Watching Golf this Week: The British Open, and the Tiger Internet Channel debut

July 17, 2014 by Paul Kapustka Leave a Comment

In honor of ESPN fulfilling our longtime wish for continuous coverage of Tiger Woods at a golf tournament, we are bringing back our Watching Golf this Week feature. And for this weekend’s third major of the season, the British Open (aka the Open Championship) the viewing guide is easy: Just check ESPN, both on the tube and online, because the worldwide leader will give you wall to wall coverage of the action that starts Thursday morning at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England.

So what’s the deal with the Tiger Cam? We haven’t interviewed anyone at ESPN but it’s easy to see how this idea came about: With Eldrick finally returning to the pro golf majors scene for the first time this year after back surgery, there is an incredible amount of pent-up Tiger interest. Still easily the biggest draw in golf — just go to any tourney he’s in and watch where the crowd goes — Woods is an even bigger interest item this week, with everyone wanting to see if he is A) recovered enough to play competitively, and if so, B) if he’s good enough to start the Nicklaus majors-hunt in earnest.

While ESPN will most certainly cut to Woods whenever possible during normal telecast coverage, the idea of putting a camera on Woods only and using ESPN3, one of the company’s “Internet channels” to show streaming coverage is a masterstroke. Not only will you lure in potential “casual” viewers who might not give a hoot who Martin Kaymer is but who will watch Woods, you will also likely get golf nuts doing the two-screen dance, with the TV on the regular coverage and a phone, tablet or laptop following Woods. At the very least it’s a great experiment and one we expect will be copied (at least we hope so) in other sports, soon.

But while you might not want be so fired up to watch something like a “quarterback cam” or a “third baseman cam,” individual player coverage in things like golf tournaments is a perfect idea. In fact, most online golf efforts for the majors over the past few years have had “featured group” channels online, where they follow attractive pairings throughout a round. This is not really much different except for the focus on Woods, which some will no doubt say is unworthy, since Woods is only a single player, he’s not bigger than the game, blah blah blah. Tiger fans get it, and will (I predict) turn out in the millions to watch every shot he takes over the weekend. Here’s hoping for Tiger, ESPN and for golf that the cams stay on through Sunday. Plus you can watch it mobile, via the WatchESPN app. Good on ya, ESPN.

There will, of course, be other stories from Liverpool, including whatever magic defending champ Phil Mickelson can conjure, and whether or not we will see Major-winning Rory McIlroy finally fulfill his Open dreams, or whether he’ll continue to sputter in the big events. If I could I’d bet a few pounds on American Ricky Fowler, who has been steadily doing well in majors this year. Is this his breakthrough event? Are the British ready for an all-orange winner on Sunday? Or will Sergio Garcia finally come through? It all gets underway Thursday, and for once we’ll have a way to watch and see exactly everything that Tiger does.

BONUS: Doug Ferguson penned an excellent, technically correct article about Wi-Fi at Royal Liverpool. Hello Augusta, can you hear me now?

THE OPEN CHAMPIONSIP

ESPN COVERAGE
This is long, but worth it… what follows is the entire ESPN lineup of content from The Open (all times U.S. Eastern):

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.
Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

TOURNAMENT APP
One of the better event apps, the Open’s App has everything you want in a handheld device app. iPad, iPhone and Android, even Windows. You will still need the ESPN contract to view live video, though. Still, well worth the download especially for the Thursday-Friday times when you may be at work.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?

Everything we’re reading says that Royal Liverpool (aka Hoylake) will play much differently than it did back in 2006, when Tiger did his 1-iron stinger thing, hitting only one driver all weekend en route to victory. According to an AP story today Tiger says the greens are soft, which might mean that American players unused to links golf might have a better chance. To us, it really doesn’t matter which course they use for the Open Championship. We’re so tired of TPC layouts by this time of the year that basically anything links-like is a refreshing slap in the face, like an ocean breeze. Fore, gentlemen.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?

C’mon, do you need to ask? HEFTY!

FEDEX CUP LEADERS
1. Jimmy Walker, 2,322 points
2. Bubba Watson, 2,135
3. Matt Kuchar, 1,725
4. Dustin Johnson, 1,701
5. Jordan Spieth, 1,636

WORLD GOLF RANKINGS
1. Adam Scott; 2. Henrik Stenson; 3. Justin Rose; 4. Bubba Watson; 5. Matt Kuchar.

