As Contenders Fell Short Sunday at the PGA, So Did Insightful Commentary from CBS

Mito Pereira's chances vanished on the 72nd hole and Will Zalatoris' putting left before that. John Hawkins wonders why the flagship network didn't go deeper — like ESPN did in the earlier hours.

Each week, Morning Read's John Hawkins takes a look at golf's media world. This week, he reviews the PGA Championship on ESPN and CBS.

It began as Rory McIlroy’s tournament to lose, which didn’t take long, and from there, the 104th PGA Championship dissolved into an exercise of perspective. Is Justin Thomas’ second major title defined more clearly by the largest final-round comeback in tournament history — or the 72nd-hole meltdown of a man very few people envisioned in the Sunday evening storyline?

Why is Mito Pereira, golf’s latest 11th-hour loser and the lone source of all that end-of-regulation commotion, basically receiving a full pardon for hitting too much club off the final tee, a swing which featured ghastly mechanics and led to the water ball that hastened his demise?

We rolled out the black-and-blue carpet for Jean Van de Velde at the 1999 British Open. We dumped a bunch of hairy spiders on that same rug when Phil Mickelson threw away the 2006 U.S. Open. Times haven’t changed, but the media sure has.

How can a ballstriker of such obvious renown (Will Zalatoris) appear so utterly helpless on the greens after ranking among the tournament leaders in putting through 36 holes? Why can’t CBS, which has been televising the pro game for two-thirds of a century, do a better job of identifying and explaining such game-altering occurrences?

Have we become so soft that every crucial episode accompanied by a negative result down the stretch is treated with a five-pound bag of sugar, if at all?

Truth be told — and there really is no other way — the big winner (other than Thomas) last week in Oklahoma was none other than ESPN. Its early-round coverage was superior to anything CBS came up with on either weekend afternoon. The Worldwide Leader also carried the morning action (via streaming) on Saturday and Sunday, which got a bit silly at times and lacked the depth of its Thursday-Friday presentation, but hey, nobody pays a hundred bucks to watch the opening act.

Curtis Strange, one of the best quotes of his era as a player, revived his quipster humor and easy-to-understand knowledge to superb effect during his shifts in the booth. David Duval’s unique, concise observations provided a dimension CBS notably lacks. Andy North and Bill Kratzert offered valuable veteran muscle to the color commentary overall, yielding a product that was fun to watch and far more informative than flimsy.

Imagine listening to a bunch of old salts who have gathered around a TV in the men’s locker room — and they don’t know anyone can hear them.

“That’s just not a good shot,” Kratzert assessed after Jordan Spieth flubbed a wedge into the third green (his 12th) on Thursday. Replied Strange: “You mishit a short iron, you’re just not swinging well.” Let’s move right to the 4th, where Tiger Woods, playing with Spieth and McIlroy, chose a long iron off the tee at a par-4 for the fourth time in his opening round and sent it into the left rough, as he’d done a few holes earlier.

Duval sprung to life. “We’re talking [about] generous landing areas, too,” he said in response to Kratzert’s on-course call. “He made that shot [a baby “stinger”] famous throughout his career and rarely, if ever, would he miss a fairway doing it.”

These aren’t inflammatory statements or below-the-belt attempts to malign two players of ample historical significance. They are candid assessments from men who once played the game at the highest level themselves. Men who were doing their job. “I can’t help but think some of that poor bunker play [is due to a] lack of competition,” Strange surmised after Woods butchered another recovery from a greenside bunker moments later.

It would become Tiger’s fourth bogey in five holes. And a vivid example of the type of critical insight that has been rendered all but extinct in recent years.

ESPN doesn’t waste even a modest amount of time reading putts for the viewer — a reflexive, air-eating, largely worthless practice that has become such a staple at CBS. When Zalatoris frittered away his 36-hole lead with a four-bogey stretch on the front nine Saturday, however, CBS barely addressed the matter beyond the surface. That halting stroke and collection of errant five-footers was dramatically altering the complexion of the golf tournament, but there was a lack of substance to the commentary that didn’t come close to matching the impact of Zalatoris’ struggles.

The following afternoon, CBS would spend at least 10 minutes detailing a penalty drop Zalatoris was forced to take at the par-3 6th. Granted, it was a complex situation involving some bushes immediately alongside a cart path, but it was a tedious and fairly predictable process that ended with Zalatoris executing an excellent chip off cement to within seven feet of the hole.

He made that putt, prompting anchor Jim Nantz to call it the up-and-down of the year. A rather bold overstatement from an announcer of such caliber, given that any tour pro who can fly a fairway-bunker shot 240 yards to within 12 feet of a back-left pin isn’t going to have much trouble with a 25-yard bump off paved concrete.

In the frankest of terms, the 104th PGA was lost by several promising young players — none of whom have a victory on the PGA Tour — more than it was won by Thomas. The champ did exactly what he was supposed to do, and as the late-Sunday leaderboard shuffle created opportunity for the 14-time Tour winner and 2017 Player of the Year, Kentucky’s finest pounced like a wildcat.

Never mind that Thomas attended the University of Alabama. This was an ultra-clutch performance by a top-tier player whose poise, intensity and ability carried him past a group of guys who can’t match him, at least to this point in their careers, in any of those categories. To put it another way, the best player won because the best player won. Too bad the primary network, which did such a fine job last month at the Masters, was unable to reach that standard under similar big-game circumstances at Southern Hills.

Not that anyone at CBS will lose a minute of sleep over such an appraisal. The real pity is that ESPN is done for the year in its obligation to televise events of any size on an “exclusive” basis. Its streaming contract with the Tour remains a weekly commitment, but that’s a limited property with personnel weaknesses and a lack of polish incapable of satisfying most viewers.

The first two days of the Masters, the first two days of the PGA. That is the extent of ESPN’s main-line golf coverage. With its entire starting lineup assembled last week in Oklahoma, however, it was the best television company on the grounds. Surprise, surprise? Imagine Mito Pereira piping a 3-wood down the 18th fairway and holing a 12-footer for birdie to beat Thomas and Zalatoris with room to spare.

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