Will eavesdropping on PGA, LPGA golfers bring more reality to golf TV?

Golf fans previously immersed in the FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup are now being fed more reality-based PGA Tour and LPGA events where golfers are mic'd up during their round. Golf Channel continues to test this format on TV with the assistance of a few willing participants.

Will this experiment in unrehearsed 'golfer to caddy chat' increase viewership?

In a nutshell, here are four choices for golf television viewing October 7-10.

In two out of the four events, professional golfers will have microphones attached so that fans can hear conversations with their caddies.

The McGladrey Classic

Dates: Oct. 7-10

Venue: Seaside Course, Sea Island Golf Club, St. Simons Island, Ga.

• Davis Love III Mic’d Up – Continuing a test with PGA TOUR players with microphones in 2010, Golf Channel will fit PGA TOUR professional Davis Love III with a microphone during Thursday’s opening round of coverage.  Viewers will have the opportunity to eavesdrop on conversations between Davis Love III and his caddy throughout the opening round of play. 

Navistar LPGA Classic presented by Monaco RV

                 Dates: Oct. 7-10

                 Venue: The Senator Course, Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Ala

•        Amanda Blumenherst Mic’d Up – LPGA Tour professional Amanda Blumenherst will be fitted with a microphone during Thursday’s tournament coverage and also will be the network’s Spotlight Player.
         At the Turn and Walk and Talk Featured – Val Skinner and Stephanie Sparks will interview players as they are walking the fairways during all four days of coverage as part of the network’s Walk and Talk feature.  On the weekend, they will interview players between holes 9 and 10 in the At the Turn feature.
          Battle for No. 1 Continues: Rolex Rankings No. 1 Ai Miyazato and No. 3 Cristie Kerr headline a field that includes No. 6 Na Yeon Choi, No. 8 In-Kyung Kim and No. 10 Paula Creamer.  Creamer, the reigning U.S. Open champion, will make her first appearance in Prattville.

Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship

Dates: Oct. 7-10

Venue: TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, Potomac, Md.

 

 

• Season’s Final Major – An elite field headlines the Champions Tour’s final major of the year, including Bernhard Langer, Fred Couples, Fred Funk, Corey Pavin, Jay Haas, Mark Calcavecchia, Hale Irwin and Tom Watson.

•  Langer Going for Three Major Victories – Bernhard Langer will attempt to match Jack Nicklaus as the only Champions Tour professional to win three major championships in one season.
• Homecoming for Funk – The Maryland native and former University of Maryland golf coach returns to a familiar venue and will attempt to equal Langer’s achievement in 2010 by winning back-to-back Champions Tour majors.

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

Dates: Oct. 7-10

Kingsbarns Golf Links, Kingsbarns, Scotland

Carnoustie Golf Links, Angus, Scotland

Old Course, St. Andrews Golf Club, St. Andrews, Scotland

World-Class Field: Nine members of the successful European Ryder Cup Team and captain Colin Montgomerie headlines the world-class field that also includes three-time major champion Ernie Els, two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen, major champions Michael Campbell, Paul Lawrie and John Daly, who returns to the site of his 1995 Open Championship victory.

Sports and Entertainment Celebrities Featured – International celebrities will compete this week, including Samuel L Jackson, Hugh Grant, Kyle MacLachlan, Huey Lewis and Michael Flatley.  Sporting legends from the world of soccer, tennis, soccer and skiing are also scheduled to compete.

Unique Tournament Format – Contested on three of the world’s best known and respected courses – the Old Course at St. Andrews, the Championship Course at Carnoustie and Kingsbarns Golf Links – 168 teams consisting of one professional and one amateur will play the first three rounds on the three courses in rotation.  The top-60 professionals and ties, plus the 20 leading teams, will play the final round at the Old Course at St. Andrews on Sunday.

McGladrey Classic joins the 2010 Kodak Challenge

Kodak and the PGA TOUR today announced that hole Number 13 at The McGladrey Classic on October 7-10 has been added to the 2010 Kodak Challenge schedule. Infamous (?) number 13 at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club in Sea Island, GA was selected based on the recommendation of tournament host Davis Love III.

The McGladrey Classic will be the 27th of 30 holes in the $1 million Kodak Challenge competition. Rickie Fowler currently leads the Kodak Challenge at 12-under-par.

“Basically unchanged since its original design in 1920, Number 13 at the Seaside Course is a classic par-4, as beautiful as it is challenging,” said Love. “For this reason, it fits perfectly into the Kodak Challenge. The late season action of the Kodak Challenge looks to be exciting again this year, and we’re pleased that the players and fans of The McGladrey Classic can be a part of it.”

The Kodak Challenge celebrates beautiful holes and memorable moments on the PGA TOUR and challenges players to perform their best on 30 designated Kodak Challenge holes.

