2020 PGA Tour

johnmd20

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I've never related to Clint more.

Also, Phil has officially locked in his 30th consecutive year with a Top 10 finish. Only Snead(34) and Floyd(32) have more. That's something impressive.
 

cshea

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Hate to sound like Kellerman here but I think we’ve reached the cliff portion of Mickelson’s career. 10 missed cuts in 22 starts since he won at Pebble last year. Highest finish is T18 at the Masters.
This take predictably aged well. T3 in Saudi Arabia, 3 at Pebble in the 2 weeks following the post.
 

TFP

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Parts 1 and 2 of a 3 part interview between Rory and Paul Kimmage. I found it fascinating and it increases my appreciation for Rory as an athlete, a person, and as an interview subject. Nothing ground breaking but he just seems like a really genuine dude who's trying to do golf and life the right way.

Part 1: https://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/rory-revisited-no-question-off-limits-no-subject-out-of-bounds-as-paul-kimmage-meets-golfer-of-the-decade-38918652.html

Part 2: https://www.independent.ie/sport/columnists/paul-kimmage/paul-kimmage-meets-rory-mcilroy-part-two-battles-with-tiger-portrush-collapse-and-the-round-he-will-remember-forever-38938502.html
 

cshea

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Great interview, Rory is the man.

Genesis off shortly. It’s now Tiger’s event and an elevated status tournament, like API and Memorial for Arnie and Jack. One of the best non-major fields of the year and a great course. Giddy up. Rory, Brooks and Rahm are all vying for the #1 spot in the world. Only problem Riviera is a Bubba happy place and JB is hot and won here last year.

PGA Tour Live groups:

10:16 est: Rory, Cantlay, DJ
10:27 est: Brooks, Mickelson, Bubba

2:41 est: Tiger, JT, Stricker
2:52 est: Rahm, Rose, JB
 

TFP

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Tiger with the dagger on 4.

He looks locked in. (Well, his burins, at least.) Which is a change from how he has been recently starting tournaments.
It's going to be all about the flat stick for him this week. He keeps the putts dropping like this and he'll be hard to beat.

On a completely unrelated note - Adidas golf fashion is so so bad. The shirt they have Rahm wearing is an abomination.
 

Zomp

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It's going to be all about the flat stick for him this week. He keeps the putts dropping like this and he'll be hard to beat.

On a completely unrelated note - Adidas golf fashion is so so bad. The shirt they have Rahm wearing is an abomination.
Ha I like the shirt. Anything with no collar is good by me.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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On a completely unrelated note - Adidas golf fashion is so so bad. The shirt they have Rahm wearing is an abomination.
Here it is:


I guess it's technically a henley? No collar and button neck. I guess we were heading here between the rise of mock turtlenecks and Rory's low profile cutaway stand collar. Overall, I don't think it looks good. On someone who's not in decent shape, it might look really awful. I'm still kind of excited though... the old folks at my golf course might blow a gasket over this style.
 

TFP

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It's not the collarless part I object to, I love the Nike Collarless shirts.

It's the raised patterns of varying style across the shirt (the sleeves are a different pattern than the body), half of the collar being neon yellow, oh yeah and he's wearing cargo pants too. It's an absurd outfit.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Quibble: Nike doesn't make collarless shirts. They have a collar, it's vertical, short, and cut away in the front. But it does raise up above the collar line itself. What it doesn't do is fold over. These have no collar.

Totally agree on texture variations... not a fan.
 

cshea

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Tiger hasn’t committed to playing the Mexico WGC next week yet. Deadline is today. Guessing he won’t go but it’s a bit surprising. He has talked about wanting to play in the Olympics, and qualifying is based off OWGR. WGC’s are free world ranking points. Maybe he’s just being diplomatic about the Olympics.
 

ezemerson

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HV3 with a double but still not out of it.....DJ should be in lead, has really blown chances on the par 5s
 

Zomp

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Reed sucks but Koepka is kind of a tool as well. I've grown tired of his "I don't even care about anything" persona that he's tried to have.
 

