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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: , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Barclays, and the FedEx Cup… Playoffs!

August 23, 2012 by 5 Comments

I did a minor spit-take watching ESPN on the flip from the Giants-Dodgers Wednesday night — there was a quick clip of Rory McIlroy saying he was ready to kick Tiger’s ass or somesuch. Wow! Was it possible? Had Boy Rory’s stompdown at the PGA given him an unnatural boost of testosterone? Was this weekend’s Barclays tournament, with McIlroy and Woods paired together for at least Thursday and Friday, now must-see TV?

Well… no. Turns out Rory was just joking. And though it sounds like good theater for the moment, it’s appropos that the Barclays opening press conference was a bit of sham theater, since the actual tournament this week is also a bit of a joke. In case you’re not clued in, the Barclays is the start of the season-ending (kind of) FedEx Cup playoffs, where there are three weekend tournaments and then the Tour Championship. If you really have some time on your hands you can dig deep into the FedEx Cup 101 page provided by the Tour and try to delve into the mystery of regular-season points, playoff reset points, and why Jason Dufner can take this week off and still have a pretty good chance at raking in the $10 million that goes to the playoffs winner.

If you figure it out, let us know. We, like just about everyone else in the golf world, just watches these four weekends as kind of one extended long tournament. It doesn’t actually work out that way — you get more points the better you do each weekend — but it’s a massively flawed system that usually doesn’t get tense until the last Sunday of the Tour Championship. I mean, you get some big bucks for winning any of the next three weekends, but — winning any one of the next three is only part of the pinada, like winning a divisional playoff series or a conference championship.

The good news is, even if there really isn’t much at stake each particular weekend, the big bucks involved means that we get online video this week, with the PGA’s own Live@ kicking in each of the next four weeks. Bonus! Coverage starts right here at 11 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, so you can use your PC at work to see if Rory really does go out and kick Tiger’s ass or vice versa. Plus, there will be extended Golf Channel coverage on Saturday and Sunday mornings. And, the Barclays this year is being played at Bethpage Black, the cool public course out on Long Island with a lot of history and long, long, interesting holes. Don’t expect a birdie-fest here.

Though the Duf is taking the week off (he is second in the FedEx standings so he shouldn’t slip much — and the dude has been playing a lot lately, including last weekend at the Wyndham) everybody else will be there, because while the weekly wins may not mean that much, the $10 million that goes to the playoff champ is enough to turn the head of even a mega-rich golf star. So pick your favorite, they’re playing this weekend. I guess that alone makes the playoffs worth watching.

Here’s where to follow the action:

THE BARCLAYS / FEDEX CUP PLAYOFFS

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, Aug. 23 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 24 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 25 — Golf Channel, 1 p.m. — 2:30 p.m.; CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 26 — Golf Channel, 12 p.m. — 1:30 p.m. CBS, 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 — with coverage of Bethpage’s par-5 13th and par-3 17th. The PGA’s On The Tee program also kicks in this week, before the Live@ coverage.
Live@ coverage — 11 a.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
The playoffs begin at the Barclay’s Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The Barclays has a Twitter feed. Beware, it seems locally oriented.
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?
Bethpage State Park’s Black course has some strong history, including the great 2002 U.S. Open won by Tiger over the fan favorite Phil Mickelson. (I’d forgotten how charged the fans at that Open were, coming so soon after 9/11; also just read about the people yelling at Sergio to “just hit it!” … remember the waggle?) Though the 2009 Open was also played there (Lucas Glover, anyone?) the 2002 version is recalled in this slightly weird highlights video, with 9 minutes of Pearl Jam music that somehow… almost… kind of but not really… works:

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Dustin Johnson. Who needs to repeat…

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 2,269 points
2. Jason Dufner, 2,110
3. Rory McIlroy, 2,092
4. Zach Johnson, 2,019
5. Bubba Watson, 1,777

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

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: CBS Sports, Golf, Golf Channel, PGA, Tiger Woods Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Wyndham Championship

August 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

UPDATE: Because of the rain delay, coverage will resume Monday morning on the Golf Channel, starting around 9 a.m. Eastern time. Thanks to Geoff Shackelford for the link.

Admit it — you probably didn’t know this week’s tourney, the Wyndham Championship, is the last regular-season event for the PGA. Well, maybe you did. Of course it’s hardly the end of golf in 2012, since the FedEx Cup playoffs start the week after (at the Barclays) and then there is that whole Ryder Cup thing in September.

And don’t forget about the Fall season!

