Boredom at the Bridges

Last week, I watched the final installment of the made for prime time TV golf event, "Battle at The Bridges." Retief Goosen and Phil Mickelson beat Tiger Woods and John Daly and will split the $1.2 million top prize. After I had awakened, I concluded that it was some of the least compelling TV that I had ever seen. If there was such a thing as televised competitive knitting, I think that I would have rather watched that.

Sadly, I have seen all 7 installments since the series debuted in 1999. Each time that I've watched the event, I've hoped that it would be interesting or at least better than the one before. Each time I've been disappointed. At least in prior installments, ABC tried to keep the event interesting with launch monitor analysis, long-drive competitions, etc. This time around, ABC didn't utilize anything. No launch monitors, no slo-mo, nada. They didn't even bother to mark the yardages on the long holes to show the driving distances. It was like everyone just gave up - the players, the announcers, the sign boys, and eventually me. My friend Tony over at Hooked On Golf observed the same thing.

The series is billed as the first and only golf event televised live in prime time. One of its goals is to deliver golf to an audience that might not otherwise have been exposed to televised golf. While "Monday Night Golf" might accomplish this goal, it does little to actually generate lasting interest in televised golf. In fact, I think that it does a disservice - not only to televised golf, but to golf in general. If my first exposure to golf was this dreadful exhibition of ennui, I likely would have never picked up a golf club. Instead, I may have gone so far as to despise golf and join some radical group hell-bent on abolishing it from TV.

I think that the main problem with live televised golf, in general, is that there is a relatively scarce amount of action to actually watch. Give me a Tivo, and I can watch a 3 hour golf event in 30 minutes tops. This problem is greatly exacerbated when there's only one group on the course. Watching such golf becomes a mundane pattern of watching 4 guys hit their ball, waiting 10-15 mins. until they hit them again, rinse, spin, and then repeat. The only way that this can be even remotely viewable is if they fit in an episode of the "Making of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue" into the down times. On second thought, there'd still be enough room to squeeze in an NFL preseason preview show and maybe a Seinfeld re-run or two. Now that would be must-see TV.