ESPN to Broadcast All Wimbledon Matches

Wimbledon is here, the one grass court championship in the Grand Slam pantheon. One of the most watched, if not the top tennis tournament of the circuit is about to begin, with qualifying for unseeded players occurring last week. The tournament will run from June 25 to July 8 this year.

There will be much to watch for during the two week tournament. Will Roger Federer win a record tying 7th Men’s Singles title? Will the Williams sisters return to form and dominate? Will the torrential rainstorms that flooded much of northern England move south rather than east?

The event is held at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and the seedings are in, with a few surprises. On the Men’s side Novak Djokovic has the top spot followed by Rafel Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray. Between the top two they have won the last none major tournaments and Federer has been strong at Wimbledon, although has slipped in the last few years. Between the three of them they have owned the top tournaments over the last seven years. I think it would be nice to see a great upset and a new rising star in the sport, but not sure of that will happen.

On the women’s side Maria Sharapova, fresh off her French Open victory, has top honors, followed by Victoria Azarenka, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Petra Kvitova is fourth. Serena Williams, a four time winner on grass, is the sixth seed while her sister Venus, still dealing with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue and joint pain was unseeded.

Broadcast

If you are looking for the match on the television tune into ESPN, which will be broadcasting 140 hours of play across a number of its properties including nine screens on ESPN3 so that you can view any match you wish and all of the action will also be on WatchESPN and via a mobile app as well.

The two main channels, ESPN and ESPN2 will have three days where they are both showing matches simultaneously so that a viewer can hop back and forth to view the ones that they are most interested in.

The network will be showing four historic Men’s finals on ESPN Classic, each shown on the anniversary of the match. In addition users of ESPN on Demand can watch highlights as well as historic matches.

Last year ESPN signed a 12 year deal to broadcast Wimbledon and the network will be expanding its US Open announcer John McEnroe to host a preview show called Breakfast at Wimbledon. With all of the coverage the network has a large staff covering the event including Darren Cahill, Cliff Drysdale, Mary Joe Fernandez, Brad Gilbert, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver. Chris Fowler will call matches and serve as studio host, sharing that role with Hannah Storm and Mike Tirico.

Mon, June 25 6:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN2 / ESPN3
Tue, June 26 – Thur, June 28 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN2 /ESPN3
Fri, June 29 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN / ESPN3
Sat, June 30 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Early Round Action ESPN / ESPN3
Mon, July 2 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. Round of 16 ESPN2 / ESPN3 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Round of 16, Centre Court ESPN / ESPN3
Tue, July 3 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Ladies’ Quarterfinals ESPN2 / ESPN3 Live 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Ladies’ Quarterfinals, Centre Court ESPN / ESPN3
Wed, July 4 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Gentlemen’s Quarterfinals ESPN2 / ESPN3 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. Gentlemen’s Quarterfinals, Centre Court ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Thur, July 5 8 a.m. – 1 p.m. Ladies’ Semifinals ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Fri, July 6 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Gentlemen’s Semifinals ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Sat, July 7 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Ladies’ Final ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3
Sun, July 8 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Gentlemen’s Final ESPN / ESPN3D / ESPN3

If you want to follow the matches via Twitter, or an individual player or announcer a good place to check out would be TennisTweets which has an exhaustive list of players that you can follow as well as a running board with the latest from a variety of sources.

The official Wimbledon web site is a very clean and easy to use web site. Want to watch video or listen to the games live on the radio-it is there. Get an app for your smartphone or view the history of the event. All there. Interviews, weather forecasts, as well as what you would expect with all of the draws, schedules and results.

If you happen to be wondering about grass courts, according to Wikipedia they tend to be slippery, with the ball, while remaining fast, staying low. The majority of the grass courts worldwide are located in England and they need to be reseeded annually, and so have a higher cost of maintenance.

This year you may very well see a great deal more play on grass than in previous years because the Summer Olympics, held in under two months in London, will see its tennis matches played at the All-England Club as well.

Watching Golf this Week: Travelers Championship

If you are burnt out on golf right now, we understand. A week at Olympic, as either fan or player, will take it out of you.

But this is the PGA Tour! There is no rest! Play continues on this week with the Travelers Championship in Connecticut. The good news is, the PGA Tour’s Live@ online video coverage is back, so you can enjoy tournament play from the comfort of your computer or mobile device. And you will get your first chance to watch Webb Simpson, U.S. Open champion, compete with that big silver trophy in his bag.

Well, maybe he won’t be carrying it around. At the very least he should be bird-man free, though birdies will probably be more prevalent this week at the TPC River Highlands than at last week’s bogey-fest. No Tiger or Phil in the field, but Masters champ Bubba Watson will apparently take a break from life as a dad to grace the course (hopefully for more than two days) as part of a pretty good field, you can see the list of names here. On to Connecticut!

