August 2021 Ohio Golf Journal

A lthough the women’s golf competition at the Olympics had not yet been completed before publishing this issue, the men’s competition had wrapped up and we have a few thoughts. NBC Coverage The announcers were adequate, but the camera work was not. While normal golf announcers Dan Hicks and Terry Gannon were on assignment with other Olympic sports, Rich Lerner took the lead on site with Justin Leonard and Paige MacKenzie handling analyst duties. David Feherty, Jim Mackay, Tod Lewis, Kay Cockerill and Steve Sands were also in Tokyo. Lerner as always was the ultimate professional trying to cover for visuals that weren’t always on time, or the wrong image. Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay is always on point, but Feherty seemed to be on a massive dose of Xanex. The biggest problem with the coverage was the constant interruption by the seemingly hundreds of commercials. I understand the need for media partners to fund the expense of producing a golf telecast, but the preponderance of commercials made viewing unbearable. The only way I could watch was to tape it and fast-forward through them. One wonders if advertisers balked at expensive TV time and NBC was forced to discount each ad buy and then include more sponsors to cover the cost? On a positive note, I was using the remote so often that I didn’t have a chance to doze off and miss any of the action. Olympic Golf Recap By Fred Altvater Evidently telecast producers were overly concerned with his penchant for humorous remarks and threatened him with career suicide if he said the wrong thing. Back in the NBC Broadcast Center in Stamford, Connecticut, Shane Bacon played host with analyst Paul Azinger, Tom Abbott, Karen Stupples, and Anna Whiteley. There was no blimp and aerial coverage was created by using cameras hung on wires high above the fairways. The pictures were not always the best and the cameras did not adequately pick up ball flight. Fans, as well as, the announcers were kept guessing as to where the ball actually was.