Golf Channel Has One Job, Fails Miserably: Botches CJ Cup Playoff Coverage
- Updated: October 22, 2017
Golfweek — Thomas and Leishman were in a sudden-death playoff after finishing all square at 9 under at Nine Bridges in Jeju Island, Korea. They went back to No. 18 and each made par on the first playoff hole, and that was all live television viewers saw. Problem being, Golf Channel’s coverage reverted back to the replay and began showing the end of the final round in regulation while the playoff was occurring.
Golf Channel’s broadcast began showing delayed coverage of the second sudden-death playoff hole at 2:55 a.m. EDT, airing Leishman putting his approach shot in the water and Thomas taking advantage with a stellar second shot into the green about 15 minutes after the fact. They apologized for the technical difficulties.
Where did the golf go ??
— Smylie Kaufman (@SmylieKaufman10) October 22, 2017
You had one job, Golf Channel. The hottest player on the planet was battling in a SUDDEN DEATH playoff for the first ever CJ Cup title, a brand new, real-life PGA Tour event, and you have “technical difficulties?”
We already know tape-delayed coverage in 2017 is trash, but what happened in the wee hours of Sunday morning was inexplicable.
Full disclosure: I was fast asleep before the conclusion of play, so when I read about what happened, I just shook my head (including the fact that JT won again.)
Apparently, Golf Channel lost their satellite signal prompting this official statement:
“The satellite path of the television feed provided by tournament organizers stopped feeding at 2:30 a.m. ET. Golf Channel personnel immediately alerted the tournament production group to the problem. We apologize to our loyal viewers who stayed up late to watch coverage live.”
Thanks for the info, but it still doesn’t make it right. Don’t care if you’re in South Korea or Pebble Beach. You figure it out.
Golf coverage already takes a lot of heat for showing shots “a moment ago” or breaking for commercials every 30 seconds. This kind of screw up only adds fuel to the fire.
Not only do these official wraparound season events not count toward Ryder Cup points (Pat Perez has a win and finished T-5 here and gets nothing for the effort), we can’t even watch the best players in the world live down the stretch.
Would the Masters ever let this happen? Exactly.
