Lorena Ochoa Defends Crown & No One Saw It

by Ryan Ballengee on Apr 27, 2009 10:42 AM EDT Comment 16 comments

The LPGA Tour fans in Morelia, Mexico, got a heck of a show and a really nice diversion from this Swine Flu business as the Corona Championship had a fantastic finish. Defending champion Lorena Ochoa wound up in a battle with Suzann Pettersen - reminiscent of a few seasons ago - and wound up victorious by a shot over the Norwegian en route to her 26th career LPGA Tour win and 2nd this season.

Meanwhile, Na Yeon Choi finished in 3rd, my girl Brittany Lang finished tied for seventh with Morgan Pressel, and Vicky Hurst posted her first LPGA Tour top ten finish alongside Michelle Wie. This was an excellent tournament for the Tour and the development of the games of several key players.

And no one saw it on TV. That stinks. It is a product of the lack of an agreement to telecast this particular LPGA Tour event on domestic television. The same thing sort of happens at the CN Canadian Women's Open. Rogers SportsNet in Canada has exclusive rights to broadcast the event live in North America (or so I presume it's North America) as Golf Channel can only telecast the event on delay.

Starting next year, that should change with the Golf Channel deal with the LPGA Tour. That's a solid for the future, but flubber now. Coming off of a multiweek break caused by the Ginn debacle, it would have been great for this event to be on TV. Maybe this would have been a good opportunity to stream the event online. Instead, we get some pictures and words, but the LPGA Tour will take another week off this weekend before the Michelob Ultra Open here in the mid-Atlantic area.

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those mean ol' private sector companies...

…doesn’t xxx Golf Channel know that Dear Leader Obama is now in charge and they should spend ALL available funds to go to Mexico to show women’s golf on TV in the US of A ? Don’t they realize how many Mexicans in the US (illegally) would want to watch ? Imagine the bump in viewership !! And come on – Barry got in 18 on Sunday morning (yes – the devout, church going christian Barry). Surely he would have watched !

Besides, they could just apply for a “bailout” this week, and as long as there is a taxpayer alive…they’ll GET that bailout ! :-D

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Apr 27, 2009 10:51 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

relax. pop a couple of valium.

Truth has a well-known liberal bias.

by dianemarie on Apr 27, 2009 11:27 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In this case – and in the case of most foreign events that TGC broadcasts – they just pick up an international feed and dub over TGC talent as commentators if the feed PBP doesn’t come in English. Simple enough really. I could’ve sat in a studio and done PBP with a video feed.

by Ryan Ballengee on Apr 27, 2009 11:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

umm – foreign feed…from Mexico…..

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Apr 27, 2009 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes, from Mexico. So, have someone do PBP over it. Hell, I could probably do that with PGA Tour feeds in the States just so people wouldn’t have to listen to Johnny Miller :)

by Ryan Ballengee on Apr 27, 2009 11:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

TV…in MEXICO ?? Come on… :-) Did you check to see IF there was TV coverage down there ? How much ?

"this ball will fit in that fairway"

by courtgolf on Apr 27, 2009 12:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Apparently, ESPN2 (not the Ocho) in Mexico had it.

by Ryan Ballengee on Apr 27, 2009 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hey

When I married my wife, her hometown didn’t have cable and satellite was a thing of the future. So Tacloban had one television station and it ran exactly two commercials. It was probably the only station in the world that broadcast ‘Misfits of Science’ after it got cancelled or a video rental I took out first.(One night it showed The Living Daylights with Chinese subtitles. I had a similar video like a week earlier.

by Bill Jempty on Apr 27, 2009 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I seem to recall reading somewhere

That the PGA Tour’s agreement with GC requires their events(and that includes the Nationwide Tour) be broadcast before any other North American tournament on the same day. That’s why the LPGA is on tape delayed so often.

Remember that when the GC deal with the LPGA was announced, that the question about the tournaments no longer being tape delayed was not answered. Go find the old post and you’ll see what I mean.

by Bill Jempty on Apr 27, 2009 2:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That’s accurate about the PGAT deal. But, I was just giving an example of an event that could be broadcast live but wasn’t because of TV deals outside of the US. The LPGAT is still going to be tape delayed vs. the PGAT, but probably at more favorable times than in the past.

by Ryan Ballengee on Apr 27, 2009 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs