WGC Dell Technologies Match Play

[Ferguson]

13 hours ago, nichho said:

You're right, but I'm looking to Sam to do him.

 

I've got burns at 33/1.

 

 

 

 

 

[mshills]

9 hours ago, stinger_gc said:

 

That makes sense. From a tv standpoint this tournament sucks for NBC on Sundays. There's a ton of dead air in between shots

It’s perfect for NBC. No crew is better equipped to fill dead air. 

[JungleJimbo]

 

 

 

[Dave230]

4 hours ago, PedronNiall said:

A major with two unknowns in the lead still gets to show shots of knows who are a few shots back. Not only is there the potential when they tee off that they'll somehow surge and win, people like watching their favorites even if they're out of the hunt. The match plays can be snoozers when the finals are two players who don't hit flashy shots and are as exciting as a firecracker in a bucket of water when it comes to their personalities to boot.

 

The sponsors aren't wrong that ratings drop when the final isn't deemed exciting by those who tune in. Not much to be done about it because match play is match play, but easy to see why sponsors would be harder to sell on this one.

The same thing happens in majors though, like when Kaymer was leading by 8 strokes at the US Open, various blowout victories or uninteresting characters winning.

 

Personally, I don't find it interesting watching players that are nowhere near contention on the final day of a major, I usually skip ahead if taped or look at my phone or whatever.

 

In my opinion, a one-off matchplay final can be interesting, TV just has to find a way to make it more compelling. If you look at The Match or Shell's Wonderful World of Golf or many other one-off matches, they don't lack entertainment in my opinion. Mic'ing up the players, showing more of the hole, explaining their shot process etc. Going into detail that wouldn't be possible in a regular stroke event. I think there is so much room for a better presentation of matchplay.

[Hawkeye77]

48 minutes ago, Dave230 said:

The same thing happens in majors though, like when Kaymer was leading by 8 strokes at the US Open, various blowout victories or uninteresting characters winning.

 

Personally, I don't find it interesting watching players that are nowhere near contention on the final day of a major, I usually skip ahead if taped or look at my phone or whatever.

 

In my opinion, a one-off matchplay final can be interesting, TV just has to find a way to make it more compelling. If you look at The Match or Shell's Wonderful World of Golf or many other one-off matches, they don't lack entertainment in my opinion. Mic'ing up the players, showing more of the hole, explaining their shot process etc. Going into detail that wouldn't be possible in a regular stroke event. I think there is so much room for a better presentation of matchplay.

A mild dissent on Shell's WWOG - those are all stroke play and canned, not live, so production was tailored to a relatively short program vs. showing the entire match, often holes were skipped (lol, remember the old easels and later superimposed pics showing the arrows of what happened?).  I love the shows, but just sitting down to invest less than an hour in watching a match I think is a different from live golf tournaments.

 

Totally agree on Kaymer - to me that was a complete snooze (snood) fest and for me, uncharacteristically for a major, I went and played golf rather than watch it and really wasn't a fan of the layout and conditions that year.

 

As usual, and I've watched pretty much all the coverage since Friday afternoon, Hicks in particular, keeps hyping the top players and looking ahead to what he says are great duels and frankly sets people up for "disappointment" if the top players don't win and advance - the announcers on the featured groups were more interesting and balanced, and Zinger doesn't give any matches away to any player, no matter how dopey he sounds at times. 

 

I thought the Xander/Rory match was incredible - and the number of birdies being made and long putts holed and shots made have been stellar across the board, so I'm really enjoying the format and the event.  

[Dave230]

14 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

A mild dissent on Shell's WWOG - those are all stroke play and canned, not live, so production was tailored to a relatively short program vs. showing the entire match, often holes were skipped (lol, remember the old easels and later superimposed pics showing the arrows of what happened?).  I love the shows, but just sitting down to invest less than an hour in watching a match I think is a different from live golf tournaments.

 

Totally agree on Kaymer - to me that was a complete snooze (snood) fest and for me, uncharacteristically for a major, I went and played golf rather than watch it and really wasn't a fan of the layout and conditions that year.

 

As usual, and I've watched pretty much all the coverage since Friday afternoon, Hicks in particular, keeps hyping the top players and looking ahead to what he says are great duels and frankly sets people up for "disappointment" if the top players don't win and advance - the announcers on the featured groups were more interesting and balanced, and Zinger doesn't give any matches away to any player, no matter how dopey he sounds at times. 

 

I thought the Xander/Rory match was incredible - and the number of birdies being made and long putts holed and shots made have been stellar across the board, so I'm really enjoying the format and the event.  

Yeah you're right, that's fair about the live matchplay that will take over 4 hours probably. But ultimately as the journalist John Huggan often says, strokeplay is at its best when it becomes matchplay. One of my favourite Sundays was watching Stenson beat Mickelson at Troon in 2016, it was essentially an 18-hole stroke matchplay, and a lot of memorable tournaments are essentially duels. Sure there's going to be some dead space in the broadcast, but personally I don't mind that if the shots are compelling once the players get to them.

