Anyone who has touched a golf ball seems to have a suggestion on how Fox Sports can improve its coverage of major golf tournaments.
Here is mine: Replace Greg Norman with Tom Weiskopf as the analyst teaming with Joe Buck.
Such a switch won’t happen. But after monitoring the 115th U.S. Open during its four-day run, I’m convinced Weiskopf, knowledgeable and TV- friendly on pregame and postgame panel shows, would be a much better fit as a tournament analyst.
Norman knows the sport. But he missed key occasions when his knowledge should have turned into listenable opinion.
Buck noted Thursday that Tiger Woods had a disastrous opening round. Norman agreed, but he declined to provide any thought-provoking comments about Woods’ problems.
WATCH:
And early Saturday night the TV cameras were focused on Dustin Johnson, who looked trapped in a Chambers Bay sand trap worthy of a scene from “Lawrence of Arabia.”
Johnson solved the problem, lofting his ball and landing it just a couple of feet from the pin.
Norman noted: “That was a terrific shot!”
We knew that. But where was the analysis to describe just how difficult the shot was?
Perhaps Buck and Norman will blend better in the future. Fox’s U.S. Open contract runs 11 more years.
To casual viewers, Chambers Bay probably looked as if the U.S. Open was being played on a links course in Scotland.
Chambers Bay’s dry, often bumpy greens produced two memorable comments from golfers.
Henrik Stenson, after Friday’s round, said the greens “were pretty much like putting on broccoli.”
Rory McIlroy added Saturday: “I don’t think they are as green as broccoli. I think they’re more like cauliflower.”
Special tribute.
KMGH-Channel 7 will provide live coverage (6:30-7 p.m. Friday) of a Special Olympics event at Red Rocks. The program will salute four local athletes ready to compete at the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles next month.
The athletes are Julian Hall, 25, of Denver, tennis; Chris McElroy, 29, of Aurora, swimming; Nikia Davenport, 40, of Denver, powerlifting; and Nathan Knepper, 37, of Golden, tennis.
Longtime Denver journalist Dusty Saunders writes about sports media each Monday in The Denver Post. Contact him at tvtime@com- .
Sports talk radio on Mile High Sports will return, probably next Monday, on KDEN (1340 AM). It’s one of Denver’s oldest frequencies. The 1340 signal has been in the local lineup since 1940 when Frederick Meyer, a local grocer, put it on the air as KMYR-AM.
Mile High Sports’ 1340 AM lineup will feature the same talent heard on 1550 AM and 94.1 FM, which left the air May 20 when Mile High sold the two properties to music-oriented Marco Broadcasting.
