Dominance at Bethpage
Dominance
Since 2000, the word dominant was reserved for only one person: Tiger Woods. In 2019, that word applies only to Brooks Koepka. Following a Sunday which saw Dustin Johnson nearly grab a piece of the lead at the 101st PGA Championship, it was Brooks Koepka who won his 4th major championship in the last 23 months.
Koepka led the event wire-to-wire and is the first player in history to repeat as champion of the US Open and the PGA Championship. You can get lost in the stats and records that Koepka broke this weekend. And maybe his tunnel vision personality is your cup of tea – particularly at the event where Phil Michelson boasted about trying to break his own record for most “thumbs up” delivered to the crowds. What you can’t deny is that Brooks Koepka is a superstar and is among the Tour’s elite such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.
We wrote last year after he captured his first Wanamaker Trophy in St. Louis that no player in the modern era that was won 3 major championships has been left out of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Koepka now has 4 – all by the age of 25. If Brooks was to step away from the game today to pursue his love of baseball, he would STILL be a hall of famer. Yet, almost inexplicably, golf media and fans seem to put him on the second tier. Maybe it’s because he isn’t flashy, or maybe it’s because he openly mocks golf being a “sport”, or maybe it’s because he seemingly appears only during the year’s biggest tournaments. One thing is for certain, golf can no longer ignore the fact that Koepka is the best player on the planet and has been for the last year.
CBS Broadcast
A few notes on the CBS broadcast. It seems that the harder CBS tries to be “ahead of the curve” the more they miss the mark. This weekend’s latest example: shot tracker via blimp. Jim Nantz couldn’t wait to tell the viewer about this new technology where a graphic would occupy 90% of the screen to show the flight of the ball as tracked by the blimp.
Not only was the viewer obstructed from seeing the actual golf shot, but the tracker almost never accurately captured where the ball was going to land. On many occasions, the tracker would project the ball to land in the trees, only to see it rolling on the fairway. The reaction on social media was predictably negative – so much so that the gimmick was scrapped for the Sunday telecast.
The telecast has become predictably stale. Instead of showing golf shots from around the course, CBS opts to focus on one player walking down a fairway to allow Nantz the stage to wax poetically. It is the exact opposite of what golf fans clamor for every week on Twitter – yet CBS continues to fall into the same trap week after week.
And while CBS has brought in some breaths of fresh air including statistical analysis and interviews with Amanda Ballionis, the remaining members of the CBS “golf team” sound dated. While Nantz might be the face of CBS Sports, it’s time to start thinking about the future and bringing in a solid golf announcer (Shane Bacon perhaps?) who he can share commentating duties with.
And please, CBS, just stick to shot tracker okay?
Since 2000, the word dominant was reserved for only one person: Tiger Woods. In 2019, that word applies only to Brooks Koepka. Following a Sunday which saw Dustin Johnson nearly grab a piece of the lead at the 101st PGA Championship, it was Brooks Koepka who won his 4th major championship in the last 23 months.
Koepka led the event wire-to-wire and is the first player in history to repeat as champion of the US Open and the PGA Championship. You can get lost in the stats and records that Koepka broke this weekend. And maybe his tunnel vision personality is your cup of tea – particularly at the event where Phil Michelson boasted about trying to break his own record for most “thumbs up” delivered to the crowds. What you can’t deny is that Brooks Koepka is a superstar and is among the Tour’s elite such as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy.
We wrote last year after he captured his first Wanamaker Trophy in St. Louis that no player in the modern era that was won 3 major championships has been left out of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Koepka now has 4 – all by the age of 25. If Brooks was to step away from the game today to pursue his love of baseball, he would STILL be a hall of famer. Yet, almost inexplicably, golf media and fans seem to put him on the second tier. Maybe it’s because he isn’t flashy, or maybe it’s because he openly mocks golf being a “sport”, or maybe it’s because he seemingly appears only during the year’s biggest tournaments. One thing is for certain, golf can no longer ignore the fact that Koepka is the best player on the planet and has been for the last year.
CBS Broadcast
A few notes on the CBS broadcast. It seems that the harder CBS tries to be “ahead of the curve” the more they miss the mark. This weekend’s latest example: shot tracker via blimp. Jim Nantz couldn’t wait to tell the viewer about this new technology where a graphic would occupy 90% of the screen to show the flight of the ball as tracked by the blimp.
Not only was the viewer obstructed from seeing the actual golf shot, but the tracker almost never accurately captured where the ball was going to land. On many occasions, the tracker would project the ball to land in the trees, only to see it rolling on the fairway. The reaction on social media was predictably negative – so much so that the gimmick was scrapped for the Sunday telecast.
The telecast has become predictably stale. Instead of showing golf shots from around the course, CBS opts to focus on one player walking down a fairway to allow Nantz the stage to wax poetically. It is the exact opposite of what golf fans clamor for every week on Twitter – yet CBS continues to fall into the same trap week after week.
And while CBS has brought in some breaths of fresh air including statistical analysis and interviews with Amanda Ballionis, the remaining members of the CBS “golf team” sound dated. While Nantz might be the face of CBS Sports, it’s time to start thinking about the future and bringing in a solid golf announcer (Shane Bacon perhaps?) who he can share commentating duties with.
And please, CBS, just stick to shot tracker okay?
Comments
Post a Comment