Departing Golf Channel Exec Offers Thoughts on Better Golf TV
by Ryan Ballengee on Oct 18, 2010 1:13 PM EDT
in Golfiness
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PrintCurrent Golf Channel president Page Thompson is on his way out of his current gig with the Orlando network. He's moving up in the world to take on a different post in the new Comcast-NBC Universal company after the merger is approved by regulatory agencies. But, he's not leaving without some thoughts for his rumored successor, Dick Ebersol.
Talking to Golf World Monday, Thompson offered these tips:
- Offer different tournament formats - Thompson says match play draws the best ratings. And I'm suggesting that all Fall Series events could go to 54 holes with birdie-friendly setups to encourage the kinds of finishes we saw at the Frys.com Open.
- LPGA and Champ Tour events should end on Saturday or Monday - This idea has been floated for years, particularly as a contrast to my Golf Channel 2 idea. If I had to modify his suggestion, I would say move the PGA Tour finishes to whatever channel replaces Versus to get it more exposure. Then have the LPGA and Champ Tour finish on Golf Channel. An occasional Saturday finish - like the LPGA used to do in Vegas - never hurts, though.
- More innovative features like mic'ing players - A big 10-4 on that.
What else would you offer?
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Get rid of Tilghman, Lerner, Hoggard, Mel and Kahn.
Hire professionals.
Start showing more of a variety of players during the course of play in all tournaments.
Less groveling and drooling over all things Tiger and Wie
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Agree 100 % Pro
I’d also add show great shots even if it is from last place. The BBC does this perfectly.
Easy...I'm really surprised that Jump
didn’t include Sands and that cute Win McMurry as long as he was cleaning house….I suggest we sober up Ol John D, get him some toned down clothes, a large ash trey and put him on with Brandell…..should be a sell out…STUB
Get rid of Tilghman, Lerner, Hoggard, Mel and Kahn.
Hire professionals.
I would keep Hoggard. He’s not bad at all. I also really enjoy him guesting on Matt Adam’s PGA Tour network show in the mornings.
The real question mark to me is that you left Charlie Rymer on. Charlie is good at feature sort of stuff, the kind of things that Golf in America does. I am not at all sure that he’s much better than Michael Breed at Tour analysis.
Kelly Tilghman should stick to Golf Central. That’s her strong suit, not hosting coverage. Terry Gannon has done a lot better job.
Rich Lerner likes to cite golf history, but all too often, poor Rich is wrong or misinformed. He’s good at stuff since the Tiger era began, but I don’t think he could tell the difference between Old Tom and Young Tom Morris. That and he apparently has never, ever heard of some guy named Walter Hagen that not only was the driving force behind the PGA of America’s formation, he also dominated its pro Tour for a long time too. Hagen only won 42 events and 11 majors in his career (8th all time) so you think that Rich might mention him once or twice when he talks about the early Tour. He never, ever does.
Craig Kahn is like Switzerland. He’s there, he’s attractive enough (so the wife says) but he doesn’t elicit many feelings one way or the other. No one hates the Swiss, and no one I know thinks twice about Craig Kahn. He could stay and it wouldn’t affect my xxxGC feelings one way or the other.
They made a real mistake letting Vince Cellini go a second time, I think.
They utterly blew it letting Peter Kessler go a long time ago. Peter would ask the hard questions, and I guess when he did it to Arnold Palmer, Palmer made sure Kessler was gone. Thank goodness Peter has a good show on PGA Tour Network though, his kind of thinking and insight is good for golf.
OMP
I take issue with Hoggard because he can not discuss one topic on TV or write one article on TGC website without mentioning Tiger in one way or another. I have no issues with Charlie Rymer at all as he is a former pro as we all know and he looks at things from an open minded perspective. Sure he blabbers on about Tiger sometimes , but doesn’t compare to the constant cheerleading by the likes of Hoggard and the rest I mentioned.
"pain is only weakness leaving the body"
Retire Beth & Val
I agree, get rid of Tilghman as the anchor on PGA telecasts. The GC should retire both Val Skinner or Beth Daniels and replace them with some young talent. The only comentator I like would be Kay Cockerill.
Guys, I kinda meant about golf on TV in general, not your thoughts on Golf Channel talent!
Find me! Email: ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com, Twitter: http://twitter.com/waggleroom, or Facebook: http://facebook.com/waggleroom.
The BBC is shrinking as far as Golf coverage goes.
We have Sky TV here, which outbids the BBC. But when Alliss and his team do the Open it is almost as good as being there. Flawless.
Damm Easy...haven't ya learned
yet….don’t encourage her…..STUB
Ok - weather guy or THIS job...
My dream job is to be a TV weather guy. How many jobs allow you to be wrong so often and never face a pink slip ? I’m adding President of TGC to that list. This guy seems to be right along the lines of the Pointy Haired boss in Dilbert.
the phrase “too little too late” comes to mind. How come all of a sudden this guy wants to step up and make suggestions ? not good suggestions – but suggestions all the same.
I guess someone forgot to tell this genius that the LPGA used to finish on Saturday except for majors. They switched to Sunday finishes in the hopes of…anyone ?…anyone ?….exactly – more viewership and ticket sales on the weekend because…..anyone ? anyone ?…..more people work on Fridays and Mondays than on Saturdays and Sundays.
Match play draws the biggest ratings ? Is he high ? Match play is unpredictable as a time filler. You either have to record and edit to fill less time, or you take the chance of having an hour of Johnny Miller or Kelly Tilghman or (god forgive me for saying this) Tilghman AND Rich Lerner riffing for an hour. Stroke play is the way of the major tours and tournament play. Match play is a change of pace used a couple of times a year – but TV hates it. Everything else is stuff for silly season.
Mic’ing players seems like a good idea – but it’s a distraction to the people who are actually supposed to be performing the sport. This is sports – not “reality” TV. If you want to listen in, do it with parabolics, not by putting equipment on the players. If players and caddies are used to talking a certain way, which may be a little “blue” now and then, and you all of a sudden give access to every sound you make on the course to a bunch of people who have proven time and again that they can’t be trusted with personal things because they think it is their duty to wave everyone’s dirty laundry in the air for the world to see – then the players and caddies will be thinking about their language and their secrets more than their performance. (and “innovation” ? this isn’t an innovation – that would be something new)
And I like how you guys think with the personnel house cleaning. :-)
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
WOW Court......I never knew!
I would have never guessed that you being wrong so often was just practice for being a Weatherman……you are so dedicated…..LOL LOL…..:0
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS....WHO DAT!
LOL......Well, ok, you got that one right......:)
I would mention the Dawgs, but my Tigers face Auburn Saturday, and well…..it might not be so pretty…..that QB for Auburn is impressive.
The Saints ARE the SUPER BOWL CHAMPS....WHO DAT!
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