News:

This discussion group is best enjoyed using Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari.


Darren_Kilfara

  • Karma: +0/-0
Major championships on TV - your favorite venue?
« on: June 16, 2003, 05:32:36 PM »
Let me preface this question with an explanation based upon recent events: Olympia Fields, like Baltusrol and others before it, may have far more going for it than meets the eye (well, this particular eye, anyway) on television. But for most of us, television is as close as we get to a major championship - and any architectural subtleties which don't translate well to television simply don't add to a sense of dramatic tension or make for good televisual entertainment. Some very good golf courses don't make for good television, and some lesser courses do. In my opinion, of course...

Anyway, to the question: you're sitting on your couch at home on a Wednesday evening when suddenly you discover that a major championship is beginning tomorrow. (For the sake of an argument, suppose you're coming out of a coma and don't know what month or year it is and don't know which tournament is about to start or where it's being played.) You're going to be watching lots of golf for the next four days; where do you hope the tournament is being played? One guideline: the network of choice is unimportant, i.e. don't exclude British Open venues from your list just because you don't like ABC, for example.

Anyway, here's one man's top five, in reverse order:

T5 - Carnoustie (with wind blowing and rough high, a la 1999). There's something dramatically satisfying about watching professional golfers really suffer on levels that they've never suffered before.

T5 - Pinehurst No. 2. The Sky Sports commentators in unison suggested that the 1999 Open was the most perfectly set up major championship in recent memory; normally I don't agree with them, but in this instance they make a good case.

4th - The Old Course (St. Andrews). The history, the drama of the Road Hole, the great (!!!) architecture, the way they get all of those camera cranes in position to highlight every possible view of the course...it's all great. Suffers slightly from repetitiveness - I love the course, but I'm not sure the Open has to go back there every five or six years.

3rd - Pebble Beach. Overrated in terms of its architecture (IMHO), but Tiger's cakewalk notwithstanding (the least dramatic golf tournament in my lifetime), has perhaps more potential drama and as much eye candy as any course in the world. Each of the 1972, 1982 and 1992 US Opens was absolutely compelling, and the next one surely offers every chance of being just as good as those ones were.

2nd - Augusta National. I don't like the metamorphosis of the golf course I watched in 1986 - wide fairways, no rough, etc. etc. - to the one I watched in 2003. But c'mon, it's Augusta, and it's still got Amen Corner, 15 and 16, 17 and 18, etc. etc. If the arrival of the Masters doesn't put a spring in your step, nothing will...

1st - Shinnecock Hills. Maybe a surprise pick to some, but I just think the world of the course, and for me the architecture DOES shine through the medium of television. I also think it is one of the most beautiful courses in the world, with the native grasses and the sweeping views and elevation changes, but maybe that's just me. Anyway, NBC's broadcast of the 1996 Open was absolutely first-rate in almost every department, and I simply cannot wait for the US Open to return there next year.

Your thoughts? (Seems like a more promising and general topic for discussion than anything to do with Olympia Fields as such - and many apologies to the OF member who has so graciously and gracefully entered those discussion topics. I'm sure OF is a wonderful course, but my point herein is to distinguish between wonderful architecture and wonderful television. Sometimes the two overlap, but they don't have to...)

Cheers,
Darren
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:06 PM by -1 »

CHrisB

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2003, 06:20:28 PM »
Darren, I was thinking of my list before I read all the way down to see yours, and we have the very same courses in our top 6! If I were pressed to pick my #1-3 I'd have to go with TOC, Pebble Beach, and Pinehurst #2, but it's close. TOC because of the countless number of things that can happen there, the history, and the great holes/bunkers/setting/finishing stretch (the entire back nine is my favorite nine in golf), Pebble Beach more for the setting and the stretch of #4-10, and Pinehurst #2 because of the green complexes, chipping areas, and the curiosity of getting to see it play firm (even par won in 1999 even though the greens were not nearly as firm as they could get!). The only other course I might add to my list would be Oakmont--I'm really looking forward to seeing that course again.

I also really enjoy seeing the pros play in rough weather (Saturday at Muirfield last year was great!), which tilts me in favor of the British courses, and also the few U.S. courses located in areas where the bad weather is just rain/wind and not thunderstorms, which can't be played through (courses like Shinnecock and Pebble Beach come to mind).
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:06 PM by -1 »

T_MacWood

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2003, 06:47:40 PM »
Valhalla, Congressional and Hazeltine produced unreal drama--I have no deire to play Valhalla and Hazeltine or return to Congressional.

I didn't watch Tiger's route at Pebble Beach although I love the course.

« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Bruceski

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2003, 06:56:13 PM »
Any course with enough real birds so that the networks don't feel compelled to pipe in the fake ones.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Joe Hancock

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2003, 07:06:03 PM »
Augusta still has an effect on me like no other. I want to plan my weekend around the tv coverage, which I don't do for any other venue. I do enjoy most in the British rota, and make more of a point to watch that Open than most tourneys here in the states. Shinnecock is always fun to see. Pebble Beach gets some of my view time when there is tourney play there, and I was absolutely riveted when Tiger made history with his perfomance there. TPC/ Sawgrass, while not a major, is a fun view.

Joe
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
" What the hell is the point of architecture and excellence in design if a "clever" set up trumps it all?" Peter Pallotta, June 21, 2016

"People aren't picking a side of the fairway off a tee because of a randomly internally contoured green ."  jeffwarne, February 24, 2017

David_Elvins

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #5 on: June 16, 2003, 07:26:06 PM »
From a TV point of view most of the British Links courses look like dog tracks. Most casual observers think that the only reason golf is played at St Andrews is the history because the course looks so bad on TV (especially at the Open, with the lower sun and greener grass it looks better at the Dunhill Cup.)  And as for the States, most US Open courses (Shinnecock and Pebble Beach excepted) along with the traditional courses used for the PGA look the same with there narrow fairways, long rough and smallish round greens.

To me two course stand out as having bold strategic architectural features that stand out on TV -Augusta National and TPC Sawgrass (I know, not a major venue).  Pebble Beach also has many features, though not always architectural, that look great on TV.

Every other course that hosts majors is so far behind these courses that it is not funny. Is it time, in the TV age that we live in, to start considering a course's ability to look good on TV  when ranking courses? (after all, 10,000s times more people see the course on TV that actually play it.)
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
Ask not what GolfClubAtlas can do for you; ask what you can do for GolfClubAtlas.

Mike_Cirba

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #6 on: June 16, 2003, 07:35:17 PM »
The Old Course.

Sorry for the pat answer, but one sees more unusual demands and shot requirements there than anywhere else.  Watching some players go left to the 5th fairway, while others challenge the bunkers and OB wall on holes like 14 is eminently interesting, even during lesser events like the Dunhill Cup.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Matt Kardash

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #7 on: June 16, 2003, 07:49:29 PM »
I'm looking forward to the visual splendor of 2004 where we get both Shinnecock Hills and Whistling Straits. If those aren't exciting to watch then i just don't know what is.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
the interviewer asked beck how he felt "being the bob dylan of the 90's" and beck quitely responded "i actually feel more like the bon jovi of the 60's"

Steve_L.

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #8 on: June 16, 2003, 09:08:21 PM »
In reverse order - my favorite venues from past majors:

#5 - Augusta

#4 - Shinnecock

#3 - Oakmont

#2 - The Old Course

#1 - Pebble Beach

#1a - TPC Sawgrass - not a major but as good as it gets on TV
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Buck Wolter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #9 on: June 16, 2003, 09:10:20 PM »
I don't see how any British Open course can be a favorite for TV. Invariably because of the giant lift equipment they use, the wind and the rather brownish color it makes it damn near impossible to tell what's going on. You see a player hit a shot, the camera then picks it up 50% of the time as it dances in the frame and then perhaps you'll see it rolling on some brown grass or it may well be camouflaged. Say what you want about US conditioning but emerald green is a better background for TV. Can't the BBC figure out a better way to telecast golf.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »
Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience -- CS Lewis

JakaB

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #10 on: June 16, 2003, 09:26:18 PM »
I don't understand how a historian and a scholar would not want to play Valhalla...it plays an important role in Jacks evolution as a designer and Tigers as a champion....it is fun as hell and really not very difficult at all...it really is what it is with a little sparkle of what happened on the 18th...on a side note the first time I really hated this site...ok maybe the second time....is when right before I reached the gate at Valhalla I found myself rapped up in the architectural crapfest so many of you scoop with your long handled opinions...no person should ever have less fun because they wear a pirate eye to the first tee...and thank god I came to my senses and had a great day...who wouldn't..you tell me.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Jim_H

Re: Major championships on TV - your favorite venu
« Reply #11 on: June 17, 2003, 08:08:24 AM »
Nothing can ever beat Augusta and the Masters.
Anyone who grew up as a golfer in the North can recall the joy of the Masters--and the sign that Spring was here and golf could begin.  I still tear up when I hear the music.
Nothing has been more magical to my golf life.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by 1056376800 »

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back