Here’s where to follow the action:

TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, June 21 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, June 22 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 23 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, June 24 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday-Sunday

ONLINE
Since the Live@ camera crew wasn’t at the U.S. Open they had plenty of time to set up in Connecticut… so, check out the expanded Live@ schedule:
Thursday, June 21 — 8 a.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, June 22 — 8 a.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, June 23 — 11 a.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, June 24 — 11 a.m. — 6 p.m.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
If all you want is shots and distances (which can be addicting) get your fix via Shot Tracker, which also returns for the Travelers.

FACEBOOK PAGE
The Travelers has Boomer Berman today on its Facebook page. That’s what you get for having a pro-am near the kingdom of Bristol. Or at least close enough to drive there.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
TravelersChamp is the official Twitter feed from the tourney.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. Not sure if he is at the Travelers but follow him anyway.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. She will be on course at the Travelers.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the official page of the TPC River Highlands. If anyone else knows any history, send it our way.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
The painter hat guy, aka Frederick Jacobsen. Bubba won in 2010, so that’s why he’s here this week instead of changing diapers.

LOCAL FLAVOR
The tourney history is a good quick read — for the thing that was formerly known as the Greater Hartford Open. For local coverage the Hartford Courant has a good looking site including a video guide to the course. Watch out for those fold-over ads for the local casinos, though.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Jason Dufner, 1,849 points
2. Hunter Mahan, 1,509 points
3. Tiger Woods, 1,452
4. Zach Johnson, 1,414
5. Bubba Watson, 1,372

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Tiger Woods; 5. Webb Simpson.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

U.S. Open Sets Records for Online, App Viewing

We don’t have any definitive viewer numbers, but according to a press release from the USGA, the recent U.S. Open golf tournament in San Francisco attracted a record number of online viewers, especially for live online video and via mobile devices. This is hardly a surprise, since online golf viewership overall has been spiking this year, with no end in sight to the growth curve.

According to the USGA, which pioneered online coverage of golf, overall viewer visits to the U.S. Open website during the week increased 79 percent from the year-before totals, while views of live streaming video increased 210 percent from 2011. Though the USGA hasn’t provided exact numbers on page views and streaming video looks, it’s a good guess that the latter number is somewhere in the one- to two-million range, since approximately a half-million to a million folks will watch online video of a regular PGA event, according to PGA Tour reps. The U.S. Open’s website features were powered technically by IBM, which also helps produce the wonderful online experience for The Masters golf tourney.

The availability of an Android version of the USGA’s U.S. Open app helped spike visits to the mobile version of the Open website — according to the USGA, mobile website views increased 375 percent in 2012, with iPhone app downloads jumping up 44 percent from the previous year. In addition to live video the U.S. Open websites also included a live leaderboard, a photo stream and a unique feature that let you look at an interactive map of the course and see which players were on which hole. The USGA was also extremely active on Twitter, with the official U.S. Open Twitter feed providing constant scoring updates and links to feature coverage.

Even though the U.S. Open live online video wasn’t very comprehensive — on Thursday and Friday the coverage followed one “marquee” group throughout its round, and on the weekend the coverage consisted of only play at two holes — it was extremely well produced, with commentators that were critically judged by many observers to be better than some of the broadcast TV talent. It’s probably a safe guess to say that next year the USGA will continue to expand live online coverage of the U.S. Open, in sync with the expanded live online views coming next season from the PGA Tour for regular events. That’s good news for golf fans, who will apparently be rewarded for finding more ways to watch.

Forgive Me, USGA: I Used my Cell Phone on the Golf Course

Forgive me, USGA, for I have sinned. If I could, I would call a penalty on myself for violating one of your rules — though I’m not sure how many strokes it would cost me for using a cell phone on the course during U.S. Open competition.

The truth is, I’m not really repentant. The crime was worth it, and I’d do it again. It’s just too compelling to use a mobile device to get information you can’t get otherwise, and to enrich the experience of watching something live. For many reasons, live golf is a perfect atmosphere for second-screen access and instant communication. There’s lots of downtime in between the action, perfect for catching up on what’s happening on the rest of the course, or for sharing our experience with absent friends. Or for keeping up with work while we’re sneaking away to watch golf.

So it’s you, not me, USGA, who needs to change. Soon. So that all the fans who love golf enough to show up in person can share my secret pleasures from Friday, which included being able to watch play on the 14th hole, live, while sitting alone in the sun on the side of the 17th fairway.

Let it be noted that I committed this crime using the USGA’s own very fine U.S. Open app. And its wonderful live video feature. How can I comply with your rules when your very own programmers have built such a beautiful HD-quality viewing mechanism? It was just too good to resist.