And… for those of you late risers who miss the Open coverage, don’t forget to watch Annika take on Michael Jordan and John Elway in Tahoe at the American Century Classic:

AMERICAN CENTURY CLASSIC TV
Friday, July 18 — NBC, 4 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Saturday, July 19 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.
Sunday, July 20 — NBC, 3 p.m. — 6 p.m.

Filed Under: British Open, ESPN, ESPN3, Golf, PGA, Tiger Woods, WatchESPN Tagged With: British Open, British Open online, British Open streaming, ESPN, ESPN British Open coverage, ESPN3, Golf, Hoylake, Jack Nicklaus, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, PGA, Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Royal Liverpool, The Open Championship, Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods online, Tiger Woods streaming

ESPN to make ‘TigerCam’ idea come true: ESPN3 will live-stream Woods’ British Open rounds

July 10, 2014 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

Call me a visionary. Call me media-savvy when it comes to golf. Go ahead. Because it was almost 2 years ago that I asked why some broadcaster couldn’t tee up what golf fans really wanted — 24/7 coverage of Tiger Woods. And now, ESPN is doing just that for the upcoming British Open, live-streaming every round that Tiger will play on its ESPN3 Internet channel.

Like the very successful Megacast of the most recent BCS Championship game, I think ESPN’s decision to offer one of its many outlets as all Tiger, all the time, is brilliant. I’ll even go out on a limb here and predict that for the first 2 days of the tournament, the ESPN3 Tiger feed will outdraw the regular ESPN coverage. OK maybe not but it will be huge, and it will set online golf watching records — I’ll bet a virtual pint of warm ale on that.

Say what you will about Woods as a person, and call him washed up as a golfer. There is still a huge army of people who, whether they are Tiger fans or just Tiger followers, find him so far more compelling than any other pro golfer currently playing that they would watch him playing mini-golf before they watch, say, Zach Johnson or Brendt Snedeker.

No offense guys. Your results show you’re outstanding golfers. But when it comes to professional golf, there’s nobody currently active who moves the needle like Woods — not even Phil Mickelson, who is also a tremendous golfer in his own right. But have you watched Phil play? A lot? It’s an exercise in pain, most of the time. When will Phil crack is a much different show than the Tiger show. And it’s a brilliant move by ESPN, because nobody can claim they are shirking other coverage just to show Tiger. That’s the beauty of multiple streams from the same event… and let’s hope this is just the first of many such experiments. Bravo, ESPN!

Filed Under: British Open, ESPN, ESPN3, Golf, Tiger Woods Tagged With: British Open, ESPN, ESPN3, live streaming golf, live streaming Tiger Woods, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Tiger Woods

Watching Golf this Week: RBC Canadian Open

July 26, 2012 by Paul Kapustka 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: British Open, Ernie Els, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, PGA, RBC Canadian Open

ESPN’s British Open Coverage Scores on Cable, Internet, Mobile

July 24, 2012 by Paul Kapustka 2 Comments

There must be an algorithm somewhere to write the inevitable press releases for broadcasters after any big event now, that begins with “record viewership” and then plugs in the terms online and mobile. ESPN’s coverage of the British Open last week and weekend certainly fits in, with big gains in just about every measurement category, including a 140 percent growth in the amount of live coverage watched on ESPN’s mobile and online platforms.

But — it could have been a lot bigger. Remember, ESPN limits its mobile access to people who pay for cable plans from Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, and Comcast. How much bigger could the audience be if ESPN allowed non-cable subscribers the right to see things with a one-time fee? (Right now, the WWL’s answer to that is it’s not gonna happen.)

One guess is that since ESPN added Comcast to its list of approved cable-contract partners whose customers get access to all WatchESPN and ESPN3 content, the jump in online viewership was probably a given since the Comcast deal added about 40 million potential new viewers to the number that could see ESPN’s online streams. Even without any new partnerships that number should easily grow again next year, when ESPN should have support for Comcast customers with Android platforms, who were shut out this year.

