Friday, July 25, 2014

Pet Peeves About Golf Channel's Day 1 International Crown Coverage

In no particular order:

There's No "Q" in Sakura!  And No "Mini"!!  Sa-koo-ra Yo-ko-mee-nay.  Say it fast with equal emphasis on each syllable and you'll be fine.  Never mind that the romanized "r" in Japanese is somewhere between an English "r" and "l"--too tough to learn for just one week.  Although if you can learn how to lisp "Atha" and "Motho," why not go the extra mile for one of the JLPGA's best players ever?  [Update (7/26/14, 9:33 am):  Also, Sakura's no "meanie" (although Kirk and Wright might beg to differ after that shot on 17 Friday!).  Yo-ko-mee-nay, people!]

Speaking of Sakura...  She's got a John Daly-esque swing.  And I think we saw it once on the 18th hole.  C'mon, people!

First-Tee Footage?!  Everyone talked about how emotional (in so many ways) the 1st drive of the 1st tee was this week.  Yet did Golf Channel shoot it, save it, and replay it for us?  Noooo!!!!!  I know playing every national anthem would have taken too long.  But how about a quick montage with the last 2 seconds of each country's anthem and reaction shots by the players during it and right after they knew where their 1st shots went?  Or feature the best reactions at the top of Day 2's coverage?

Show More Tee Shots!  When something even remotely dramatic happens on the tee--shot in the woods, player hits fairway after partner puts it in woods, one bomber outdrives another, whatever--we oughtta see it.  Everything matters in match play and with so few groups on the course, we should be able to get a good sense of how every match is unfolding and not have to rely so much on Juli Inkster's summaries of what happened.

Know Your Matches.  I can't believe that Anna Nordqvist and Caroline Hedwall--the Vikings of the Solheim Cup--struggled so much in the 1st 12 holes yesterday against struggling young Okinawans Mika Miyazato and Mamiko Higa.  So much for Solheim Cup experience and heroics, eh?  You know what else I can't believe?  That we barely saw a shot of the latter's great play and not even much of the former's great comeback.  This was a made-for-tv David vs. Goliath deal, but we saw very little of it.  (True, most of the fireworks from Team Japan occurred in the 1st 5 holes.  But this is what they make highlights for.)

Speaking of Balance...  Man, the cameras loved Teams USA and Spain, and I wholeheartedly endorse that decision.  But if 2 seconds per shot of golfers walking, standing, and consulting with each other and their caddies on non-pivotal shots were cut, just think of how much more could have been shown of the Vikings vs. the Okinawans, Karrie Webb and Minjee Lee taking it to Na Yeon Choi and In-Kyung Kim (with attendant speculation on how the pressure is affecting the half of Team ROK that isn't coming into this week with a whole lot of confidence), and Inbee Park and So Yeon Ryu lighting up the course?

And Now a Word from Our Sponsors.  Given how many commercials that GC gets to show at the end of each day, wouldn't it be nice if they cut back a little midway through the coverage?

[Update 1 (8:00 am):  Ruthless Mike wants more credit given where it's due to Team Taiwan.  HappyFan gives Judy Rankin credit for mentioning the Japan-Korea almost-annual team matches during an interview, but rightly criticizes the bulk of the coverage for pretending as if the Asian and other non-Solheim Cuppers have no professional team experience.  I wish I had thought of both (or, more accurately, remembered the latter).  I mean, nobody remembers the Lexus Cup?]

3 comments:

Colin N.Z said...

Our provider has to take a break every time the TGC goes to commercials so annoying and we lose a lot of possible coverage available. If the BBC and other overseas stations can give a continuous feed why can't the TGC? I've seen raw feeds from TGC and it just stops during the commercials quite funny listening to the commentators chatting between themselves though.

So Yeon fan said...

Speaking of Sakura's swing, I kind of remember Yuri Fudou, (misspelled name)who won a number of tournaments on the JLPGA tour had the same kind of swing. I believe she is the top winner on that tour. Starting out playing golf a number of Japanese players had similar swings.

The Constructivist said...

Yup, Fudoh is the top player in JLPGA history, but I'm going to need to look for her swing on youtube, because I don't remember it being nearly as long as Sakura's!

I'll add "continuous feed for overseas tv" to the list, Colin!