Morning Drive?

[pktaske]

Golf is the one major sport where a good portion of the people who watch it also play it. Most other sports, people are tuning in because its engaging and interesting even when you don't play it (most don't), has high prime time content and almost endless short term analysis and replay value, is being bet on heavily through Vegas and fantasy football, etc.

 

My point being thats a very different (and difficult) animal to develop programming for. Add the fact you can't play it under lights during the week.

 

Now throw in a clash of cultures. Tradition vs the instagraming, casual, music-on-the-course set. Do they go right or left at this fork? Bound to piss off or unsuccessfully attract enough new demographic.

 

 

Nothing new being said here but I honestly don't know what the future will be. Its on incessantly in the house when there's any kind of live golf happening but other than that, I get my golf from the internet. So much more focused and tailored to my game and interesets.

Edited December 20, 2020 by pktaske

[Greg_B]

Lauren T. was keeping a tissue in her hand as she said goodbye. The contrast between her and Paige on that last broadcast was striking. One is a total pro, the other is like nails on a blackboard when she speaks. Yet the pro is leaving while the other carries on. Best of luck, LT.

 

I notice on Twitter that Lisa Cornwell is also saying her goodbyes to GC today.

[deadsolid...shank]

I flipped channels and forgot to switch back to see how they ended it. Although I don’t watch it nearly as much as I did a few years ago,  still very much enjoyed RDD and Lauren. I’m sure I’ll find myself missing the show very soon. 

[dukeman]

59 minutes ago, deadsolid...shank said:

I flipped channels and forgot to switch back to see how they ended it. Although I don’t watch it nearly as much as I did a few years ago,  still very much enjoyed RDD and Lauren. I’m sure I’ll find myself missing the show very soon. 

Fade into Erik Kuselias and Holly Sonders doing a high school football game and we find out the past 20 years have all been a dream.

[Hawkeye77]

Linus couldn’t bear to watch his pal RDD say goodbye! Little fella having a tough day. 
 

 

[FairwaysToHeaven]

On 12/18/2020 at 2:10 PM, Hawkeye77 said:

And fewer viewers, fewer people in the gates, and less money. 

fewer in person, but would tv viewers go down? not sure. i rarely watch lpga when given any other golf option. however, if given no golf on monday tuesday or wed, i'd be watching the lpga. 

[Hawkeye77]

14 minutes ago, FairwaysToHeaven said:

fewer in person, but would tv viewers go down? not sure. i rarely watch lpga when given any other golf option. however, if given no golf on monday tuesday or wed, i'd be watching the lpga. 

The people they need to watch have other interests on weeknights, volunteers and fans and other bodies needed for logistics and revenue and growth of the sport are going to be found on weekends.  If there were $ and growing interest in the LPGA by ending events on Wednesdays they’d have done it. 

[Divot License]

I'm not sure I fully understand this, the guy is only 66th in the world, he's hardly dropped off the planet.

Deleted as my friend @MattyO1984 so eloquently stated

 

It's the wrong thread.

 

Edited December 22, 2020 by Jedaigeki

[MattyO1984]

5 minutes ago, Jedaigeki said:

I'm not sure I fully understand this, the guy is only 66th in the world, he's hardly dropped off the planet.

 

Yes it's a drop from where he was when he won the Masters but he's hardly disappeared from golf. He had some issues which have all been mentioned previously but I would still contend he is having a good career and in a spot to move up the leaderboard quickly.

 

At 66th place he is surrounded by names like 

Russell Henley

Sebastian Munoz

Carlos Ortiz

Dylan Frittelli

Cameron Champ

 

They may not be big names but all very solid players who can climb the ranks with one good tournament. 

 

Wrong thread chief.

[Divot License]

2 hours ago, MattyO1984 said:

 

Wrong thread chief.

That's what happens when you try to read more than one thread at a time. 😅

[MattyO1984]

2 hours ago, Jedaigeki said:

That's what happens when you try to read more than one thread at a time. 😅

 

My wife would jump in there and tell me about men and multi-tasking 🤣

Edited December 22, 2020 by MattyO1984

[golfortennis]

So not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but I happened to tune into to PGA Tour radio yesterday, and they were doing a best of with Michael Breed.  He had some very interesting comments about GC.

 

He started out talking about how there was decent instruction shows on, but will we see Martin Hall again?  This moved into Golfpass, and he said that has been an abject failure.  The signups have been abysmal.  Revolution golf was another one that has seen untold sums of money dumped on it and a massive failure.

 

He then started talking about how there are things like nolayingup, etc., and how there is content on there that has viewers and no one at GC thought maybe we should bring that here.  Someone is trying to to do 9 putts a day or week at Pinehurst, and gets 130,000 views a week.  Outside of tournament coverage, nothing on GC is getting that kind of viewership.  Not sure if it was the same guy or another guy, but one guy has some serious sponsorship.  Yet the GC suits don't think any of this is worth airing. 

 

I have to admit I was turned off initially by Breed's schtick(let's do this), but hearing him on the radio, the guy has grown on me.  And I really liked the fact he was willing to call a spade a spade.

