Having Phil and Tiger in the same pairing made for some pretty good television on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Too bad the same can't be said for the announcing! What a typically pathetic job the boy's did, telling the real story of what was going on. Rather than explain how well Kenny Perry was actually golfing under the immense pressure of The Masters lead, shooting even PAR for his first 11 holes and 3 under through 16, they decided to attack the lack of noise or activity in the last two groups.
"It's like a completely different tournament back there."
No shit! The first tournament was where one twosome was doing everything they could to catch up from such a huge deficit, a deficit created by NOT golfing as good as Kenny Perry and Chad Campbell for the previous three days. The second tournament was three men, (totally have to add eventual winner Angel in here!) playing some of the best golf under pressure, that has ever been recorded on television. What Angel, Chad and Kenny did over that last 18 holes and into the playoff, was nothing short of incredible. IMHO, they deserved way more attention and appreciation from the television broadcast crew, than they got.
But in what has become far too standard golf television coverage these days, we were treated to far more Phil eating a protein bar and Tiger mumbling dammit under his hat, than we were to the action of the three great competitors behind. That is of course until Tiger suffered a final two hole melt down, and Phil could only manage a Bogey on #18. Both of which merely brought about a casual, "Oh dear. Well, it was a valiant effort on his part." from the supposedly un-biased announcers, rather than the complete tear down of the play and "failure to capitalize" comments brought on any of the others that played the hole in a similar fashion.
It was only then that the broadcast team was forced to take a look at the play of these three great warriors of the grass. Grinding it out in some cases yes, but also playing a few of the best shots that The Masters had seen in a long, long time as well. Kenny's tee shot into #16 comes to mind to be exact.
Hell if Cabrera had heard some of the crap that had been said about him during the round, I doubt very much there would have been a winning interview done at all.
My point is, using these self-serving puppets as announcers for something as important and classy as The Masters, will never tell the viewers what is really going on out there on the course. It'll all just be the repetitive drone and drool, that the boy's at Augusta will allow you to hear. "Sell the beauty of the course. Sell the toughness. Sell the big names that are playing and say Augusta National every chance that you get. Then we'll all get along just fine." are the key's.
Give me back Johnny Miller and Gary McCord, if it's going to be an important event. At least then we'll get a little refreshing honesty for a change! Because you know what? That fringe really was cut closer than a Brazillian Bikini line and YES!!! I do want to ask, "What the Hell was he thinking at the time?" Because to me that makes for better and more honest enjoyable television, than the crap they presented us with for most of yesterday's NBC broadcast.
My sincerest thanks for dropping by....