To be clear, as a media member I was authorized to have a cellular device on the grounds — under the stipulation that I use it only in the media tent. Why did I not comply? Basically, because, USGA, you have an information-gap problem. In other sports like baseball, teams are putting in advanced digital access because they are worried about competing with the couch — they don’t want fans to stay home because the experience there will be better than the ballpark.

At the U.S. Open you may not have that problem, since golf’s best test will almost certainly always be a sellout, like it was this week in San Francisco. And I get it that you want to go old-school and not have electronic scoreboards everywhere you look. But the quaint stuff only goes so far. The simple biggest problem I saw out on the course Friday was that many fans — your patrons — had no friggin idea who was in the lead, who was in the hunt, or where particular players were on the course. And that took away from the experience.

Couch potatoes at home or distracted folks at work had much better info at their finger tips or laptop screens — while watching online at home in the morning I was loving the Playtracker scoring feature on the U.S. Open website, which showed in a graphic view of the course who was playing which hole, and what their up-to-date stats were. And the USGA’s Open Twitter feed is fabulous, providing up-to-the-second info and compelling links. At Olympic we were stuck looking at small scoreboards that were hard to see in the setting sun.

At one point, standing alongside the 17th fairway we all had no idea whether Tiger birdied or bogeyed No. 7, and when the scoreboard changed his stats you couldn’t tell if the “1” was red or green because of the way the sunlight was hitting the board. Luckily someone wearing one of those earpiece radios came by and set us all straight. But the future of live golf shouldn’t be a bunch of zombies all listening silently. Give us some easy to understand rules, and let our cell phones be free so that we can view and share information to enrich our on-site experience.

I get it that overzealous picture-taking fans, like those who ticked off Phil at the Memorial, are to be avoided. But why not try some clear, simple rules with clear penalties? Say, anyone who doesn’t turn their ringer sound down and takes an audible picture gets escorted off the grounds — just like belligerent drunks. You don’t let the few over-imbibers keep the rest of us from enjoying a cold beer; don’t let bad cell users keep the rest of us from being able to stay connected to stats and views during the inevitable downtimes between groups.

Nobody cared that I was transgressing Friday, probably because I was discreet and know the simple trick of turning my volume to vibrate. I have faith that most other golf fans will similarly comply — hell, several people in the group I was around on 17 even turned around to stop a USGA cart that was loudly headed up the path while Tiger was trying to make birdie. Real golf fans get it, that players want quiet to do their thing. So why not try tricks like a ban on cell-phone pictures around tees and greens? And set up some “Tweet tents” or Wi-Fi zones far away from sensitive action areas? Not only will that keep sad, unconnected fans happy, but I smell a Starbucks sponsorship. Make this something where everyone wins.

If you need some help, I am happy to volunteer to be part of a research committee to determine what fans want to do, and how the experience can work for everyone. It was heartening to talk to USGA officials this week and hear that they understand that people want to use their digital devices while at competitions. Let’s hope this happens sooner rather than later, so my days of crime can come to an end.

Watching Golf this Week: Many Ways to Watch the U.S. Open

Why is this post a little late in delivery? Because I’ve been spending the morning watching the U.S. Open live, on a window that’s open just to the left of the one I’m typing on. I could go over to the couch and watch ESPN’s live coverage, which starts at 9 a.m. Pacific time today and Friday. But I like the online focus, which today is following the Tiger-Phil-Bubba group from start to finish.

Unlike the Masters online coverage — where you had choices of different groups or different holes — the US Open online video is one group at one time. But there are so many ways to get U.S. Open coverage, from the ESPN overload on Thursday and Friday — which is sandwiched around a couple hours of NBC coverage Thursday and Friday — that you won’t go lacking.

Since this is the first U.S. Open we’ve been able to cover live, it’s been an incredible learning experience to see a course like Olympic up close and personal. Check out our previous links for info that will help you with your viewing. We’re also big fans of the U.S. Open site itself, since it has a plethora of info (live scoring, archived video interviews, and a new feature called “Playtracker” which shows a live view of the groups on the course, with stats for each player in each group. (This would be cooler if it had a live view of where the players were on each hole, like a visual Shot Tracker. Maybe next year?)

So far, we haven’t seen many glitches with the live online video — like the Masters coverage there are intermittent stops and stalls but we’ve found that when that happens, it’s easy to just close the old window and re-open a new one. Since I had to stay home this morning for work and family reasons I wasn’t able to use my press pass to watch the golf up close and personal — but I bet I have a better seat than most press folks there, because the blanket coverage of the marquee group has been phenomenal, and I can sip coffee and sit in my comfy office chair while watching. Enjoy the great weekend of San Francisco golf!