I still think that ESPN could vastly improve its online coverage of big events, especially golf, by mimicing the excellent presentation done by the folks at the Masters. Right now the event coverage like the British Open is lumped in next to every other thing that ESPN covers, which as you know is quite a lot, so the experience dims. It would also be great to have an integrated chat/social experience on the same screen, so you could perhaps talk golf smack to friends and other fans without having to switch between multiple screens. I’d add in a window to keep track of the excellent ESPN Majors fantasy game, and my online golf experience would be complete. Well, we’d need the TigerCam too. But I’m not greedy.

ESPN Press release on its awesome British Open numbers.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, British Open, ESPN, ESPN3, Golf, PGA, The Masters, Tiger Woods Tagged With: British Open, ESPN, Golf, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Tiger Woods, WatchESPN

ESPN Mobile and British Open App Fail at Live Video, Audio Coverage for Some Platforms

July 21, 2012 by Paul Kapustka 5 Comments

Sunday Update: After deleting and re-installing the British Open app things seem to be working better. We can get a live commentary show and a live link to WatchESPN (which we can’t watch because we are on Android — see below). The Open’s own radio is working, with the great BBC commentators, but the Open app’s link to ESPNRadio isn’t working. The ESPNRadio app, however, is working today so if we need to we can go native for the final round. Original Saturday post follows.

Before the British Open started we were impressed by the online and mobile options for viewing and listening to live coverage of the year’s third golf major. But after trying and failing to connect in several fashions Saturday, we’re less than impressed with the mobile performance from both ESPN and the Open’s own app.

On the ESPN side, the online live version of the TV broadcast worked fine, as long as you can remember to enable pop-ups for your browser (we spent a frustrating minute clicking on the screen to no avail before we saw the little pop-up warning in our Chrome browser and enabled the WatchESPN window). As a paying Comcast subscriber I expected to also be able to watch the coverage live on my Android smartphone, but when I loaded WatchESPN there was no Comcast option for authentication.

After a couple frustrating auto-replies from ESPN help I finally got an answer from “Jack” in customer support that says Comcast Android users are still second-class citizens. As in, no mobile video for you!

For Comcast XFINITY subscribers, WatchESPN is available for use on the following mobile devices: iPhone, iPod and iPad (must have OS 4.0 or later).

The WatchESPN application is not yet available in Android devices for Comcast subscribers, but we will be launching the service soon.

Maybe I’m a harsh judge but this is kind of unacceptable for a company like the WorldWide Leader, which presumably has lots of programming assets at its beck and call. I thought I might be able to do an end-around by using the Open’s own app, but even as the third round leaders were early on the back nine, the app’s audio and video coverage were “off the air,” with no explanation. From what I can tell it might be a problem in that the app has live coverage via the BBC for viewers in the UK, but if there is some way to switch to US-available coverage here, I can’t find it in the app. On the good side, the app has great archived video, which works superbly like a well-edited midday highlights package.

ESPNRadio worked well in my car, but the Open broadcast also didn’t work on the Samsung Stratosphere Android handset from Verizon that I have. Again, I suspect there was some issue with the Android handset not being supported by the necessary Comcast authentication. We are emailing ESPN folks now and will relay a better answer if we get one.

The bottom line is, out of the three majors so far this year the folks behind the British Open online coverage, namely ESPN, are in third place. The Masters is far ahead of all tournaments, with its solid multiple-camera options, and its good performance in online and mobile platforms. While the U.S. Open had fewer choices, its delivery and access were also far superior to the muddle that was the ESPN/Open app arrangement for the British Open. Plus, ESPN’s online menu of British Open options was mixed in with all the other things the WWL was showing on its online menu. I get it, ESPN’s got a lot going on. But is it so hard to wall off the British Open selections on a separate page? And maybe include all the other golf-related stuff there? Too many times it seems like ESPN doesn’t get it right when they are covering individual events, and the British Open is one of those times.

While I understand and respect ESPN’s decision to base online access on whether or not customers have a valid cable contract, the whole what-is and what-isn’t online for ESPN is still muddled, and the point failures for the Open are proof that ESPN still needs to figure out what its priorities are in the online/mobile space, and how it can make it less confusing for people to figure out how to get access. The fact that I, as a paying Comcast subscriber, couldn’t get access on an Android phone, should have been something ESPN called out beforehand, not buried in a support email after the fact. And I think event organizers should take a harder look at who they sell coverage rights to, if the digital access is going to be so constrained. Just seems like it’s harder than it needs to or should be.