[Soloman1]

I have thought for years that TV instruction was/is over saturated and diluted with conflicting tips, ideas, myths, theories, etc.

 

Now, golfers can learn to swing and play like hackers more conveniently by watching 10 handicaps teaching on YouTube.

 

 

[Holy Moses]

10 hours ago, Bluefan75 said:

So not sure if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but I happened to tune into to PGA Tour radio yesterday, and they were doing a best of with Michael Breed.  He had some very interesting comments about GC.

 

He started out talking about how there was decent instruction shows on, but will we see Martin Hall again?  This moved into Golfpass, and he said that has been an abject failure.  The signups have been abysmal.  Revolution golf was another one that has seen untold sums of money dumped on it and a massive failure.

 

He then started talking about how there are things like nolayingup, etc., and how there is content on there that has viewers and no one at GC thought maybe we should bring that here.  Someone is trying to to do 9 putts a day or week at Pinehurst, and gets 130,000 views a week.  Outside of tournament coverage, nothing on GC is getting that kind of viewership.  Not sure if it was the same guy or another guy, but one guy has some serious sponsorship.  Yet the GC suits don't think any of this is worth airing. 

 

I have to admit I was turned off initially by Breed's schtick(let's do this), but hearing him on the radio, the guy has grown on me.  And I really liked the fact he was willing to call a spade a spade.

I liked Breed and I miss him on GC, but most TV instruction is not very good. It has to be personalized and you can't do that on a TV show. If the Golf Channel cares about interesting content, they have to take risks. And the good shows they had are too expensive to make (according to Golf Channel) like Big Break. I enjoyed Driver Vs. Driver even though I don't think Wilson got anywhere with it in the sales department. 

 

Golf Pass is terrible. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. Revolution Golf had the silliest commercials ever (see the pit crew commercial). Absolutely embarrassing and that turned me off. 

 

The PGA Tour must have a big say in the Golf Channel. NLU or a show like that has no shot at being on the Golf Channel because they are critical of the Tour. The PGA Tour coddles their stars like nothing ever. They are atrocious at marketing and are missing so many opportunities. The European Tour is absolutely kicking their butt at that. But the Tour would rather have bland marketing and play it safe and I gotta believe they insist that the Golf Channel does too. No NLU. No Crossfield. No Shiels. No TXG. No Lou Stagner. No MGS. No Fried Egg. No Foreplay. No Hank Haney. Nothing women or junior specific. I do like the Shane Bacon hire a lot, but there's not enough of that kind of thing. 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Holy Moses

[stingerfade]

On 12/15/2020 at 2:49 PM, Greg_B said:

 

That might be my favorite thing Brandel has ever done.
 

 but never mentioned Holly Sonders. My evil mind immediately started wondering if there was something there that ended badly. 🤫

Yea. Her. 

Edited December 24, 2020 by stingerfade

[stingerfade]

On 12/16/2020 at 8:16 PM, bscinstnct said:

 

But then how is that a channel?

 

A few cameras and a guy? What they do M-W, show the sprinklers and grounds keepers drinking beers?

 

Im just kidding, but if you think about it, it’s amazing that an all golf channel has been able to survive this long. It’s like, is there even a “football channel” or “baseball channel”?

 

I haven’t watched GC since I didn’t work for a whole summer! Was awesome. I must have seen that Medicus and Inside Approach commercial like 500 times.

 

I think I made my own Inside Approach with a paper towel roll and took some nice divots out of my floor 😂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NFL channel

MBA channel 

MLB chsnnel

NHL channel

[Divot License]

Personally I always thought the best thing Golf Channel ever did were these old hour teaching segments when top coaches would come on the show, talk about the golf swing and take calls in to answer questions about the swing. 

 

This could easily be updated for the modern day using zoom, teams, skype etc.

 

The other thing that was great was the old playing lessons with the pro's, learning how they thought about shots on the course is super interesting to me and helpful to all golfers. (Tom Watsons was one of the best I remember)

 

 

 

[Greg_B]

3 hours ago, Jedaigeki said:

Personally I always thought the best thing Golf Channel ever did were these old hour teaching segments when top coaches would come on the show, talk about the golf swing and take calls in to answer questions about the swing. 

 

This could easily be updated for the modern day using zoom, teams, skype etc.

 

The other thing that was great was the old playing lessons with the pro's, learning how they thought about shots on the course is super interesting to me and helpful to all golfers. (Tom Watsons was one of the best I remember)

 

 

I remember when I first started getting GC on my cable system that their weekday daytime programming was heavy on those kind of shows, both ones they produced in-house like Academy Live and Playing Lessons, but also ones that they obviously bought rights to that were produced by others. There were a lot of what I would guess were 1990s home video instruction programs by the prominent instructors of the era. Some of those were less than great but some of them were just outstanding. Many of those people are either no longer active or no longer alive, but it would be great to revisit some of those old shows.

