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Watching Golf this Week: The McGladrey Classic

October 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment

If you’ve never heard of the McGladrey Classic, don’t feel bad. This third-year event in the PGA’s Fall Series falls way under the radar, but it might have more visibility this year since its host (and head charity driver) is none other than our most recent Ryder Cup Captain, Davis Love III aka DL3. Sea Island, Ga. sounds like a great place to spend a fall weekend, as long as it ain’t raining. But you know a tourney is hurting for publicity when its prime who’s-playing story is the hard luck tale of Jim Furyk’s 2012 season. I bet ol’ Jim wants to spend a lot of time rehashing his last-hole meltdowns this year, don’t you?

Anyway… if you need a golfing break from football and baseball playoffs, hit the Golf Channel between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time anytime this weekend. DL3 will be playing, so will John Daly and Justin Leonard… David Toms and Vijay Singh… you get the picture. Low wattage and lots of scenery.

MCGLADREY CLASSIC

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Oct. 18 — Golf Channel, 2 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 19 — Golf Channel, 2 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 20 — Golf Channel, 2 p.m. — 5 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 21 — Golf Channel, 2 p.m. — 5 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday-Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Some nice Georgia scenery on the McGladrey Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The McGladrey Classic Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on the Sea Island Golf Club.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Ben Crane.

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, PGA Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Watching Golf This Week: Frys.com Open, aka Golf, Silicon Valley Style

October 11, 2012 by 1 Comment

If you aren’t from the San Francisco/San Jose area you may not know who or what Fry’s Electronics is, or why there’s a PGA Tour stop sponsored by something that sounds like a McDonald’s snack. If you do live here, of course, you know all about Fry’s, as the chain of stores is legendary for having been the place where you could buy all the stuff you needed to build your own PC, right down to the individual microprocessors — as well as big bags of Fritos. Chips and chips at Fry’s.

Now everyone hear hardly ever talks about Fry’s anymore, since the stores have kind of devolved into a sort of catch-all low-end cross between a Best Buy (there are washers, dryers and ranges in the back of the Palo Alto store), a music and video store and a place where you can buy all kinds of electronics, cell phones, headsets, and geeky stuff too. Apple stores have long since replaced Fry’s as the places where cool kids hang out. But the Fry’s family still has the bucks to put its name on a PGA Tour stop, so — welcome, pro golfers and the Fall Season. We’re happy to have you. And next year the Frys.com open will be the official tour opener, so this isn’t just some fill-in date. It’s a tourney with Silicon Valley-style growth in mind.

Mobile Sports Report its own busy self will do its best to get down to the course this weekend — thanks to the tourney and the PGA we have a press pass waiting — but if you have cable of course you can watch coverage on the Golf Channel, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern Thursday through Sunday. This tourney has some notable names here too, including British Open champ Ernie Els (whose main sponsor SAP is big in Silicon Valley, so to Frys.com Ernie will go) and Nicolas “play what’s in your pants” Colsaerts, who is probably a lock pick for Masters pools next spring given his lights-out play in the opening round of the Ryder Cup. The Frys.com will also see U.S. Captain Davis “Blame Me” Love III playing, alongside vet Vijay Singh. And John Daly! Here’s a list of tee times.

FRYS.COM OPEN

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Oct. 11 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 12 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 13 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 14 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday-Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

FACEBOOK PAGE
C’mon, Facebook headquarters are just up 101 in Menlo Park! Of course the Frys.com Open has a Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The Frys.com Open Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on the CordeValle course, a classic Robert Trent Jones Jr. track through the oak-studded hills of southern Silicon Valley. (It’s actually south of San Jose.) The club is known mainly as a private refuge for many Silicon Valley uber-rich CEOs. What’s less known is that Santa Clara Valley (the real name of the area) has a bunch of fun wineries, nothing as world-class as Napa or Sonoma but many worth checking out if you are visiting. Two places we like are Thomas Kruse and Kirigin Cellars.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Bryce Molder.

Filed Under: Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, PGA, Ryder Cup Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Justin Timberlake Shriners Open

October 4, 2012 by 1 Comment

Well we were wrong — the Ryder Cup certainly was good enough TV to make football irrelevant, especially thanks to the epic U.S. team collapse during Sunday’s singles. I can’t remember staying glued to the tube as long as I did Sunday, watching the slow-motion train wreck as formerly talented players like Brandt Snedeker, Jim Furyk and Phil Mickelson all went off the rails in spectacular fashion. And now the golf season is over, right?

Wrong! There’s no delay, no time off — it’s time for the Fall Season, a string of events without a lot of front-page drama but a lot of meaning for players near the bottom of the top, the guys trying to keep their Tour card for next season. With Q School eliminated, the four tourneys in the Fall Season are the last chance for pros to secure one of the all-important top 125 spots, so maybe some of the drama of Q School will now fall to the Fall Series.

