I sat up and watched the British Open from Royal Troon last night and have to say I was very disappointed with the coverage.
Normally, the Nine Network provides excellent coverage of their international sporting events, but by taking the BBC commentary for most of the broadcast, they have provided Australian viewers with the worst coverage of golf.
I do not think the commentators made one positive statement the whole evening. If a mistake was made they seemed to take a perverted pleasure in the misfortune of the particular golfer. On top of that they made numerous mistakes regarding shots, scores and names on screen.
When Nine tried to compensate by having their own commentator (Ian Chappel, I think) try to take over the broadcast, still using the video from the BBC, it was just as bad.
I know Ian Baker Finch was supposed to host the broadcast, but IBF was nowhere to be seen after his opening day score (not that I blame him for not wanting to front-up on TV after that horrible day on the links).
Why doesn't Nine approach this major golfing event with the same zest they show for other events? They should have at least a noted golfer in their studios to overcome the very poor BBC commentaries. This would lend an air of respectibility to this prestigious event.
Gary Burns, the head of Nine Sports, should relook at how the network covers the British Open in the future. At the very least they should have tied into the U.S. network, ABC, and their coverage. At least they had commentators who know what golf is all about!