[golfortennis]

11 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

I liked Breed and I miss him on GC, but most TV instruction is not very good. It has to be personalized and you can't do that on a TV show. If the Golf Channel cares about interesting content, they have to take risks. And the good shows they had are too expensive to make (according to Golf Channel) like Big Break. I enjoyed Driver Vs. Driver even though I don't think Wilson got anywhere with it in the sales department. 

 

Golf Pass is terrible. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. Revolution Golf had the silliest commercials ever (see the pit crew commercial). Absolutely embarrassing and that turned me off. 

 

The PGA Tour must have a big say in the Golf Channel. NLU or a show like that has no shot at being on the Golf Channel because they are critical of the Tour. The PGA Tour coddles their stars like nothing ever. They are atrocious at marketing and are missing so many opportunities. The European Tour is absolutely kicking their butt at that. But the Tour would rather have bland marketing and play it safe and I gotta believe they insist that the Golf Channel does too. No NLU. No Crossfield. No Shiels. No TXG. No Lou Stagner. No MGS. No Fried Egg. No Foreplay. No Hank Haney. Nothing women or junior specific. I do like the Shane Bacon hire a lot, but there's not enough of that kind of thing. 

 

I think you hit on the big problem.  The reliance on the PGA Tour.  Way too in bed with them.  I know you are a rights holder, but if you're just going to carry their water, might as well rebrand.  It has always amazed me that networks pay bazillions to a sports organization for broadcast rights, but then the organization being paid gets to call the shots on how things go. 

 

Gotta think the NBC suits have a bit of jock sniffing loving the fact they are so tight with the "glamor guys."

[Holy Moses]

59 minutes ago, Bluefan75 said:

 

I think you hit on the big problem.  The reliance on the PGA Tour.  Way too in bed with them.  I know you are a rights holder, but if you're just going to carry their water, might as well rebrand.  It has always amazed me that networks pay bazillions to a sports organization for broadcast rights, but then the organization being paid gets to call the shots on how things go. 

 

Gotta think the NBC suits have a bit of jock sniffing loving the fact they are so tight with the "glamor guys."

The PGA Tour makes them money. Without it, the channel dies. Not much the Golf Channel can do. It’s the Tour’s fault since they are the ones really calling the shots. They would rather have bland, corporate pieces on their shows than market their stars and up-and-comers because they don’t want one ounce of bad press on them, even if that draws eyes to their product.

[Body_Visions]

Bring Kessler back.   The history of the channel is ruined with the move anyway; go ahead and do something that has a chance to make it relevant again.  

[Holy Moses]

50 minutes ago, Body_Visions said:

Bring Kessler back.   The history of the channel is ruined with the move anyway; go ahead and do something that has a chance to make it relevant again.  

If you’ve seen him on Twitter, he’s psychotic. He was great years ago, but he’s untouchable now.

[USCHawks31]

2 hours ago, Body_Visions said:

Bring Kessler back.   The history of the channel is ruined with the move anyway; go ahead and do something that has a chance to make it relevant again.  

 

"Remember when Peter Kessler was relevant? Me either" is the sixth result when you Google Peter Kessler.

[zebra2955]

remember when they had on all he 1/2 hour infomercials. Always could go back to that  LOL

[Hawkeye77]

Kessler’s a nut! 

[Body_Visions]

2 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

If you’ve seen him on Twitter, he’s psychotic. He was great years ago, but he’s untouchable now.

 

I have read that, and if true, I would agree.

 

Hawk, I couldn’t care less how relevant he is.   He made the Golf Channel one time, and could do it again if healthy.  

[buckI]

16 minutes ago, Body_Visions said:

 

I have read that, and if true, I would agree.

 

Hawk, I couldn’t care less how relevant he is.   He made the Golf Channel one time, and could do it again if healthy.  

Loved the Golf Talk Live shows but bring that back with someone else.   Kessler is off the deep end now.

[Soloman1]

I'm sure a few of the suits have already suggested The Golf Channel show "Tin Cup" more often.

[Greg_B]

20 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

If you’ve seen him on Twitter, he’s psychotic. He was great years ago, but he’s untouchable now.

 

Yes, it's quite sad. If you read Keith Hirshland's book "Cover Me Boys, I'm Going In" which documents the creation of the Golf Channel you will see that even back in the early days, Kessler was a handful. These days, he's utterly toxic.

[golfortennis]

23 hours ago, Holy Moses said:

The PGA Tour makes them money. Without it, the channel dies. Not much the Golf Channel can do. It’s the Tour’s fault since they are the ones really calling the shots. They would rather have bland, corporate pieces on their shows than market their stars and up-and-comers because they don’t want one ounce of bad press on them, even if that draws eyes to their product.

 

The thing is, is there another network that would really want to pony up for weekday coverage of tournaments?  I suppose maybe FS1 would have gotten involved to help solidify the USGA offerings, but I can't see ESPN doing it.  I think the NBC suits overestimate how much competition there is.  Unless their ultimate goal is to become the PGA Tour network. 

 

AS to your first sentence, how did they make it the first decade without tour rights?