Open coverage, good or bad?

[Basher]

It's all over for another year.

What is everyone's opinion of the BBC coverage of this years Open?

For me there were plenty cameras there to capture the action. I did think that many of the tee shots appeared to get lost. It was as if the camera man couldn't keep his eye on the balls flight.

I thought some of the super slo-mo shots were fantastic.

On the whole, an enjoyable experience. I've been sat on my backside all weekend watching it!

 

[boggybop]

Yeah I agree on the whole it was good.

There wasn't too much Lineker which made a nice change, and the post-round interviews were pretty good. However in my opinion the coverage could be improved with more 'Ken on the Course' and something like a shot tracker to see the flight paths.

 

[Basher]

Good to see the BBC showing us behind the scenes. They took us through the recording cabin where the scorecards are handed in. They then showed the interview area in the locker room......which was actually a studio set with fake locker doors! Looked good to me though.

 

[medwayjon]

Generally very, very good. The yanks should take note, love not having commercial breaks too.

Was pleased that it wasnt too heavy on the Lineker.

Only criticism is Peter Allis.

 

[medwayjon]

BTW that wasnt an allis criticism, merely a criticism that Allis wasnt given enough airtime.

 

[mono217]

I think the coverage was brilliant especially the slow mo.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I agree I thought the ball in flight coverage wasn't very good although how much impact the wind had on that I don't know. Other than that I thought the pictures were up to the normal high standard although the commentary as discussed elsewhere was "patchy".

It was good to see Hazel Irvine back and given a fuller role than recent years and there were some interesting snippets that we don't usually see. I think as a one off production it was fine but I couldn't stand watching that sort of coverage for other tour events and do think Sky do a better and more professional job

 

[viscount17]

Not having seen Sky coverage I can't comment on that but the coverage was infinitely better than the usual fare dished up by CBS.

There are three areas of the US coverage I would like to see imported. These are, the aerial photography (but getting sufficiently benign weather conditions to do so would be the exception rather than the rule), the shot tracker and the putting line.

Probably as a result of more intelligent interviewing, I thought the players generally provided a more open and interesting response.

Definitely more of Ken on the course and marrying up some of the excellent slo-mo with quality analysis would be a decided winner.

 

[CliveW]

Extremely disappointed that there was no HD coverage. Apart from that 9/10! (Only Luggy Linekar spoilt it for me.)

 

[Golfmmad]

I think overall the BBC coverage was very good and always a bonus without all the ad breaks. One thing that was a bit disappointing was when Ken Brown described in great detail about driving tactics on a hole that JB Holmes was about to play, and then they cut to something else without any follow up to what Ken had just explained.
I do like the behind the scene stuff and would be interesting to see inside the clubhouse.

It bodes well for future championships, as I'm sure they're already working on what to create next.

Golfmmad.

 

[MizunoMan]

Slow mo was great, in general i think the camera work was not as good as it used to be, i seem to remember being able to see the ball flight in years gone by, also found it hard to pick out the ball landing on greens. Maybe just my eyes these days.
Too many comintators, it used to be just Alliss and Alex Hay, what a great partnership they were.

Ken Brown is very good out on the course showing the shots etc.

Not sure if they cut back on cameras but i dont think they covered all the holes as well as they could.

I would give them 7/10 but only because of the slow mo camera without that 5/10

 

[Ste_Denial]

i thought that this coverage was better than previous ones, however there are a few things that annoy me with the bbc coverage. firstly the slow mo camera is great but when they use it to show you someones practise swing or a bird flying that gets me. another is nature watching, the amount of time they showed us a clip of insects in the grass. now some people might enjoy this but why show us this when there is a lot of people on the course playing golf. my final point is linkear, i know there was less of him this year, but i just wish they would get some in who had some relation to golf.

rant over

 

[Spoff]

Extremely disappointed that there was no HD coverage.

I second that, very surprised.

The slo mo shots were superb, imagine them in HD!

 

[jammydodger]

Got to agree with the slow-mo coverage , very good and really interesting

You might as well have a cardboard cut-out of Linekar it would be just as interesting to watch. The bloke has no idea how to live things up , he rolls his head from side to side while his eyes are glued to the auto cue. Does my head in and I bet hes got a massive contract from the BBC...bleep off back to football coverage and all the thick footie players to interview with nonstop cliches

 

[Jim]

When there was no HD coverage from Inverness the previous week, I thought it would be because the BBC had all their HD cameras in place for the Open Championship and were going to make statement in outside golf broadcasting to the world, at the biggest golf tournament in the world, sadly I was wrong.

I think the BBC missed out massively in not showing the Open in HD (especially as I just got my Sky HD box installed), especially when Sky's golf coverage is mostly broadcast in HD. It just makes the BBC look like they are playing catch up, instead of leading from the front when it comes to outside broadcasting.

 

[Dodger]

Linekars closing line was something like 'well that us for another year'....he said it in such a voice you would think he was about to fall asleep and my bird who was reading the paper looked up and said to me 'have you just been watching a funeral cos that's how his closing line made it sound'!!

I know the play off was painful to watch but a funeral it wasn't but I agree with her he made it sound that way....wooden?? The trees on my 1st havn't got a look in!!

 

[Parmo]

I thought the interview with Seve was the best part of it, great to hear him say he will be playing St. Andrews next year, I shall be attending for that alone.

Overall it was ok, the slomo parts where good but are available on YouTube anyway. The near 2 hours of build up was poor, I would have prefered to watch the golf than numerous interviews, though they had the red button option it was really crap.

Slightly better than Sky and Yank TV but could do with some personality.

 

[CliveW]

When there was no HD coverage from Inverness the previous week,

What was on at Inverness last week?

 

[Dodger]

The loch ness open!

 

[theeaglehunter]

I thought the golf coverage, what I saw of it, was excellent. However I was disappointed to be honest with the amount of time spent on 'features' from years gone by. Whilst it may have something to do with me being new to golf and not aware of these previous great championships, I just find them pretty pointless. I am more than happy to hear of these famous encounters such as the 'Duel in the sun' whilst reading GM, however when tuning in for the start of the open 2009 final round coverage on BBC 2 yesterday I would rather see some play from the early out groups than watch 25 year old coverage intwined with the occasional highlight. For me sky offer a far better package of seeing a variety of players, and continuous live golf as opposed to hour upon hour of chat from the likes of Sam Torrance. Even the interview with Seve, as great as it was to see/ hear I was thinking throughout that I would rather see some golf action and then watch this as a feature once the tournament play had finished.

Maybe it was just me- I don't no. I just thought for the 8 hours coverage provided we were short changed with the amount of golf we actually saw until the final groups.