Credit: Brendan Mcdermid-Reuters via Imagn Images
By Matt Yoder on

The Ryder Cup is one of the highlights of the golfing calendar.  The fact that it occurs only every two years and features Team USA squaring off against Team Europe makes it all the more special. It is one of the great events in all of sports — the emotion, the theatrics, the rivalry, the shotmaking — it has it all.

And, at least on Day 1, NBC did its best to remove any and all positive feelings about the event.

From the commercials to the partisan announcers to the technical issues to the coverage of Donald Trump, there was a lot for any viewer to pick apart.

Golf fans have a reputation for being among the most discerning when it comes to their television coverage; both CBS and NBC have introduced innovations in response to fan pressure to deliver more modern broadcasts. But this is not an overstatement – the Day 1 coverage on USA Network may be some of the most heavily criticized that we have ever seen in covering sports media.

Let’s take an in-depth look at some of the reasons why.

Ryder Cup Commercials

The most significant criticism of NBC’s golf coverage over the years has been the deluge of commercials. Whether it’s full-screen ads or side-by-side “Playing Through” commercials, it seems like there are more ads than golf shots. And it appears to happen every year at the Ryder Cup, which is inexcusable. This is one of the biggest tournaments in the sport. If The Masters and other tournaments can find ways to lower ad loads or produce commercial-free hours, then surely there must be some way to get sponsors to allow fans to see more golf.

Televising the Ryder Cup should be simplified compared to other golf tournaments, with only a few balls in play at any given time. However, NBC still managed to miss a ton of shots, showing many of them on replay during commercials. No example was more appalling than the incredible back-to-back putts from Ben Griffin and Justin Rose, both of which were seen during a lengthy Playing Through spot.

Even former Ryder Cup stars like Graeme McDowell had seen enough.

The number of commercials drew mainstream attention from social media and many sports and news outlets. And if that wasn’t enough from a technical perspective, the early hours of the broadcast were also marred with sound issues that made it all far too disjointed.

YouTube TV Carriage Dispute Scrolls

If being hit over the head with commercials wasn’t bad enough, those watching the Ryder Cup on YouTube TV got a double dose of pain. USA Network issued several warnings throughout the day, alerting customers that they were about to lose service.

“ATTENTION YOUTUBE TV CUSTOMERS: YouTube TV is at it again and may drop this channel and your favorite sports shows. Go to GetYourChannels.com to learn more.”

That page takes you to an NBC propaganda website that gives their side of the story in their ongoing carriage dispute with YouTube TV.

Let’s get real: the only side that ever truly loses in carriage disputes is the consumer. Either costs will rise once again, or channels will be dropped, and either way, it’s the customers who will bear the brunt of it all. The last thing that golf fans needed in the midst of a non-stop flood of ads was also to get hit over the head with billion-dollar corporations fighting over which one of them is going to get more dollars out of your pocket.

Stick to Sports?

Speaking of getting hit over the head with things… remember when “stick to sports” was a thing? Well, those days seem to have well and truly passed us by with the number of times that President Donald Trump enjoys appearing at sporting events.

Trump loves nothing more than golf, whether it’s playing, watching, or trying (and not yet succeeding) to bring the PGA Tour and LIV Golf back together and be the game’s great healer.

With the pomp, circumstance, and patriotism of the Ryder Cup, an appearance by Trump was always going to be a certainty. The golf world is firmly at the center of his universe. While the afternoon matches were going off the first tee, Trump was shown and referenced multiple times. And we even got some of the Team USA golfers (and even captain Keegan Bradley) paying tribute to him by doing their own “Trump Dance,” which is somehow a thing.

Trump is the most highly polarizing political and cultural figure of our lifetimes. NBC knew that showing him for that length of time was going to turn a decent chunk of golf fans away from the coverage. It was a markedly different direction than ESPN took when Trump attended the US Open last month, choosing to acknowledge his presence but keep the focus on the match.

Of course, they had a duty to show him; he’s the President of the United States, cheering on Team USA. But given we’re less than 24 hours from a politically charged indictment of the former director of the FBI and less than a week out from his politically charged targeting of Jimmy Kimmel… it was indeed a choice to dedicate so much of the broadcast to him. And a reminder that “stick to sports” really only applies when it’s the opposite side of the political aisle.

Partisan Announcers

Speaking of partisans… NBC is never afraid to experiment, especially with its golf coverage. The network went a full year before naming a lead analyst to replace Paul Azinger. This year, they’ve opted for dueling broadcast booths, one for odd numbered holes and one for even.

However, at the Ryder Cup, NBC tried another brand new coverage plan with one play-by-play announcer, one American analyst, and one European analyst. And clearly, the analysts were instructed to turn the homerism up to 11.

In the morning session, Notah Begay and Nick Faldo continually kept talking over each other with their sparring, so much so that it became distracting to the golf shots that viewers could actually see. In the afternoon session, Paul McGinley and Brad Faxon toned it down a bit, but there were times when the broadcast seemed to be trying to force conflict and tension in the booth.

Why?

Let the golfers and the fans tell the story of the passion of the Ryder Cup. We don’t need announcers trying to manufacture something that is forced, inauthentic, and jingoistic. We’ve heard all of these analysts on television for years, and for this tournament, it’s like they are now different people. Why would NBC ask these analysts to be something this week that they aren’t every other week of the year? Faxon and McGinley are great at what they do. Just let them do that! Don’t make them attempt a poor man’s impersonation of Hawk Harrelson calling a golf tournament.

NBC has some excellent pieces involved in its golf coverage. However, much like the NBA Finals on ABC, the way it’s structured gets it all wrong. From the commercial loads to the editorial decisions, the network fell far short of what golf fans were hoping for and deserved for one of the most significant events of the year.

About Matt Yoder

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