I just want to see my favorite players on TV...

Posted Mar 14 2012, 11:37 AM by Cathy Erickson
In Minnesota, we've been gifted with some beautiful weather the past few days...temperatures have crept into the 60's and I even noticed a forecast that said parts away from Lake Superior may see 70's today.  Sounds like perfect golf weather, right?  Well, to get the full perspective, 2 weeks ago we were pummeled with about 3 feet of snow over a 7 day period, after going almost all winter with no snow on the ground!  So while the temps sound dreamy, the reality is that there is still a good foot of snow on most of the course.   No golf shoes just yet.  (side bar:  thanks to all my friends in warmer places that told me about their great golf weather on Facebook...and when I say "thanks" I mean that sarcastically!!)

For a gal that's had golf fever for about a month now (oh who am I kidding, it's been since January!), this warm weather is a little like torture, but I realize it's a necessary evil to get snow to melt and get the ground ready for spring.  So forgive me if I'm a little grumpy this week.
 
After feeling a renewed enthusiasm for the PGA Tour and the emerging competition to fight to be the best (ala last week's post), this last weekend's coverage of the WGC Cadillac Championship left me disappointed...well, actually crabby.  Believe me, I get that we need to watch the leaders, and I get that some think there is "entertainment value" in seeing some guys struggling, but come on TV - some of us REALLY want to see our favorite players!!
 
Both Matt Kuchar and Steve Stricker were inside the top 10 at many points during Sunday's round, and both finished tied for 8th in the 74-man no cut field.  Now I'm not expecting shot by shot coverage of these 2 awesome golfers and people, but come on!  I remember seeing Stricker once and Kuch maybe twice.  We watched Tiger Woods for I don't know how long being carted off the course, getting into his car, and the driving down the freeway for pete's sake!!!  Good Lord.
 
With all the gadgets and technology in the world now the size of our hands, can't we come up with a way to have some clips of great shots ready to be uploaded and fed into the TV coverage?
 
And for how those little news runners drive me nuts on just about every cable news channel, it would be nice to have a constant leader board ticker so I can at least know where my favorite players stand since I won't be seeing them on TV.  I had to go to http://www.pgatour.com/ at one point because I thought Kuchar was making a move and then nothing...no leader board, no ticker.  Geesh.
 
You know I'm all about the back story and human side of golf (because you know golf is like life!), but can't we do better on actual live coverage of actual golf shots?
 
What about at least having a little picture in picture using Shot Tracker to show what players are doing in the group in front or behind the group that's being shown?  Then at least we can have some idea of what other players are doing on the course.
 
Now I'll admit this week wasn't as fun for me to watch because my fantasy golf teams over at Kerplookee were tanking badly and all of my eggs were in Bubba's basket, but with having so many of the top ranked players in the world on one stage, and with so many in the mix, I expected to see all kinds of names and faces on the screen.
 
I will acknowledge that I do not have the Golf Channel so maybe some of the "extended coverage" does this, but I suspect it might only be because the leaders haven't teed off yet.  But you know what, that shouldn't matter.  I want to see more golf, and I want to see my favorite players .
 
Hopefully I'll be in a better mood next week with the anticipation of a potential golf road trip!
 
Good Luck to Matt Kuchar at the Transitions Championship! (You deserve to be on TV!!)

Filed under: Steve Stricker, Matt Kuchar, Golf, Cathy Erickson, coverage, TV