With this being ESPN’s last year televising golf’s US Open, it’s also the last opportunity to hear Chris Berman call a major championship golf tournament.
Berman’s assignment at the US Open is traditionally the most derided on the sports calendar. It’s an unnatural fit that defies explanation. A man that has made a living off of yelling “WHOOP!” noises and creating his own campy nicknames entering the world of Jim Nantz and proper etiquette just doesn’t seem right. It would be like hiring Gilbert Gottfried to read Shakespeare on audio tape, and doing so unironically. Take whatever angst there is amongst soccer fans towards Gus Johnson and Eric Wynalda and multiply it by 1,000. That’s the golf world’s response to Chris Berman announcing one of their major tournaments.
Like clockwork, in 2011, 2012, and 2013 we chronicled the frustration of golf fans subject to Berman announcing the US Open. If you Twitter searched “Chris Berman” in 2014 you’d find predominantly much the same thing.
But since this is his last year, we thought we’d do something different. Inspired by Twitter pal @sctvman, here are Real Tweets from Real People who are actually fans of Chris Berman’s golf commentary…
https://twitter.com/Theonlypack/status/477120946256351232
Chris Berman commentating the #USopen is the best decision espn has made in the last 8 years
— Stanley Yelnats (@bobbybased) June 12, 2014
https://twitter.com/TannerBasil/status/477161603834843138
Chris Berman is a great commentator
— PTSjuice (@Brandon_Joutras) June 12, 2014
https://twitter.com/Cali_Quis/status/477122855222923264
Gotta love chris berman narrating us open
— Ari Gold (@Santo_487) June 13, 2014
Love that Chris Berman announced us open. Doesn't know what he's doin but great nevertheless.
— Sheamus McNamara (@sheamusmcnamara) June 12, 2014
I love how Chris Berman is commentating the U.S. Open. It just makes watching golf more interesting.
— Daniel McClung (@dmcclung99) June 12, 2014
https://twitter.com/Shankapotomus54/status/477134983275241472
I wish I could explain this phenomenon, but I guess it’s merely the fact that out of the millions of viewers watching the US Open yesterday there was bound to be a handful of people that A) Enjoyed Chris Berman’s commentary B) Had access to Twitter and C) Were willing to share their thoughts publicly. Let’s just chalk it up to a statistical inevitability.
Also, take this as a lesson that you should never know what to expect when you visit Awful Announcing.
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