Lots of people think that golf is the most boring televised sport there is, but I think it’s because they don’t really understand everything that goes into it. I’d say it’s sedate, but not boring. In today’s final round of the US Open, which is already exciting just because it’s the toughest tournament in professional golf, there was a really interesting moment involving Tiger Woods.
He’s down by one stroke with two holes left and the leader has already finished. If he makes a birdie on either of the last two holes, he ties things up and forces a playoff to be played tomorrow. The 17th hole is a short par four, well within his range. The 18th hole is the toughest on the course. So he can either lay up and try to hit it close with his second shot, forcing himself to use only one put to birdie, or he can shoot for the pin and if successful, can birdie with a two putt. Complicating his decision is that Jim Furyk, who had been tied for the lead, shot for the pin, missed the green and wound up taking a bogie to fall one shot back.
Tiger did shoot for the pin, wound up in the bunker, and made a pretty tough putt to save par. He wound up making par on the 18th hole as well, and Angel Cabrera became the first Argentine to win the US Open. Don’t let anyone tell you golf isn’t exciting.
June 18, 2007 at 12:23 am
Golf on TV? I can get the same experience from reading your words or listening to it on the wireless. The drama comes the description of the events, not necessarily seeing them. A great football match, a game-ending home-run, those are events where the visuals matter, but golf is more mental game, not unlike chess: can’t imagine watching that either.
June 18, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Paul, Football and Baseball on TV? I can get the same experience watching the first five minutes of Sportscenter.
An NFL football game is supposed to be 60 minutes long, takes what, 3 hours to play, and has maybe 15 minutes of action.
Similarly, watching baseball on TV is padded with tons of dead time. And most of the actual play is totally repetitive.
There aren’t many sports that are really entertaining on TV.