Well, the future duly arrived.
It may have required a YouTube search rather than a simple press on the TV remote control to gain access to events at the Centurion Club in England but there was no doubting the vibrancy or enthusiasm – make that overenthusiasm at times – of the loaded commentary team that heralded in the megabucks LIV Golf London Invitational in a golfing version of the “Fast & Furious”.
Money, lots of it, has talked in getting some of the world’s leading golfers to turn their heads and move to the new venture – backed by Saudi Arabian money – to have their wallets well and truly lined before any back-nine, final round pressure comes into play for the €3.7 million payday that awaits the winner of the inaugural tournament.
So, what to make of it all?
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The production package may have some improvement work required going forward but, for a first offering, it wasn’t at all bad if a little head-spinning in working out exactly who was doing what at any given time with action switching from one player at various parts of the course, unsurprisingly perhaps given the shotgun start which had all 48 players teeing off simultaneously on 16 holes.
What was obvious from the start was that this was golf, but not as we know it. Or knew it!
“I don’t know about you, I’m going to speak for the rest of the fans as well as myself . . . excited to watch you hit bombs and maybe even see your calves,” said a giggling Su-Ann Heng (on-course reporter) to Phil Mickelson on the first tee ahead of the shotgun start.
So, straight off the bat, we were brought into an environment of cheerleading which, if we’re honest, had to be expected given that all elements of the production are owned and supplied by LIV Golf.
Anyway, with no television ad breaks, the streaming of what was going on north of London meant for continuous action that may you left you hankering for the old school, slower build-up to a player taking the shot.
We’d been promised lots of insights into how players and caddies went about preparing for shots. Unfortunately, on the occasions that we were brought in to overhear such conversations, it was all too late. A case in point was one between Ian Poulter and bagman Terry Mundy.
“Let’s listen in,” said lead commentator Arlo White, new to golf commentary having previously made his name covering English Premiership matches for American television networks, only for us to hear silence as player and caddie finished their deliberations.
Let’s put that incident down to an unfortunate case of timing, but it is an aspect that needs some work going forward if the production is to fully utilise the fact that all players and caddies are microphoned up.
The commentary team – of White, former professional golfer Jerry Foltz (formally of the Golf Channel) and Dom Boulet (introduced as the “Voice of the Asian Golf Tour”) – talked a heck of a lot abut “history” for the first hour or so of the production, as if it were a buzzword that brought extra payment whenever anyone managed to get a mention in.
When Lee Westwood was lining up a birdie putt on the 17th (his starting hole), it came to the backdrop of a voice telling us it could be the first birdie in LIV Golf “history”.
“No,” came the commentator’s voice, as the putt missed, before adding: “That’s the first par in LIV history.”
History, for sure, was in the making with the launch of the new tour that has fractured professional golf’s world, with the huge signing-on fees bringing Mickelson, DJ and others away from the PGA Tour and – with no broadcasting rights as of yet – the decision to stream the inaugural tournament on YouTube and Facebook only showed how all is changed and changed utterly.
A look at the viewing figures on YouTube showed that there was a new demand – or certainly a curiosity factor – for this initial offering with numbers at c.4.5k at the off, as the army band trumpeted in the start, but rose to 63k and well over 100k as the streaming took hold and the first round played its way into, ahem, history.
There was a bit of the fast and the furious about it all, cutting swiftly from player to player, with the novel “Don’t Blink” segment intermittently bringing highlights of who had done what in a effort to bring some calm to proceedings, while the countdown scoreboard to the side was innovative – ala a Formula 1 race counting down lap by lap, or hole by hole in his case – but was a bit cluttered with the names abbreviated and is something that possibly requires some work.
All in all, though, not a bad start at all for the new series . . . . even if it is unadulterated sportswashing.