TFP

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They are getting hammered for the broadcast this weekend. Missing the HV3 cold top, ignoring Homa and Dahmen, etc. Hopefully it is the straw that broke the camels back and there are real changes to their broadcast when they come back after the Masters.
I was trying not to post too much about it because I feel like I've become a broken record complaining about the broadcasts, and wanted to try to dial that back here. But as someone who watches ~10-20 hours of live golf a week, (god I need a life) I feel like I have a good handle on what the broadcasts do well. Sunday's coverage was an abominiation, and in a different manner than the NBC President's Cup coverage was. NBC was just all commercials all the time, but what they actually covered was pretty good. I'm growing to like Azinger, I like Bones, and their actual production value is very good.

CBS on the other hand - yikes. Dottie Pepper is easily the best person there right now and I am not a fan of hers. Missing the HV3 top while constantly talking about it was embarrassing. Dottie talked about Rory hitting a rope hook tee shot that never got 10 feet off the ground that we never saw. Watching IBF claim a "gust of wind" is why Scott Brown left his eagle putt on 17 20 feet short made me laugh out loud. Anyway - the No Laying Up guys are pretty dialed in on all this and said CBS is getting hammered behind the scenes too and major changes are coming in 2021 with the new contracts. Rumors of a global video/production feed run by the tour that all the broadcasts will use similar to how they do it for LPGA, PGA Tour Live is moving to ESPN+, Lance Barrow retiring, etc. Hopefully change is afoot.

It's fascinating to me watching it all unfold. I'm sure producing a live golf broadcast is incredibly difficult. But as someone who is very invested in this product, I can barely follow what's happening without using my phone to see what's really going on. I don't need it to be perfect, but there is definitely a better way because we've seen it done by Sky Sports, BBC, Fox, NBC (at times), etc.
 

cshea

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I’d take Fox’s production and NBC’s on-air talent with Faldo swapped in for Azinger as the best broadcast possible. Fox’s overall production is probably the best, but maybe that’s because they’re just dealing with USGA and not the Tour. NBC gets dinged for the endless commercials. CBS is just plain bad, though I do like Faldo.
 

jercra

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Rather than just complaints, what would make it better? I can't get into details, but there's a decent chance I could have some bit of influence on this so I'd love to hear people's thoughts. In a couple of weeks you'll be able to watch literally every shot by every player with mostly natural sound and very lightly produced. What else do people want to happen?
 

TFP

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Rather than just complaints, what would make it better? I can't get into details, but there's a decent chance I could have some bit of influence on this so I'd love to hear people's thoughts. In a couple of weeks you'll be able to watch literally every shot by every player with mostly natural sound and very lightly produced. What else do people want to happen?
Fair question. This is my personal wish list off the top of my head, and I recognize I'm not a typical viewer and it may not all be feasible.
  • Stop with the unending commercials and promotions. At one point Sunday we had seen Jimmy Fallon swing a golf club more than Max Homa due to the amount and repetitive nature of commercials. The Aon Risk Reward/Fedex Cup Updates/Konika Minolta Swing Vision/CEO interviews take way more front and center placement than the golf does. I know bills need to be paid, but it's infuriating to me as a viewer. All of these kill the flow and make all of the other things I'd like to see more difficult to do. Fox's US Open and the Masters Broadcast are the two best TV viewing experiences in golf, for these reasons in my opinion.
  • Give me more player/caddie audio. I want to know what they're thinking/deciding and what their plans are for the shot. Mic up the caddy bags and only broadcast the convo on delay (or even after the shots) but have that audio there. That shit is like crack to me.
  • Do more split screens - showing two guys at the same time is totally fine, and often enhances the drama if their shots/putts are to tie or go ahead of each other. Moving to a more Redzone style approach showing a ton of shots simultaneously would be interesting to at least try, especially in the earlier rounds. Showing where players are on the course/hole itself helps provide context too, with overhead graphics of where each players tee shots ended up, for example.
  • Find a way to bring the viewer into what the story is behind the shots. I fully recognize that this is probably the most difficult, but seeing more than just "this is a putt for par" without knowing how the round/hole played out loses some of the impact. Obviously the larger the leaderboard the more difficult this is.
  • More deep dive on the course early in the round. I love the heat maps showing where players ended up (and avoided) and how the hole is designed to encourage or discourage certain strategies.
  • Show more tee and approach shots and less putts. Unless we're getting to the back 9 of Sunday, I don't need to see Tour players cleaning up 2-3 footers that they make 90% of the time. If they miss it, show it later, but I love seeing them hit full swing shots, which is where they are truly elite.
  • New camera angles - back the cameras further away from the players. Let me see the depth and scope of shots from a wider vantage point, and keep using the Top Tracer (TM) on those.