Anyway, at the Wyndham this week the big (maybe only) tension outside of just trying to win comes from the chase to make the top 125 list, so that you can participate in the big fiesta payoff known as the FedEx playoffs. As usual we turn to Geoff Shackelford for insider humor, with a post where he tries to make FedEx feel good about its $40 million investment by providing some links to stories explaining the pending playoffs. In case you didn’t know we like Geoff’s humor. And we’ll even link to one of the posts, since it will set you up nicely for a weekend of golf-watching.

We notice that Jason “the Duf” Dufner is the top-ranked player in Greensboro this weekend, and good on him. We’re still ticked that Duf didn’t come through for us at the PGA (had him two days on my fantasy team, and all he did was par par par) but how can you not like the Duf. Especially when he and Bubba and Rickie get their tweets on. I can’t tell you much about the Wyndham other than that Olympic gold medal hoopster Chris Paul apparently played in the pro-am. In case you didn’t know, Paul is good pals with last year’s winner and new U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson. I didn’t know that either.

No online golf this week (Live@ returns next week for the Barclays). You might also be interested in following the conclusion of the U.S. Amateur, which is on Golf Channel Thursday and Friday, and on NBC on the weekend.

Here’s where to follow the action:

WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, Aug. 16 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 17 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 18 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 19 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

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

ONLINE
No Live@ video this week — the PGA’s live online video doesn’t return until the Barclays in late August, so you will need to get your online fix from…

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

FACEBOOK PAGE
You can Escape to the Wyndham’s Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

The Wyndham has a 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?
The Sedgefield Country Club has an awesome web site. Much to learn here. And hey, Steve Elkington had a hole-in-one here! So says the PGA’s stat page.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Webb Simpson.

U.S. AMATEUR

TV COVERAGE
Thursday, Aug. 16 — Golf Channel, 6:30 p.m. — 8:30 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 17 — Golf Channel, 8:30 p.m. — 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 18 — NBC, 4 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 19 — NBC, 4 p.m. — 6 p.m.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Cherry Hills CC in Denver… heard of this place, Arnie?

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 2,269 points
2. Rory McIlroy, 2,092
3. Jason Dufner, 2,025
4. Zach Johnson, 2,019
5. Bubba Watson, 1,777

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

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: CBS Sports, Golf, Golf Channel, PGA Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The PGA Championship

August 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

Good news first: The 94th running of the PGA Championship will have a boatload of online and viewing options, and all kinds of web-enabled goodies to allow you to enjoy the year’s last major from the comfort of your desk, laptop, or iPhone or iPad. (Here’s the link to live video.) The bad news? It may not wrap up until Monday given the probability of thunderstorms likely to hit the Island Course in Kiawah, South Carolina. At least during the inevitable rain delays, you will have all kinds of diversions like the PGA’s new Social Caddy page to let you watch Twitter streams of players and caddies waiting out the rain.

A quick note on the online stuff — though we had written before that the PGA Tour and Turner Sports were parting ways, the relationship between Turner and the PGA Championship is a different beast — and as such Turner will be pulling out all the stops with TNT coverage Thursday, Friday and before CBS on the weekends, and a whole bunch of good website stuff, including lots of photos and videos.

Several things that we are going to look closely at for the live online video (which starts at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Thursday and Friday) are the multiple camera views and featured groups that Turner says we’ll be able to follow online. We were disappointed at the U.S. Open’s somewhat limited online options, so let’s see if Turner can do better at the PGA. So far, the Masters is still far and away the online king of majors. We are heavily disappointed that the PGA app is iPhone only — c’mon folks, there are a heckuva lot of Android phones out there. Bad form to not have an Android app ready. Like in gymnastics, we’re taking a full point deduction there.

As for the actual golf… once again it really is all about Tiger, and whether or not he can get the job done at a major. Kiawah really doesn’t suit his perfectionist game — weirdo target golf — but when he is on, he really is the Usain Bolt of golf. I think it’s good to note here that had he not three-putted on that disaster bunker hole and not gone over the green on the par-3, Tiger would be your defending British Open champion. Just saying, the guy didn’t have anything near his “A” game and he still almost took the jug. He’s still the rock lock on my ESPN Fantasy team, but behind him I see… maybe Jason Dufner? An incredibly consistent year and good performances in the majors. Like last year, he could be standing near the end while others are falling.

Who else? I like Dustin Johnson’s ability but fear that Dustin is his own biggest enemy. At least there are no sand-trap rules for Johnson to worry about. Unlike the PGA two years ago where there were bunkers everywhere, there is a lot of sand at Kiawah but… according to some weird rule none of the sand is a bunker. So expect to see a lot of guys grounding their clubs, and a million calls to the PGA offices to follow. Watch the video and learn why it’s not a problem.

