The Loop

British Open Telecast

Golf World reader Ron Field of Morton, Washington, who keeps us correct on all things Down Under, reacted with alacrity to today's Open Championship coverage.

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Once again the ABC-TV coverage of The Open Championship, on Saturday, with only 86 players playing, not enough golfers were shown.>

However, the big 'blooper' of the telecast was made by a cameraman and Paul Azinger.>

Greg Norman was on the 18th fairway and a shot was shown of a flag flying from the clubhouse and Azinger says, 'there's the Australian flag'. It was the NEW ZEALAND flag.>

Both should have known better as the Australian flag is shown besides the golfer's name and also the flags are shown in alpha order. Not sure what the first one is, but then it goes Australia, Austria, Canada etc.>

Don't expect to see too many golfers again on Sunday. But we do see more than when Woods is out there.>

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I agree with you, Ron. Flags flying in a 40-mile-an-hour wind ought to be pretty easy to identify. But Ron: Greg Norman, 53, is leading the Open Championship and you want to talk about flags?!! I thought you'd be singing Waltzing Matilda or something.

You have an ally, however, in Golf Digest reader Bill Ford of Ocala, who also hates the fact that more players are not shown.

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We need Tiger! So far, after three rounds of the British Open we've heard almost entirely about Greg Norman. It's a bit much. To add to the sideshow, neither Mike Terico and Ian Baker-Finch can replace Nick Faldo.>

To add insult to injury we are still getting coverage of only those golfers at the top of the leader board again. There is some relief because of the time difference between here and England, so we do get to see more of the total golfing field. It's getting to the point that there is no point in watching golf on the networks because of all the commercials and endless flashbacks of golfers at different holes during earlier tournaments. Who cares about past tournaments as you can't change the results. I've even gone so far as to time a 15 minute segment to see how much of a tournament we actually get to see and in that segment we saw 2 3/4 minutes of the actual tournament and this was only of the leaders.>

Apparently those people who cover the golf tournaments feel they are more important than the players themselves. They should apply the philosophy of a quiet mouth as you do on the golf course. I don't see where we need 8 or 10 people covering a tournament when they are generally talking to each other and not actually reporting but when they are talking they're editorializing rather than reporting.>

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I don't know, gents, I think this has been a great Open Championship. I wish there were a few less commercials and a couple less promos built with clips of action we've already seen. But Greg, the struggling golf and the conditions have made it really exciting to watch. Can't wait until tomorrow....

--Bob Carney

(Image of New Zealand flag: giftsnz.com)