You will need cable to watch, however, since the major networks are giving the Fall Series a pass. This week’s Justin Timberlake Shriners Open in Las Vegas will be on the Golf Channel, and there won’t be any live online coverage though the excellent Shot Tracker feature is up and running this weekend so at least you can keep track of who’s doing what on the course.

THE JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE SHRINERS OPEN

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Oct. 4 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 5 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 6 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 7 — Golf Channel, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday-Sunday. The live broadcasts are also available to subscribers on the SiriusXM Internet Radio App and online at SiriusXM.com.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Here’s the Facebook page for the JT Shriners Open.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on the TPC Summerlin course in Rock Vegas.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST TIME?
Kevin Na.

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, PGA Tagged With: , , , ,

Ryder Cup Gets Big Online Push — Live Video and Social Media Too

September 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Following on their successful joint effort at the season’s last major, the PGA and Turner Sports will kick out the online jams for this week’s Ryder Cup matches, with a lot of free online live video and some social-media bells and whistles that include a U.S. vs. Europe Twitter contest.

According to a press release from Turner and the PGA, the Rydercup.com website will be the host of a wide array of event coverage that will supplement the TV coverage, which is also extensive — 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Eastern) on ESPN on Friday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on NBC Saturday, and noon to 6 p.m. on NBC Sunday. Online coverage will start Friday and Saturday at 8:30 a.m., and continue until play concludes. Sunday, online coverage of the singles matches starts at noon. The matches are taking place at Medinah Country Club just outside Chicago.

The live video online will probably be similar to the experience we saw at the PGA Championship, with live updates, video archives and scores. There was both good and bad, with a great feature that let you go back and replay anything that had happened previously, and a terrible feature called “predict it” that keeps annoying you in a popup window asking you to predict what’s about to happen. Though sports prediction games are increasingly appearing, I have yet to be convinced that predicting shots in golf online is what the experience is all about.

There is one big whiff, however, on the Ryder Cup mobile side — the accompanying mobile-device apps for all this online goodness only work on iPhones and iPads, leaving half of the mobile consumers who use Android platforms high and dry. Though Turner reps claim the mobile website will work just as well as the iPhone app, any mobile user knows that a dedicated app almost always delivers better performance.

On the social-media side, Rydercup.com will offer a “Tweet Battle” between Team U.S.A. and Team Europe, with a “Social Scoreboard” showing which team is winning, both online and at the course. The score will be tallied by counting the number of fans using the respective hashtags — #RyderCupUSA or #RyderCupEurope — in their social media posts. The event is also on Facebook and on Twitter, with something called “The 13th man” replacing the “Social Caddy” feature from the PGA, where you could follow a bunch of Twitter streams.

The PGA earned itself no small amount of social media self respect by not censoring messages from the PGA, especially when its parking situation at Kiawah Island resulted in a lot of angry fans and media for long delays getting out to the course. Right now it appears the site is taking a very USA-USA-USA stance, which is perhaps understandable, but probably not so appealing to European fans. Not sure if other golf fans agree but I for one would rather we see a return to the days when this competition was more collegiate and friendly, and less jingoistic. You can still compete hard without having to make it a sports equivalent of war. But I may be on the short side of that argument.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, ESPN, Golf, Golf Channel, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, NBC Sports, PGA, Turner Sports Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: TOUR Championship, aka the $10 Million Tourney

September 20, 2012 by 1 Comment

If you decided to watch golf instead of football two weekends ago, you may have caught the star-studded leaderboard (Tiger! Rory! Phil!) at the BMW Championship, which ended with POY top candidate Rory McIlroy winning his second straight tourney, and third of the last four. Going into this week’s TOUR Championship in Atlanta, Rory the lad is the favorite to walk away with the big playoff prize, $10 million to the FedEx Cup champ.

Please don’t ask us to explain the convoluted points system, which “reset” after the last event so that theoretically any of the 30 players in the field this weekend could win the final prize. That is supposed to introduce drama but I think it’s a waste. There are several theories floating around about how to change the “playoffs” to make them exciting or original — why not do playoffs like all other sports, make it head to head (aka match play), and the losers go home? Instead of 30 guys and weirdo mathematical combinations (like last year when Bill Haas didn’t even know he’d won the big enchilada after winning the weekend), why not a “final four” weekend where there are singles match play on Friday and then again on Sunday?