Finally my dark horse pick: Someone who historically plays well in South Carolina coastal courses, someone who has been surprisingly sharp at times this year… while he puts together his Ryder Cup team. That’s right, I am giving some love to the Captain, DLIII, Davis Love the Thirdly, to find another rainbow and win a second major in the gloaming of his career. I watched Love for a hole at Olympic during the Open, and his game seemed anything but old, striping a 2-iron off the tee and outhitting a younger playing partner who went 3-wood. Nice. In reality Love will probably be on the sidelines Saturday and Sunday, watching to see if Phil Mickelson can give him a reason to make him a captain’s pick for the Ryder roster. Enough Olympics already. Let’s get this war by the shore started.

Here’s where to follow the action:

94th PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, Aug. 9 — TNT, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 10 — TNT, 1 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, Aug. 11 — TNT, 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.; CBS, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, Aug. 12 — TNT, 11 a.m. — 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.; CBS, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.

RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
Coverage starts at 12 p.m. Thursday & Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

ONLINE
As we said above, there is going to be a lot of online video, including marquee groups, par 3 coverage and press conferences. HERE IS THE LIVE VIDEO PAGE.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No Shot Tracker this week.

FACEBOOK PAGE
If it looks like the beach, it’s the PGA Facebook page for Kiawah.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW

HASHTAG FOR THE PGA IS: #PGAChamp

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. Who won’t be going back to Akron anytime soon.
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?
You’re kidding, right? Like you haven’t heard of the Island Course. Or seen numerous recaps of The War by the Shore. Well here is the official page, knock yourself out.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Keegan “long putter” Bradley. Outlasting our man Duf.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 2,204 points
2. Zach Johnson, 2,018
3. Jason Dufner, 1,983
4. Hunter Mahan, 1,739
5. Bubba Watson, 1,712

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

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

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, CBS Sports, Golf, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, Tiger Woods, TNT, Turner Sports, Twitter Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: RBC Canadian Open

July 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Like a lot of the pro golf field your MSR golf writer is taking some time off this week following the most recent major. But newly minted British Open champion Ernie Els isn’t, and is heading to Canada for this week’s RBC Canadian Open.

After the orgy of online and broadcast coverage of last week this week you are back to the Golf Channel Thursday-Friday, CBS Saturday-Sunday routine. I wish I could get more excited about this event but — gotta recharge for the end of the season, the PGA, the Ryder Cup, and the FedEx Cup chase. So just the basics below. More in-depth analysis next week.

Here’s where to follow the action:

RBC CANADIAN OPEN

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, July 26 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, July 27 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 28 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 29 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

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

ONLINE
No Live@ video this week — the PGA’s live online video doesn’t return until the Barclays in late August, so you will need to get your online fix from…

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

FACEBOOK PAGE
Nothing not to like about the RBC Canadian Open Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The RBC Canadian Open has its own 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?
The Hamilton Golf and Country club has its own site.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Sean O’Hair.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 2,132 points
2. Zach Johnson, 1,988
3. Jason Dufner, 1,888
4. Hunter Mahan, 1,705
5. Bubba Watson, 1,662

See the full standings for the FedEx Cup points list.

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

Filed Under: CBS Sports, Facebook, Golf, Golf Channel, PGA Tagged With: , , , , ,

Watching Golf this Week: The Open Championship, aka The British Open

July 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Are you ready for the third major of the year? It all kicks off Thursday morning at one of the stranger-named courses, Royal Lytham & St. Annes (not St. Anne’s), which its own website describes as “It is not a conventionally beautiful golf course, surrounded as it is by suburban housing and flanked by a railway line, but it has a charm all of its own.” Never you mind. This is the British Open, aka The Open Championship, and it’s all about history. With Champions at the course named Seve. Tom Lehman, Gary Player, and most recently, David Duval in 2001.

And best of all, golf when you wake up in the morning here in the U.S.! If you want to watch the Open Championship this weekend you best have a cable subscription with ESPN (and really, who doesn’t in the sports world). If you want to watch online or on your mobile device, you need a cable sub with the WatchESPN qualifying carriers: Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Comcast. This tourney is four days of wall to wall ESPN coverage, including ESPN radio, probably a bunch of SportsCenter from the Open broadcasts… starting at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, to catch all of Tiger and Phil, who are going out early.

And who will win it? Odds on favorite is, of course, the man who would be back: Tiger Woods. If he plays all four days like he played the first two days at Olympic, Tiger will be tough to beat — he’s even been seen working on his infamous “stinger” shots. Lurking in the gorse is Phil Mickelson, who is way overdue overseas — and had himself a few nice sub-70 rounds at the Scottish Open last weekend as a tuneup.