Here’s where to follow the action:

2012 U.S. OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)

OFFICIAL U.S. OPEN COVERAGE SCHEDULE

TV COVERAGE
Thursday, June 14 — ESPN, 12 p.m. — 3 p.m.; 5 p.m. — 7 p.m. NBC, 3 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Friday, June 15 — ESPN, 12 p.m. — 3 p.m.; 5 p.m. — 7 p.m. NBC, 3 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Saturday, June 16 — NBC, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, June 17 — NBC, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
Radio this week is via the U.S. Open app, or the U.S. Open website.
1 p.m. — 7 p.m., Thursday-Sunday

ONLINE
See above. Live online at USOpen.com, Thursday and Friday, following a “marquee group” in the morning and afternoon. Morning tee times around 7:30 a.m., afternoon tee times around 1

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No shot tracker this week — hard to believe, but true.

FACEBOOK PAGE
The USGA is doing a great job with its Facebook page. Like.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
US Open — The official Twitter feed for the championship is active and great, with lots of links, live info. Add it to your feed now.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer — go back in his timeline this week for some great videos showing the holes on the Olympic course. Maybe the top golf Twitterer out there, especially when it comes to analysis/insight.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. Works hard and long every day, and also has great insider views, via Instagrams.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
If you haven’t had your fill of Olympic info, you’ve been on another planet. So far the overall view we like best was the Sunday special in the San Francisco Chronicle, where beat writer Ron Kroichick interviewed Ken Venturi for a hole-by-hole breakdown of the course. The official Open website also has an extensive hole by hole page with flyby views, etc. etc.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Rory McIlroy, the boy wonder.

LOCAL FLAVOR
The columnists and writers at the San Franciso Chronicle do golf right.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Jason Dufner, 1,735 points
2. Hunter Mahan, 1,477 points
3. Tiger Woods, 1,404
4. Zach Johnson, 1,386
5. Bubba Watson, 1,372

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Luke Donald; 2. Rory McIlroy; 3. Lee Westwood; 4. Tiger Woods; 5. Bubba Watson.
See the official World Golf Ranking list.

PGA: All Tour TV Coverage Will be Simulcast Online and Via Mobile Apps in 2013

All the live coverage of PGA Tour events next season will be shown simultaneously on the tour’s digital platforms, including via its mobile apps and at the PGATour.com website, a tour executive said Wednesday.

In a phone interview with Luis Goicouria, the vice president of operations and business development for PGA Tour Digital, Goicouria said that for the 2013 season, all live tour TV coverage will be simulcast online, giving mobile and web-connected fans the same experience as those sitting in front of a TV. The expansion of live video content, Goicoura said, is a direct response to fans’ desire for more mobile content, especially live video of tournament play.

“Our [online + mobile] video content consumption is going through the roof,” said Goicouria, who said that tour-hosted video starts are up 81 percent so far this year over last, and YouTube views of archived videos has increased 94 percent in the same time frame. Currently, the Tour offers its “Live@” program for 10 selected tournaments during the season, typically the bigger ones like the recent Memorial tourney. The Live@ production is separate from and typically less comprehensive than any network coverage, though of similar production quality. According to Goicouria, the Live@ broadcasts typically attract between a half-million and a million video streams per event.

The Live@ coverage typically focuses on one or two “scoring” holes or signature holes, like the island green at the Players Championship. Though it doesn’t offer the breadth of coverage a typical network broadcast from partners Golf Channel, CBS, NBC or ESPN does, the Live@ shows aren’t chopped liver either.

“It’s not like we just slap a couple webcams on a green,” Goicouria said. “It’s a full-blown studio production.”

But Goicouria said the costs associated with such production keep the tour from rolling out Live@ at every stop. Unfortunately that leaves online-only or mobile-centric fans behind their counterparts on the couch when it comes to live video. Next season that ends, with the digital platforms (the website, as well as the iOS and Android apps) offering simulcasts of the live TV coverage, as well as Live@’s additional focus at the selected events.

Goicouria also said that the tour is working to make its addictive Shot Tracker feature (screen grab below) available for mobile devices, but didn’t yet promise a delivery date. Shot Tracker, which gives real-time updates on a tournament field by showing how far a player has hit a shot and how far he has left to the hole, can be mesmerizing, with players’ statuses constantly updating. The main reason it hasn’t been available for mobile platforms, Goicouria said, was due to the fact that the application was built with Adobe Flash, which isn’t supported on Apple devices like the iPhone or iPad.

“If there was one thing I wish we had for mobile that we don’t, it’s Shot Tracker,” said Goicouria, who pledged a “complete revamp” of the feature for next season.