Really, no charge for my ideas. You’re welcome PGA. And FedEx. Though we are going to need to ramp up that online coverage while we’re at it. The last three tourneys of the playoffs have been great since the PGA’s Live@ coverage has been around, but it’s been severely limited — usually only showing a couple holes, still not up to the multiple cam/group choices offered by the Masters online. Ah well, there’s always next year. Just be sure to tune in to the last 15 minutes on Sunday, when the great tension of the playoffs comes to an end and one of the millionaire golfers gets to add another 10-spot to his career earnings. A construct, but $10 million makes you watch.

Bonus TV coverage this week on Golf Channel, starting at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday, and then at 12 p.m. Saturday and 11:30 a.m. Sunday before the NBC broadcasts; also on ESPN3 for those who follow at work; ESPN3 will mimic the Live@ coverage times, 1-6 p.m. each day.

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP / FEDEX CUP PLAYOFFS

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Sept. 20 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, Sept, 21 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 22 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 2 p.m.; NBC, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 23 — Golf Channel, 11:30 a.m. — 1:30 p.m. NBC, 1:30 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m. every day

ONLINE
Live@ video is back this week —
Live@ coverage — 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., every day

ESPN3 will offer live action from 1-6 p.m. each day with unique views of the Par 4 No. 1 hole and the Par 3 No. 11, plus the Par 3 No. 18 each day when play finishes on No. 1.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
If all you want is shots and distances (which can be addicting) get your fix via Shot Tracker, which will definitely be in action at the Barclays.

FACEBOOK PAGE
We don’t know why it’s an all-caps TOUR Championship but here is their FACEBOOK PAGE.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The TOUR Championship Twitter feed.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s the deets on East Lake GC in Atlanta.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Bill Haas, with his amazing chip from the waves. Then he had to be told that he won the overall playoffs too. So don’t feel bad, the players are as confused as you are. But they’re also a lot richer.

FEDEX CUP PLAYOFF LEADERS
1. Rory McIlroy, 7,299 points
2. Tiger Woods, 4,067
3. Nick Watney, 3,586
4. Phil Mickelson, 3.420
5. Brandt Snedeker, 3,357

RESET POINTS (used to calculate final FedEx payoff)
1. McIlroy, 2,500 points; 2. Woods, 2,250; 3. Watney, 2,000; 4. Mickelson, 1,800; 5. Snedeker, 1,600.

See the playoff full standings at the PGA site.

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

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, NBC Sports, PGA, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: BMW Championship, aka FedEx Cup Playoffs Round 3

September 6, 2012 by 1 Comment

If you need a break from football this weekend — which we sincerely doubt at this point — you can always check out golf’s version of the “playoffs,” which this week is another fairly meaningless tournament, the BMW Championship, the third round in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Being out of television range last weekend we missed the whole Rory/Tiger/LouisOoost showdown at the Deutsche Bank but really… we are saving our golf-interest for the Ryder Cup, and maybe for Sunday at the Tour Championship, if only because there will be $10 million on the line. To get there of course the pros need to negotiate Crooked Stick in Indiana this weekend, where we like Dustin Johnson to emerge victorious, possibly because he’ll be confident now that he knows he’s on the Ryder team.

Good news is you can tune in online Thursday and Friday, since Live@ is live during the playoffs. If you want to watch on the weekend, be warned that NBC will cover things early (12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET) followed by Golf Channel from 3:30 to 6, while the rest of us watch college football. Sunday there’s bonus early Golf Channel coverage from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., useful if you are experiencing a frustrating NFL blackout.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP / FEDEX CUP PLAYOFFS

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE

Thursday, Sept. 6 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, Sept, 7 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, Sept. 8 — NBC, 12 p.m. — 3:30 p.m.; Golf Channel, 3:30 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Sept. 9 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 2 p.m. NBC, 2 p.m. — 6 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
12 p.m. — 6 p.m. every day

ONLINE
Live@ video is back this week —
Live@ coverage — 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., every day

PGA SHOT TRACKER
If all you want is shots and distances (which can be addicting) get your fix via Shot Tracker, which will definitely be in action at the Barclays.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Like you perhaps some BMW Golfsport? Now is the time on sprockets when we dance!

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Crooked Stick is a Pete Dye course. His “first great” design. Some of us say, that hasn’t happened yet. Ah well.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Walter Hagen. Sorry, that was in 1916 at the Western Open, this event’s predecessor. Last year’s winner was really Justin Rose.

FEDEX CUP PLAYOFF LEADERS
1. Rory McIlroy, 4,799 points
2. Nick Watney, 3,468
3. Tiger Woods, 3,417
4. Brandt Snedeker, 3,194
5. Louis Oosthuizen, 2,909

See the playoff full standings at the PGA site.

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

Filed Under: Golf, Golf Channel, NBC Sports, PGA, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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