Again - I'm not the typical viewer and I recognize there is a sliding scale of what's feasible here. But I think even trying some of these things would be a huge step forward.
 
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Zomp

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In a couple of weeks you'll be able to watch literally every shot by every player with mostly natural sound and very lightly produced. What else do people want to happen?

What do you mean by this? Masters coverage or is there something I'm missing?

I think TFP's list is pretty damn good.
 

TFP

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What do you mean by this? Masters coverage or is there something I'm missing?

I think TFP's list is pretty damn good.
The Player's is showing every shot by every player, similar to what the Masters did. Very excited for that and would sign up for that all the time.

Also - another idea is to use PGATour Live to experiment. Only golf nuts are paying to watch on Thursday mornings, try new things there. I love how you get to watch a whole round to understand how these guys manage a round, but the announcers are second rate and boring, the production is almost non-existent, etc. Try out some innovative stuff there.
 

ezemerson

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guilty golf nut that has pgatourlive.....i could do without the zillion hall of fame commercials....they have to be able to sell advertising for that right
 

jercra

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The Player's is showing every shot by every player, similar to what the Masters did. Very excited for that and would sign up for that all the time.

Also - another idea is to use PGATour Live to experiment. Only golf nuts are paying to watch on Thursday mornings, try new things there. I love how you get to watch a whole round to understand how these guys manage a round, but the announcers are second rate and boring, the production is almost non-existent, etc. Try out some innovative stuff there.
Yeah, that's what I meant. It's called "Every Shot Live" and it's going to be awesome for The Players and get more awesome from there. It's going to be natural sound and very lightly produced for The Players so no second rate broadcasters. They've also announced a new 3D view of each shot based on ShotLink data. I haven't seen that in action yet, but it sounds like an amazing second screen if they data can be synced to the video.
 

TFP

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Yeah, that's what I meant. It's called "Every Shot Live" and it's going to be awesome for The Players and get more awesome from there. It's going to be natural sound and very lightly produced for The Players so no second rate broadcasters. They've also announced a new 3D view of each shot based on ShotLink data. I haven't seen that in action yet, but it sounds like an amazing second screen if they data can be synced to the video.
I am down for absolutely all of that. Love it.
 

TFP

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And right on cue, NLU drops a pod with Peter Kostis where he takes a flamethrower to the Tour, CBS, and says he's witnessed Reed cheating multiple times. A lot of his comments on what should change around golf broadcasts are right up my alley but the Tour and CBS don't give a crap about the viewer experience because it's all about keeping sponsors happy.

This is going to be a big story in the golf world tomorrow. Highly suggest listening, it starts getting really spicy around 14 min in.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/no-laying-up-golf-podcast/id880837011#episodeGuid=cd9a31f8-52a2-11ea-91e6-0e3586d743ab
It's not vague recollections with Reed either. He dictates the exact tourneys, holes, and locations where it happened and how he did it.
 
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