Lexi Thompson’s NBC complaints raise bigger LPGA questions

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The bitter end rarely looks good in golf. But at least for most, the bitter end seems the same thing: A walk on the 18th fairway in the season-ending tournament, a chance to send the fans off one last time, one final putt and one last round of applause.

That was the cause of disappointment for retired star Lexi Thompson on Sunday at the CME Group Tour Championship. In what may well be her final LPGA event — at least her last as a full-time player — she wanted the chance to end her career the traditional way, to tee off on the 18th hole. as it likely had been for the better part of the previous few months. But when she left the course on Saturday night and picked up the next day’s group schedules, she was faced with some strange news. In order to fit the LPGA’s broadcast window with NBC, the tour decided to do so separate weekend boxes, sending half of Sunday’s 60 players to the first tee box and half off on the 10th.

As Thompson found herself in the bottom half of the field on Sunday, the news meant her professional career would end with a bang. of the ninth green, not the 18th, would welcome her final standing ovation and fewer fans would be there to witness it all.

VERY SAD

“Very sad when you’re -4 in the season ending event which could easily be the last CME of your career and you won’t even finish #18 because they decide to double the bracket on the last day due to TV. cover window,” Lexi posted on an IG story Saturday night, expressing her displeasure. “Sad I won’t be able to hug all the amazing fans on the 18th tomorrow after I’m done. Hopefully some will be there at number 9. But just know that I’m grateful for all of you.”

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The post raised eyebrows almost immediately in the LPGA world, but not for the reasons one might have thought. For one thing, the LPGA has long maintained the practice of splitting tournament tees on Saturday and Sunday in the fall — a feature driven in part by the game’s glacial pace, dwindling daylight hours and broadcast windows that the LPGA would do well to do. to complete its events. inside. For another, Thompson’s finish on the ninth green at the CME Group Tour Championship would occur only about 30 yards from the amphitheater 18th green, giving fans enough access to move from one place to another for duly dismissed Thompson. And for a third, Thompson only finished tied for ninth because her 54-hole score of 4 under was more than 10 strokes off the lead.

In other words, Thompson’s complaints might have been vindicated (split Sundays are still unusual on the PGA Tour) and she might have been rightly emotional about her professional career ending, but her complaint was leaving a lot to be desired. important context.

OTHER INTERIM

CME Group Tour Championship Saturday The broadcast also came under fire last week from inside the LPGA tent, when CME Group CEO Terry Duffy expressed his displeasure with Golf Channel’s decision to air the tournament’s third round on tape delay.

“That’s bulls**t, isn’t it?He said in a meeting with reporters before the start of the tournament, adding that he hoped LPGA commissioner Molly Marcoux Samaan would “make it not so.”

Duffy is no stranger to criticizing the LPGA. His company is one of the tournament’s biggest beneficiaries, but that didn’t stop him from calling one poor showing from LPGA stars at last year’s CME Band Tournament Championship Dinner. This year, the topic was television rights, an area Duffy hoped — as many golf fans do — that common sense would eventually prevail.

“I would hope that people would understand that if you’re going to continue to build women’s sports, you have to give them the same billing as men,” he said. “Stop— stop it — the stupidity of saying, well, we have to show a men’s tournament because they’re men.”

ARM WITHOUT

A quick refresher: Networks and golf tournaments set broadcast times or windows together. It benefits all parties when the most dramatic moments in the tournament are televised, so the networks will often work to ensure that events are completed within the broadcast window.

Sunday in the CME Group Tour Championship had increased the importance of the broadcast for both sides. NBC was televising the action, a national network with ratings often 10 times that of the Golf Channel, and the LPGA had an early evening break with a very significant viewership. Sunday Night Football coverage will begin with the conclusion of NFL games at 4:00 p.m.

These things combined contributed to NBC’s setting of a 4 p.m. time slot for the telecast of the CME Tour Championship, which contributed to the LPGA’s decision to split the Saturday and Sunday tee boxes, which contributed to the disappointment of Thompson.

WHY

However, the biggest question facing the LPGA/NBC debate is why? Pace of play and TV exposure have become growing problems on the LPGA, and Thompson’s frustration underscored the ways the two problems often coincide.

On the one hand, the tee time decision showed that the LPGA operates on favour of television exposure, working to ensure a compelling broadcast filled the airwaves during one of the rare moments of nationwide exposure. On the other hand, though, it showed the degree to which the pace of play affects the LPGA’s weekly output, in this case casting doubt that 20 top-three pros could finish their rounds between sunrise and 4 p.m.

DOES IT *REALLY* MATTER

In most cases, no: The LPGA will not run into many issues that work in the best interest of the television partners. But at the same time, failing to address the fundamental issues facing tournament telecasts almost certainly undermines the LPGA product. Just last week, Charley Hull described its “ruthless” slow-play solution to cheers from some within the women’s game – “If you get three bad moments, it’s a tee penalty. If you have three (penalties), you lose your tournament card.”

Is such a dramatic step necessary to correct the problem of six-hour rounds on the LPGA? Maybe not. But operating from the current position of appeasing the playing class has kept wallets growing at the cost of nearly everyone else’s displeasure. A growing women’s game seems to be the goal of broadcasters, sponsors and players, but all too often those parties have failed to meet even some of the lower thresholds for increasing entertainment value and viewer interest.

It seems about time someone outlined a solution.

BULLETIN

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