A few of the memorable Kodak holes this year were the 18th hole at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and the "Wild Hole" at TPC Scottsdale.

Credit

PGA Tour golfers must play at least 18 of the 30 designated Kodak Challenge holes. The player with the lowest cumulative score on his best 18 Kodak Challenge holes will win $1 million. The Kodak Challenge concludes on No. 17 at the Children’s Miracle Network Classic on November 11-14. The McGladrey Classic joins the Kodak Challenge at a highly competitive juncture. Fifteen PGA TOUR players are currently within three strokes of Fowler, and another eighteen sit four shots back.


According to Steve Powell, director of program development for the Kodak Challenge, The McGladrey Classic is a great addition to the final chapter of the Kodak Challenge season.

“No. 13 at The McGladrey Classic brings added excitement to the final stretch of the Kodak Challenge, as it gives pros a challenging, yet viable scoring opportunity. With just seven holes to go and more than 30 TOUR players within striking distance of our leader, our Kodak Challenge hole at Sea Island is sure to deliver some great action,” Powell commented.

About the Par 4, 408-yard Hole #13 at The Seaside Course:

Golfers need to take steady aim off the tee as this dog leg left has bunkers along the entire right side of the fairway and a marsh along the left. Depending on the wind, a driver will still leave golfers with a middle iron in to the green, which is protected by a front side bunker.



Kodak Challenge Provides Picture-Taking Moments

Since the Kodak Challenge records a player’s best 18 Kodak Challenge holes scores, pros with a full Kodak Challenge scorecard can move up the leaderboard quickly. Once a player reaches 18 holes, subsequent holes (beyond 18) provide the opportunity to replace bogeys and pars on their Kodak Challenge scorecards with birdies (or even eagles!). This can create a one, two, or even three-shot swing in a player’s score on just one hole.

Several players within striking distance of Fowler have bogeys to replace, including Steve Lowery (-10), Jimmy Walker (-9) and Aaron Baddeley (-9). Three other players at 8-under-par have bogeys on their Kodak Challenge scorecards.

Kevin Streelman claimed the first Kodak Challenge title at the PGA TOUR’s final event of the 2009 season, the Children’s Miracle Network Classic in Lake Buena Vista, FL. Streelman’s early-round birdie at No. 17 on the Magnolia Course clinched the Kodak Challenge crown, netting the second-year TOUR professional the Kodak Challenge trophy and the winner-take-all $1 million prize.

Here's the up-to-date Kodak Challenge Leaderboard (as of 8/18) with the name of golfer, holes played and score:

Rickie Fowler 16 -12

Troy Merritt 17 -11

Brendon de Jonge 17 -10

Ted Purdy 17 -10

Steve Lowery 15 -10

Charlie Wi 14 -10

Carl Pettersson 16 -9

Mark Wilson 16 -9

Jason Bohn 15 -9

John Senden 13 -9

Zach Johnson 12 -9

PGA of America President Brian Whitcomb chats with Golf for Beginners about the McGladrey Team Championship

Click here to listen.

PGA of America President Brian Whitcomb joins forces with Golf for Beginners this week to spread the word about an exciting tournament designed especially for us, the amateur golfer!

The McGladrey Team Championship is the opportunity for golfers with a verifiable USGA handicap to compete on a national level promoting teamwork and cameraderie as two of its goals.

Teams of three golfers each will first qualify locally through August. Then, a PGA Professional golfer will join the group for the Sectional Qualifiers which begin in September culminating in a National Championship to be played October 20-22 at the famed Pinehurst Resort in N.C.

Approximately fourteen thousand golfers signed up for the inaugural Championship and attendance is expected to double. Women, who only made up about 4.5% of last year's total entrants (650), are expected to easily top 15% of the total number of competitors!





Brian's personal take on the McGladrey Team Championship is that it "blends the competitive spirit and bridges the relationship between the PGA professional and their members and guests that they're playing with as well as the fraternal and social side of this great game."

The sponsors slogan, "With the right team, anything's possible" along with the PGA of America's ideology to increase the public's desire to "play more golf, and ensure accessibility to the game for everyone, everywhere," are also dominant principles behind this successful recurring event.

Team McGladrey asked LPGA golfer Natalie Gulbis, Masters Champion Zach Johnson and PGA Tour fan favorite and XM radio show host Chris DiMarco to also join forces with this event "because they capture the very same qualities we strive to achieve with all of our client engagements – integrity, excellence and passion."

Listen to this week's show to find out more about this exciting best-ball team tournament.

Choose your teammates today and sign up at: pga.com/teamchampionship.

The best of luck to all who enter!

Barry said he's got a "trick up his sleeve" to win the McGladrey Team Championship. Find out what that is and hear Brian's response on our podcast!


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