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The Open Championship 2021


BIM_Monkey

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8 minutes ago, KennyP said:

Loving it so far. Nice breeze keeping it interesting. Par 5 7th taking plenty of victims.

 

Not loving Sky Sports commentary; Coltart and McGinley are insufferable.

 

I press mute when McGinley is on. He's the worst commentator in all of sport 

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Impressions after the first two hours (my coverage started at 4 AM US EDT).

 

Relative to what I am used to in the UK, conditions are quite mild. Slightly brisk breeze, but drop dead beautiful sunny day. And that's the forecast for the whole tourney - periods of gusty wind (though not too bad), but mostly sunny and no rain at all for all four days. (I'll actually miss the wicked squalls with driving rain I associate with the Open.) After a bit more than an hour, there are already a few at -2 and one at -4. We  may see some low scores this week - weather just isn't going to be the factor it usually is.

 

With little weather threat, the chief challenges will come from the course itself: Green, pot bunkers, and fescue. Announcer said greens are stimping 10. If true, that seems quite slow for a major. Maybe a couple days of sun and wind will dry them out? Bunkers? I'm not certain what it is ... perhaps the guys doing a lot of homework around club strategy, but it just occurred to me that after almost two hours, I haven't seen a single golfer in a bunker. The grass is what you'd expect - not easy to hit out of, but not as high as I've seen in past Opens. People seem to be able to get out of it, and no one has lost a ball yet.

 

The coverage is, well, the coverage. It is (as most know) the R&A "world" feed, not NBC's coverage. Americans that are used to the bells and whistles in the graphics (shot tracer, graphics of where everyone in a three landed, overlaid with distances, images of holes with arrows showing wind speed and direction while a guy is on a tee, etc., etc. None of that is here. A (very) few holes have shot tracers, and on those that do it is rudimentary. Just a line, a measurement of apex, but no ball speed or even the distance of drives or any other metrics. This is golf coverage at its most basic. Some camera people following golfers around, a few fixed cameras on a few holes. Commentators that are, well, its a draw - they are just as dull and banal as US commentators. 

 

So bottom line, a course and conditions that are not very punishing, coverage and coverage technology that look like that of a B level PGA tourney. There won't be an asterisk next to this tourney - it is an Open and I'll watch every minute it is on - but this is definitely "COVID golf".  

 

 

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2 minutes ago, bobfoster said:

Impressions after the first two hours (my coverage started at 4 AM US EDT).

 

Relative to what I am used to in the UK, conditions are quite mild. Slightly brisk breeze, but drop dead beautiful sunny day. And that's the forecast for the whole tourney - periods of gusty wind (though not too bad), but mostly sunny and no rain at all for all four days. (I'll actually miss the wicked squalls with driving rain I associate with the Open.) After a bit more than an hour, there are already a few at -2 and one at -4. We  may see some low scores this week - weather just isn't going to be the factor it usually is.

 

With little weather threat, the chief challenges will come from the course itself: Green, pot bunkers, and fescue. Announcer said greens are stimping 10. If true, that seems quite slow for a major. Maybe a couple days of sun and wind will dry them out? Bunkers? I'm not certain what it is ... perhaps the guys doing a lot of homework around club strategy, but it just occurred to me that after almost two hours, I haven't seen a single golfer in a bunker. The grass is what you'd expect - not easy to hit out of, but not as high as I've seen in past Opens. People seem to be able to get out of it, and no one has lost a ball yet.

 

The coverage is, well, the coverage. It is (as most know) the R&A "world" feed, not NBC's coverage. Americans that are used to the bells and whistles in the graphics (shot tracer, graphics of where everyone in a three landed, overlaid with distances, images of holes with arrows showing wind speed and direction while a guy is on a tee, etc., etc. None of that is here. A (very) few holes have shot tracers, and on those that do it is rudimentary. Just a line, a measurement of apex, but no ball speed or even the distance of drives or any other metrics. This is golf coverage at its most basic. Some camera people following golfers around, a few fixed cameras on a few holes. Commentators that are, well, its a draw - they are just as dull and banal as US commentators. 

 

So bottom line, a course and conditions that are not very punishing, coverage and coverage technology that look like that of a B level PGA tourney. There won't be an asterisk next to this tourney - it is an Open and I'll watch every minute it is on - but this is definitely "COVID golf".  

 

 

I'm watching it for about a half hour now, and being used to the US Network coverage, this is so much better!  More continuity with the players and much fewer interruptions.  The commentators I could take or leave - I treat Faldo like the low hum of my air conditioner. 

With regard to graphics and technology, I could care less.  Showing shots is the thing we've been missing over here!

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1 minute ago, ChillyDipper said:

I'm watching it for about a half hour now, and being used to the US Network coverage, this is so much better!  More continuity with the players and much fewer interruptions.  The commentators I could take or leave - I treat Faldo like the low hum of my air conditioner. 

With regard to graphics and technology, I could care less.  Showing shots is the thing we've been missing over here!

Figured a bunch of people would say something like that. 

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DeShambles making the turn at +2 which is pretty amazing given he’s all over the place.  But it’s his first trip and even though he is a physicist, there’s a learning curve to links golf.  Hopefully he’s enjoying the front row seat to the Spieth clinic.  Wow, never thought that would happen given the trajectories they were both on last year.

