Sep 29, 2023; Rome, ITA; Team USA golfer Rickie Fowler reacts to missing a putt on the sixth green during day one foursomes round for the 44th Ryder Cup golf competition at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports
GolfNBCBy Awful Announcing Staff on

If there’s one thing golf fans are very passionate about, it’s the television coverage of tournaments and the amount of golf shots they actually get to witness live. Sometimes it can feel as though golf fans are watching an infomercial interrupted by a golf tournament rather than a golf tournament interrupted by commercials. The 2023 Ryder Cup and NBC’s coverage of the tournament early Friday morning at Marco Simeone in Italy was unfortunately no exception.

Of course, the Ryder Cup is unique in that there’s much more limited action than a typical golf tournament. With only four matches happening during each section there could be as little as 8 balls on the course in alternate shot foursomes. Compare that to a Sunday of a major when there there could be 50-70 players that make the cut and are still competing.

While there might be more natural lulls in the action, with fewer golfers to track, it should be easier to present every shot possible. Nevertheless, fans were still apoplectic over NBC’s Ryder Cup coverage and that the network was missing shots and overloading commercials.

If it wasn’t the commercials, it was also how NBC was using their airtime that also fell under criticism with the Zach Johnson cart cam drawing viewers’ ire.

This is far from a new phenomenon, especially when it comes to NBC’s coverage. Fans at both the US Open and British Open were upset with NBC’s commercial load, especially in the early rounds of the tournament when the network appeared to be frontloading advertisements to hopefully show more golf in the latter stages. Perhaps that’s the strategy here as well, but there has to be a better way to balance how to show more live action throughout the tournament. If Formula 1 can show live commercial-free races in the United States on ESPN, surely there’s a better solution out there.

Televised golf has made a lot of strides this year in coverage. Multiple tournaments have gone with commercial free final hours to serve the best interest of fans when it matters most. There have been lots of positive, creative innovations like the live walk-and-talk interviews during live action.

Of course, given Team Europe got off to a 4-0 start against the USA in the first session of the event, maybe NBC is trying to get all their ads in before the cup can be clinched.