Grouchy Golf Blog

Monday, February 25, 2008 at 7:42 PM

Tilghman and Faldo: Corporate Shills?

During the television coverage of last week's Accenture Match Play Championship, there seemed to be enough promotion to rival a Ron Popeil infomercial. Only it wasn't Ron plugging stuff but the Golf Channel's on-air personalities, Kelly Tilghman and Nick "Han" Faldo. Every time a player hit the new Nike SQ Sumo square driver, Kelly was sure to identify the driver and comment about how much that player loves its performance. During the final match between Tiger and Stewart Cink, Kelly made sure to point out that the "Swoosh" was well represented in the tournament with Nike staffers Woods, Cink and Leonard making it to the semis. Is Kelly trying to make amends with Tiger over the "Lynch him in a back alley" incident or is there some kind of undisclosed relationship between her and Nike? Whatever the reason, it is suspicious at best that she made no similar comments about other golf manufacturers or equipment.

Tilghman's booth-mate was even guiltier of thinly-veiled promotion. Faldo did his best to sneak in plugs for his current endorser, TaylorMade Adidas Golf. Faldo made it a point to talk about players using the new TaylorMade Monza Spider putter with success. But even worse, he took an opportunity to bash his former endorser, Nike, while extolling the performance of TaylorMade's new golf ball. Nick went out of his way to highlight Golf Magazine's recent golf ball test results that showed the new TaylorMade TP ball bested the Nike One Platinum by 20 yards with a driver (90 mph swingspeed). C'mon Nick, was it just a mere coincidence that you happen to choose your current company's ball to compare against that of your old company? I think not. It was quite a cheap shot you old bloke!

Sadly, this isn't the first time that golf announcers have utilized their abundant air time to serve as pitchmen. In the past, I can recall Paul Azinger plugging Nike and Johnny Miller will still occasionally mention Callaway. It's just that this kind of conflict of interest has never been as blatant before as it is now. If an announcer has a relationship with another company, it needs to be disclosed upfront. When I tune into a golf broadcast, I want golf coverage, not an infomercial. It's not like this kind of advertising is effective anyway. How stupid do they think we are?! Now I wonder where I can demo that new Nike driver and buy a box of those hot TaylorMade balls...

 Acemakr said...

It's a shame but if we're going to get our weekly golf fixes, it's going to be via the 'Golf Channel'. It's harsh, but we have to deal with it and take the good with the bad.  

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 Anonymous said...

I have to admit, the blatant plugs for Nike and TM were just the tip of the iceberg. Is it me or has Han Faldo lost something this year? It's not the same magic that had at ABC with Zing. Maybe he is doing too much golf with the GC and CBS schedules. Or maybe he is getting tired in his old age.

Regardless, I have been thoroughly disappointed in the GC coverage this year. I gave them a pass last year, but the chemistry in the booth is toxic, not positive for the viewer. Tilghman has to go, she is terrible.

Maybe GC's parent company (Comcast) could fork over a few extra bucks and get a real play-by-play announcer (Dan Hicks, Mike Tirico, etc.). During this ever important Tiger Run, we need strong support in the tower to keep people glued to the set when he is running away with tournaments. A 3.5 rating and 7 share is up 67% from last year, but is it sustainable if TW keeps dominating the field? A good group in the booth would mitigate any boredom that sets in the with the viewer base.  

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 Anonymous said...

With the world full of exiting sports these days it may be necessary for the producers and directors of TV golf to sit down and take a brand new look at how they present their product . . or tv golf may go the way of bowling!

For starters, the gut wrenching yet very subtle drama of golf doesn't lend itself easily to the incessant and unnecessary interuptions of instruction, interviews, misc. cup and award standings, a Chamber of Com. pitch for the locale, their charity figures and last but not least, a speech from the tournament sponsor. I know they watch the Masters - don't they learn anything? I hate to invoke the spirit of Obama - but tv golf needs CHANGE!  

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 Tony at TheGolfSpace.com said...

I was struck by how blatantly Faldo commented about how great the Spider was when JB won a couple of weeks ago. Now I know why.

This sort of behavior is over the line and definitely conduct unbecoming of a "true" journalist. Oh wait, this is TGC... "Tiger Golf Channel" we're talking about.. nevermind.  

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 Anonymous said...

Just commenting on the missing magic that Faldo and Zinger had, how can there be any magic between Faldo and Tilghman when she NEVER stops talking!  

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 Anonymous said...

Am I the only one that finds Nick and Kelly boring. I guess it's OK, my wife is pleased to see me doing something other than watch the golf channel.  

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