 

It looks like if you can spray it as bad as BDC and be +2, then the winner presumably finding fairways is going to be in -15 territory.

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3 minutes ago, CasualLie said:

DeShambles making the turn at +2 which is pretty amazing given he’s all over the place.  But it’s his first trip and even though he is a physicist, there’s a learning curve to links golf.  Hopefully he’s enjoying the front row seat to the Spieth clinic.  Wow, never thought that would happen given the trajectories they were both on last year.

 

It looks like if you can spray it as bad as BDC and be +2, then the winner presumably finding fairways is going to be in -15 territory.

 

Doubt it will be that low. Over 72 holes this will eventually grind the field down. 

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22 minutes ago, ChillyDipper said:

When we've been deprived of seeing actual golf competition on TV for so long and then are given a taste of the good stuff, you'd better believe I won't be the only one.

Um, a bit confusing. No idea what you meant by "showing shots". They show every bit as many shots in the US as they are in this coverage.

 

Deprived of golf? What? I've been watching it every weekend. The EU Tour, PGA Tour, LPGA. Its been a while now since golf figured out how to safely run tourneys. But they have. On any given Saturday or Sunday I can watch at least 8 hours of professional golf. A lot of which has coverage far better than this. 

 

If you really think this is better? Good on you! (Seriously, I'd never presume to tell anyone what sort of coverage they should like, any mores than I'd tell them what clubs they should play.) 

 

But I get my opinion too, and IMO this coverage doesn't even approach what I saw at Augusta or the US Open. And you'd better believe I'm not the only one that thinks that.

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6 minutes ago, bobfoster said:

Um, a bit confusing. No idea what you meant by "showing shots". They show every bit as many shots in the US as they are in this coverage.

 

Deprived of golf? What? I've been watching it every weekend. The EU Tour, PGA Tour, LPGA. Its been a while now since golf figured out how to safely run tourneys. But they have. On any given Saturday or Sunday I can watch at least 8 hours of professional golf. A lot of which has coverage far better than this. 

 

If you really think this is better? Good on you! (Seriously, I'd never presume to tell anyone what sort of coverage they should like, any mores than I'd tell them what clubs they should play.) 

 

But I get my opinion too, and IMO this coverage doesn't even approach what I saw at Augusta or the US Open. And you'd better believe I'm not the only one that thinks that.

The Masters has nearly perfected coverage with their streaming. Follow any and every player you want, see every single shot with tracer, and no commentators. Coverage for the other majors (or any other tournament, really) is always gonna suck a** in comparison. 

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12 minutes ago, TheIncelGolfer said:

The Masters has nearly perfected coverage with their streaming. Follow any and every player you want, see every single shot with tracer, and no commentators. Coverage for the other majors (or any other tournament, really) is always gonna suck a** in comparison. 

Yes The Masters streaming coverage is the gold standard by which all sports coverage is judged. Nothing comes close. 

 

On another note I'm really enjoying the live audio found within the British Open app. They really do a nice job making you feel like you're watching. 

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Definitely hoping for some breeze to kick up in the afternoon, playing far too calm at the moment. A bit more than a puff would present a real challenge for the later starters.

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3 hours ago, KennyP said:

Not loving Sky Sports commentary; Coltart and McGinley are insufferable.

 

I love some of his insights, then suddenly I have to think does McGinley never play golf before. Coltart is just all cliches but decent. 

 

Sky Sports coverage certainly beats all the USA commercials; I watch on my Sky subscription and not on US TV.

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2 hours ago, BIM_Monkey said:

 

I press mute when McGinley is on. He's the worst commentator in all of sport 

 

Worst commentator in golf is Mark Immelman. Just gushes superlatives to his co-commentators at every opportunity and on every shot he sees even when they're just middle of of the road attempts. 

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6 minutes ago, scott_Donald said:

I love some of his insights, then suddenly I have to think does McGinley never play golf before. Coltart is just all cliches but decent. 

 

Sky Sports coverage certainly beats all the USA commercials; I watch on my Sky subscription and not on US TV.

 

Just wait until they hear how McGinley pronounces Cantlay 😂

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2 minutes ago, scott_Donald said:

 

I love some of his insights, then suddenly I have to think does McGinley never play golf before. Coltart is just all cliches but decent. 

 

Sky Sports coverage certainly beats all the USA commercials; I watch on my Sky subscription and not on US TV.

 

Coltart has the annoying habit of finishing every paragraph with a question. Doesn't he?

 

(See what I did there 😉)

 

The frustrating thing is Sky employ the superbly knowledgeable Dom Boulet and the entertaining Tony Johnstone & Anthony Wall but put them on the red button coverage.

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1 minute ago, MattyO1984 said:

 

Just wait until they hear how McGinley pronounces Cantlay 😂

 

Must have heard it but can't think.

 

Laura Davies is so similar to McGInley but worse. 

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2 minutes ago, scott_Donald said:

Must have heard it but can't think.

 

Laura Davies is so similar to McGInley but worse. 

 

You definitely will have done! I might have just ruined watching him now, although Cantlay is so slow that he does a pretty good job of that himself 😂

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