes sense.