The standard of the TV coverage of the Australian PGA Championship was dire in 2023. Please rein in Warren Smith as the voice of golf. If I hear one more inane reference to the ‘party hole’ I will throw up. Yes, there is a bar like atmosphere around a short par 3 and they play really loud music – so bloody what!!! Do we the viewers at home need to be constantly reminded of the bleeding obvious by this ‘so very fake’ presenter. The whole thing detracts from the tournament coverage. It may be a fun concept for on-course attendees but it aint for those wanting to watch the golf on TV. Appalling Aussie PGA coverage never did justice to the event, in my opinion.

Min Woo Lee Shines At Australian PGA

Great to see Min Woo Lee star at RQ and win his first big Aussie tournament. Min Woo was too good for Scotty and Curtis Luck over the 4 days. It looked like a fine championship, but we the viewers at home didn’t get to see much of it because of the limited hole coverage provided by the telecasters. The obsession with the party hole, perhaps, provided cover for limited investment by the telecasters. Too few cameras covered the event, in my view. It was golf lite in comparison to most major events on the golfing calendar.

Shove The Party Hole Where The Sun Don’t Shine

There are, also, some great presenters like Alison Whitaker and Ewan Porter involved in this telecast. These two are a cut above the rest in their commentary at golf tournaments. In contrast to their intelligent input we get the moronic obsession with the party hole. This reinforces the age old Australian cultural association with having to booze it up to have a good time. Golf is not actually about partying. The promoter may feel that they require it to sell tickets to the event but the balance was way out in terms of TV coverage. As a viewer I don’t want to listen to Warren Smith blather on about how wonderful the party hole is when I tuned in to watch the bloody golf tournament. Give it a rest hey. Poor Cam Smith went home early before the weekend and maybe wasn’t a fan of the party hole.

Let us hope that next week’s Australian Open at The Australian and The Lakes sports better TV coverage for the stay at home golf fan.

UPDATE

Why Have Aussie Golf Fans Become Second Class Citizens?

I was playing golf yesterday at my club and lo and behold my four ball partners independently expressed their contempt for the Channel Nine coverage of golf this summer and in particular Warren Smith. Gerry was scathing about how loud, dumb, and inauthentic Smith was and what a disservice he is doing for the game of golf. The two tournaments televised this summer, the Aussie Open and PGA, were golf lite in terms of productions. Very few cameras, angles, and limited coverage of the events. This combined with boofy bloke, rugby league style commentary was an insult to Australian golf fans. Why has Australian golf sunk so low in standards when we used to lead the world back in the 1980’s and 1990’s ?

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