Miss the round? Here are the highlights courtesy of the Mothership:

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Apps, BBC, British Open, Comcast, ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, Golf, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Live sports via mobile, Live Sports Video Consumption, PGA, The Masters, Tiger Woods, US Open, WatchESPN, Xfinity Tagged With: British Open, ESPN, ESPNRadio, Mobile Sports Report, Paul Kapustka, Samsung, The Open Championship, Tiger Woods, Verizon 4G LTE

Dear Nike: Where’s My EveryShot TigerCam?

July 20, 2012 by Paul Kapustka 3 Comments

As cool as it is to be the editor of the greatest new sports-biz publication, I can’t pass up the opportunity to apply for the newest job in the golf-social-new-media business: Editor and commentator for Nike’s new EveryShot TigerCam website. As you guessed, this is an Internet location (also available in app form) that shows, every weekend, a full but time-edited version of Tiger Woods’ entire round of golf.

Cool, right? Don’t you wish it really existed? Me too.

After missing out on all but a few minutes of British Open coverage Thursday I had to settle for ESPN’s SportsCenter highlight package and was left hungry for more. Very specifically, I wanted to see more of El Tigre, other than just his amazing out-of-a-divot shot that had ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi screaming like a child when he showed the slow-mo to Tiger afterwards. I wanted to see every drive, every middle iron, every lag putt and maybe get some in-between-holes comments from the man himself.

Why hasn’t Nike, or ESPN, or the PGA, made this happen?

Look — I understand that there are a whole lot of “other” golfers out there who are worth watching. Some of them even win majors. But for me — and all the millions of golf fans who drive up TV viewership whenever Eldrick is in contention — watching golf is all about Tiger first, and everyone else second. I’m not even going to try to explain it, though a fellow fan I met at the Olympic Club during the recent U.S. Open put it best when we both talked about how we became hooked years ago when we watched Tiger blow up the golfing world at the 1997 Masters.

“It was transformational, what he did then,” said my new pal, as we watched Tiger miss a birdie chance on 17 during his Friday round at the U.S. Open. “I haven’t been able to stop watching him since.”

It’s not just me — I have heard many paid golf commentators on TV note this year that yeah, when he is on, there isn’t a better golfer in the world than Woods. Maybe not ever. So — in this day and age of multiple, cheap, easy broadcasting production platforms why in Nike’s name isn’t there some service that, especially for majors, does a quick turnaround and give us a speed-edited complete recap of Tiger’s rounds?

If the folks at Nike want to give me a call I have some great ideas how to make this happen, but basically if you have one editor/producer (this would be me, because I thought of this) and a couple kids just out of school who have camera/FinalCut skilz, you would just follow Tiger around all day and then spend a couple hours each night editing the footage down to just shots and some quick, YouTube-worthy commentary and graphics. Charge five bucks a tournament for viewing, and I bet you would make as much as Tiger does when he’s winning.

(It would sure beat the over-produced “video” section on Woods’ own website, where as of Thursday night the newest stuff is Tiger at… The Greenbrier. Yuk.)

This could scale to other golfers who might be individually interesting — Bubba Watson comes to mind, or maybe long-drive fans would pay a buck a weekend to see every tee shot from Alvaro Quiros. It’s not like it would cost a lot to try. I understand there may be some rights questions but why not give it a test and agree to split the revenues amongst those who have skin in the game now, like the networks and the Tour?

The bottom line is — there is a whole lot of “content” out there every weekend that simply gets lost because of the old model of golf coverage, which is a highly produced show with some guy in a trailer deciding which golfers you should watch. And that’s so 1997, and not in a good way. It’s time to let the fans decide who they want to watch, and how much of that golfer’s round they want to see. C’mon Nike, PGA, and networks. Make my EveryShot TigerCam (the domain is even still available!) a reality.

Filed Under: Apple, Apps, British Open, CBS Sports, ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN3, Golf, Nike, PGA, Tiger Woods, WatchESPN Tagged With: British Open, ESPN, Mobile Sports Report, Olympic Club, Paul Kapustka, Tiger Woods, Tom Rinaldi, U.S. Open