What about the local lads — guys like Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, who reign atop the world standings but have zero majors between them? Of the two I like Westwood’s chances since he always seems to be in it at the end, while Donald tends to disappear. Maybe like Darren Clarke last year, this is Westwood’s time. As a dark horse I like a guy who I saw live for the first time at the U.S. Open, and marveled at the style of his swing: Former British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen. Go join the MSR group on the ESPN fantasy golf game if you want to show your own picking savvy.

In case the Open isn’t enough golf, there is also a PGA Tour event this week, the incredibly ignored True South Classic in Madison, Mississippi, as well as the fun-to-watch American Century Classic from Lake Tahoe, where celebs and athletes from other sports show off their golf prowess, or lack thereof (see Barkley, Charles). We will include TV times for those tournaments as well, below.

Our final pick? We say Tiger gets off the major schneid. Here’s where to follow the action:

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSIP

(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, July 19 — ESPN, 4:30 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — ESPN, 4:30 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — ESPN, 7 a.m. — 2:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 1 p.m.

RADIO
ESPN RADIO (check local channels)
Thursday, July 19 — 7 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — 7 a.m. — 1 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — ESPN, 9 a.m. — 3 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — ESPN, 8 a.m. — 12 p.m.

Radio broadcasts will also be available through the Open app, at TheOpen.com, and at
ESPNRadio.com.

ONLINE
This is long, but worth it… what follows is the entire ESPN lineup of content from The Open:

The Open Championship on ESPN Digital Platforms
WatchESPN
All Open Championship programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 is also available on computers, smartphones and tablets through WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app, which are accessible to fans who receive their video service from affiliated providers Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV.

ESPN.com
News, blogs and columns from ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski and senior golf writers Farrell Evans and Bob Harig.
“Digital Drive,” an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by ESPN the Magazine columnist Rick Reilly, will be produced each day.
“CoverItLive” live chat with Michael Collins throughout the championship.
“Red Light/Green Light” with Collins each day, examining pin placements on selected holes.
The ESPN Golf Cast application, which offers an easy-to-use interface with scoring, “CoverItLive,” video and social media elements.
Best Ball Majors, the latest installment of the ESPN Best Ball Challenge.
Interactive leaderboards and live scores.
Extensive video content, including highlights, analysis, clips from SportsCenter and press conferences.
Photo galleries, podcasts, live chats, SportsNation polling.
Mobile WAP site.
Spanish-language highlights and coverage on ESPNDeportes.com.

ESPN3
ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network will carry ESPN’s telecast of all four rounds of The Open Championship. An additional feed will have live coverage of the 1st & 18th Holes, plus player interviews from the practice range, highlights and features. Trey Wingo and Jim Kelly will share the host role, with analysts Jane Crafter and Kim Thomas and reporter Mark Donaldson. Former Open Championship winner David Duval, who is competing in the event, also will serve as an analyst while not on the course.
ESPN3 also will have a Spanish-language feed with ESPN Deportes golf announcers Francisco Aleman and former LPGA pro Silvia Bertolaccini as well as the International View from the BBC/World coverage and alternating coverage of holes 8, 9 and 10.

ESPN Mobile
Live mobile video simulcasts of ESPN’s Open Championship telecasts on Thursday-Sunday will appear on ESPN Mobile TV. The Best of The Open Championship programs for the first, third and final rounds and Thursday’s The Open Championship Today programs also will be simulcast.
News, highlights and a leaderboard will appear on the ESPN mobile Web and there will be Open Championship Insider content, news and columns, scoring alerts for top players and video shot packs for select golfers.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No Shot Tracker at the British Open, but it will be online for the True South Classic.

FACEBOOK PAGE
Get yourself close to the Claret Jug at The Open’s Facebook page.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
The Open’s own 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. You may also catch her video reporting debut this weekend. Go Stephanie!
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

TOURNAMENT APP
Powered by video mavens at Ooyala, the Open’s App has everything you want in a handheld device app. iPad, iPhone and Android. You will still need the ESPN contract to view live video, though.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
The Royal Lytham & St. Annes has its own website, and there is good stuff on the PGA site as well.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
Darren Clarke.

WHY IS IT CALLED LYTHAM & ST. ANNES?
Because the two towns of Lytham and St. Annes-on-the-Sea grew together and formed one seaside resort. And they dropped the “sea” bit. According to Wikipedia.

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Tiger Woods, 1,952 points
2. Zach Johnson, 1,920
3. Jason Dufner, 1,849
4. Hunter Mahan, 1,654
5. Bubba Watson, 1,617

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.

TRUE SOUTH CLASSIC TV
Thursday, July 19 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Friday, July 20 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Saturday, July 21 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — Golf Channel, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

AMERICAN CENTURY CLASSIC TV
Saturday, July 21 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 22 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

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