[Hawkeye77]

36 minutes ago, Dave230 said:

Yeah you're right, that's fair about the live matchplay that will take over 4 hours probably. But ultimately as the journalist John Huggan often says, strokeplay is at its best when it becomes matchplay. One of my favourite Sundays was watching Stenson beat Mickelson at Troon in 2016, it was essentially an 18-hole stroke matchplay, and a lot of memorable tournaments are essentially duels. Sure there's going to be some dead space in the broadcast, but personally I don't mind that if the shots are compelling once the players get to them.

I still have the final day of the '16 Open recorded and saved - loved it.  Was a huge Stenson fan at the time.  I still remember Jack vs. Tom, not so happy with that result.  It happens.  But for all that were in the mix, the '19 Masters was a rare example of being pretty wide open for awhile on the final day with plenty of drama, but the Tiger effect amped it up X100.  

Edited March 26, 2023 by Hawkeye77

[deadsolid...shank]

Sure looked like Scottie hit that chip a little heavy on number one. 
 

And Notah…..shut up!  Good God he’s rambling this morning. 

[Aces-6]

Did Burns just shell that kid with his tee shot on #2? 

[Hawkeye77]

7 minutes ago, Aces-6 said:

Did Burns just shell that kid with his tee shot on #2? 

No.

[betarhoalphadelta]

I would NOT have thought to play that shot like Rory did lol...

[Hawkeye77]

1 minute ago, betarhoalphadelta said:

I would NOT have thought to play that shot like Rory did lol...

Looked even crazier from overhead!

[mat562]

The mid-life crisis bikers are out in force, judging by the racket as McIlroy and Young played the first.

[Hawkeye77]

10 minutes ago, Aces-6 said:

Did Burns just shell that kid with his tee shot on #2? 

I think the kid had ducked (unlike everyone else) because he heard "fore" or his Dad told him to --- so I'll give him credit for not just waiting to get plonked, lol.

[Aces-6]

5 minutes ago, mat562 said:

The mid-life crisis bikers are out in force, judging by the racket as McIlroy and Young played the first.

I'm not sure how close Circuit of the Americas racetrack is to ACC but that could be what we're hearing.

 

Edit: ACC is about 20 miles from the track so that's not it. 

Edited March 26, 2023 by Aces-6

[Hawkeye77]

The course is playing pretty easy for these guys, which doesn't bother me at all but I've enjoyed a lot of the views of this course, which  we don't always see at other courses (maybe the fewer players to watch aspect the last couple of days) --- it's a really interesting golf course.

Edited March 26, 2023 by Hawkeye77

[Justsomeguy]

Burns is straight up handling this guy.

[bscinstnct]

17 hours ago, nichho said:

You're right, but I'm looking to Sam to do him.

 

I've got burns at 33/1.

 

Nichho be like

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by bscinstnct

[Hawkeye77]

Just now, bscinstnct said:

 

Nicco be like

 

 

 

Then we'll find out he won a total of 33 Euro! 😀

[jdl]

Cam with some cart path assistance.

[bscinstnct]

11 minutes ago, Hawkeye77 said:

 

Then we'll find out he won a total of 33 Euro! 😀

nahhh Nichho lay down 5 dimes SBurns be like

 

 

 

Edited March 26, 2023 by bscinstnct

[Dill Pickleson]

Cam not shy about getting the read.

[JetSpeed79]

If Rory keeps driving it this well the Masters could get pretty interesting. 

[mat562]

McIlroy's driving is comedy-good.

 

Is it really only a week since people were taking about him swapping balls and potentially dropping his TM contract, it was so bad?

[JetSpeed79]

Scottie’s new plan to be less boring: Go down a few holes at the start of the match. Pretend to lose. Then engage ridiculous shot mode and destroy. 
 

Day two of this plan. I think it’s working.  

[subrew]

9 minutes ago, mat562 said:

McIlroy's driving is comedy-good.

 

Is it really only a week since people were taking about him swapping balls and potentially dropping his TM contract, it was so bad?

 

He's knocking it out of the park with that TSR driver, 680MB irons and ProV1 ball this week.  

[Gregakin]

Open message to Steve Sands, the drone shot is NOT that cool; or at least not cool enough to hear the same comment every time, at every tournament you've called this year.  

[Justsomeguy]

1 hour ago, Justsomeguy said:

Burns is straight up handling this guy.

Well, that didn't age well.

Damn I hate watching Scottie win.

[80sFredriksson]

56 minutes ago, JetSpeed79 said:

If Rory keeps driving it this well the Masters could get pretty interesting. 

Lets hope, but short game needs to be on fire to have a chance at augusta

[TiScape]

19 minutes ago, Gregakin said:

Open message to Steve Sands, the drone shot is NOT that cool; or at least not cool enough to hear the same comment every time, at every tournament you've called this year.  

Just got a response to my text to Steve. He agrees the drone shot hasn’t been cool for weeks now but when he said “oh wow, will you look at that. Another played out drone shot…” the brass wasn’t thrilled. So he’s sticking with the canned response for now.