Golf News: Faldo is Hot on TV and Norman is Not
In golf news, Golf Digest survey determines Faldo is hot and Norman is not among television golf broadcasters and more – the players, the Masters, the analysts, rule violation call-ins, and betting.
If you haven’t read the article, and if you need some amusement at the expense of others, Golf Digest has done a survey to find out what golfers think of televised golf and the people who bring us golf telecasts.
If you are Nick Faldo, you are happier than you were before the survey. If you are Greg Norman, you probably aren’t. If you were Paul Azinger, who doesn’t even do TV anymore, you had to be pleasantly surprised.
The group who was surveyed, according to the publication, was 83 percent male, had a median age of 59, which means half the people were over age 59 and half were under, and they watched an average of 19 televised events this year. As with any survey, the results are swayed by the people who responded and the nature of the people who were asked. In addition, some of the questions probably could have been phrased to give more on-point data.
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Here are some of the more interesting results.
Viewers now like Nick Faldo slightly more than Johnny Miller, but just by three points. A solid majority of viewers surveyed, 65 percent, prefer Jim Nantz as anchor. He had almost twice the total of Mike Tirico, who was second. Maybe Nantz should run for president. He’s a consensus winner.
It will probably come as no surprise that Gary McCord is the favorite hole announcer, although just a couple percentage points ahead of Peter Jacobsen.
Sep 27, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Jordan Spieth with the tournament trophy and FedEx Cup trophy after winning the final round of the Tour Championship by Coca-Cola at East Lake Golf Club. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
The golfers who are moving the needle with viewers now are, in order of their popularity: Jordan Spieth, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson.
In fact, if those guys are playing then golfers are much more likely to watch.
Jordan Spieth got an astonishing 83 percent more likely to watch if he’s in contention rating, with the next best 12 points behind that.
Less than half the viewers want to watch Tiger Woods if he’s not in contention, unless they are between 18 and 34. That group still puts him at the top of the viewing list.
The Masters is the favorite tournament, probably due to the beauty of the course shown by CBS, and the fact that there are hardly any commercials, so you can really get your golf fix. Plus half the country is just coming out of the deep freeze and anything looking lush and green is pleasant.
There’s also no competition from any other sport at that time of year. NCAA basketball is finished and baseball hasn’t started. The NBA and hockey are in the latter part of their seasons, or else they have started their four months of playoffs. Who can keep track of those?
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When it comes to analysts, either the questions about talent were not clear or the respondents didn’t understand the difference between announcers who cover live golf during the telecast and those who talk about it on some other program after live golf is over because some of the people on the list shouldn’t have been there. They aren’t telecast analysts.
Damon Hack, now on Morning Drive, has not – to the best of my knowledge – been a play-by-play announcer for live golf, at least not yet. He does host on Morning Drive, but that’s different. He was lumped in with the Jim Nantz and Mike Tirico category which makes no sense.
Hack, if you are a fan, has a journalism pedigree and can ask a question. He used to work for Sports Illustrated, to name just one publication, and he has covered a lot of golf.
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On the Morning Drive pick-your-favorite-personalities section of the survey, Hack did top the list of dislikes, but most people, 66 percent, actually did not dislike anybody. On the likes, they did like Charlie Rymer and Tim Rosaforte, although 48 percent did not really like anybody in particular either.
Another question could have been misleading. The survey asked what’s the best network for televised golf. Golf Channel got the nod. Well, yes, since everybody else does less golf than the Golf Channel, on some level that is correct. But that’s different than asking who does the best job of televising golf. Of those not named Golf Channel, CBS won handily over NBC. But you can count on Golf Channel to promote the heck out of this. In the answers, 19 percent didn’t care who showed golf.
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On the flip side, 49 percent said they didn’t think any one network was worse, but of all of them, TNT got the nod as worst with 25 percent, and ESPN, which almost does no golf these days, was second with 13 percent.
What’s also interesting is that some people are on the liked and disliked side of the list, Frank Nobilo was well liked and moderately disliked as were Ian Baker-Finch, Gary McCord, Verne Lunquist and Hack. If nothing else, that proves that there’s something for everybody in golf programming and that people know who they are.
Judy Rankin was fourth favorite among walking reporters, but she also has analyst action during women’s events and wasn’t mentioned for that. Rankin handles the lead analyst position with aplomb on Golf Channel, as she did on ABC, and she is most often a co-anchor during women’s golf events. For walking reporters, David Feherty won that category hands down, followed by Peter Kostis and Roger Maltby. Nobody will argue that these guys and gal know their stuff.
It was actually impressive that so many in the survey knew reporters and hole announcers and anchors by name. But, we don’t know if they were given a cheat sheet and asked to rank them in order. If that’s the case, then the rankings could be skewed by who was on the list put in front of respondents.
When asked if they could watch just one men’s and one women’s event all year, the respondents chose the Masters and the U.S. Women’s Open.
The most astonishing fact is that 75 percent in the survey said they are more likely to watch a telecast if they have a bet on the outcome. Hello Fan Duel and Draft King.
In terms of formats people would like to see, they picked a scramble. Hopefully they are watching the Shark ShootOut since one of the formats there is the two-man scramble.
The vast majority don’t think players and caddies in the final groups should be miked.
Next: The Quest for Distance Off the Tee
And finally, an overwhelming number of those in the survey think that nobody should be able to call in on rules violations. Amen to that.