The US PGA
Justin Thomas became the second 24 year old in succession to win a Major. He was not considered by the analysts and I do not necessarily criticise them as in the post-Tiger Woods era no golfer has really asserted himself as a serial winner. Much was expected of 28 year olds Jason Day, Ricky Fowler and Rory McIlroy but none has won recently and Fowler not at all. I thought Ricky Fowler would win his first Major, he had an Arnie Palmer late surge of birdies in the back nine but it was Thomas who took the trophy. I was confident that my tickle on Paul Casey as top GB player would win but Jordan Smith with a -3 final round edged him out.
Yesterday Tom Hollingsworth criticised the BBC coverage of the World Athletic Championships taking the words out of my mouth as I found it wholly justified. It was not much better in the golf. The problem with golf coverage is that you take the host broadcasting feed which means numerous advertising breaks. You can tell these as they flash up the leaderboard and then play some music. You need interesting analysts in the studio at this point like the genial Butch Harman but the BBC just continued its commentary. I don’t care for the Northern Island accent which made me suffer with Maureen Madill whom appeared to be lead commentator and Colin Murray, who heads up the Championship show with his inane and irritating grin that reminds me of that media celebrity famed most for his failure Simon Dee. At least we had Peter Alliss who had the guts to say that it’s all rather dull as no one will take the course by the scruff of its neck. SKY, who covers and promotes the beleaguered Women Tour, the European and Seniors tour with a dedicated golf channel should get all the Majors. Aside from this, showing it on a red channel which I had difficulty in operating, is to lessen the coverage. A Thomas’ putt resulted in his ball overhanging the hole, he shrugged , walked away and the ball with clearly a mind of its own plopped into the hole. The incident called for an Aliiss style jest or at least expianation of the rules on length of waiting , neither was forthcoming.
