GolfTube: CBS fails to produce during a key moment in the final round

Sizing up the TV coverage from the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am … and away we go.

It was billed at the “penultimate pairing,” a Tiger and Phil showdown for the ages that was supposed to draw viewers to their couches on Sunday afternoon, as two of the greatest golfers on the planet went head-to-head in the second-to-last group on one of the most picturesque backdrops in golf.

Honestly, I don’t think a TV writer could have scripted a better final round story. It was beyond perfect, and CBS capitalized on the moment by posting its highest rated Pebble Beach finish in 15 years.

That was the good news for CBS. The not so good news is that the network once again failed to produce during a key moment in the tournament on Sunday afternoon. Blame it on the the suits and antiquated rules, but there was once again a 30-plus minute window during the final round when the tournament wasn’t on television.

We’ve talked about this issue in the past, but CBS’s decision to run college basketball coverage right up to the start of the golf tournament is a problem that needs to be rectified — especially when you have a marquee pairing on the course.

Following the Golf Channel’s early round coverage from Pebble, the network went back to the studio at 2:30 p.m. ET to kill time before CBS came on the air at 3:00 p.m. The only problem was CBS never goes live with golf coverage on time. During college basketball season in years past, there has maybe been one or two games that ended on time.

And once again on Sunday afternoon, the Michigan-Illinois game went over. There were still two minutes on the clock when 3:00 p.m. rolled around, which meant viewers were stuck wondering what the heck was going on for almost 50 minutes.

Sure, the Golf Channel gave a couple of live look-ins and some updates, but for almost an hour, viewers were stuck getting updates from the studio and Twitter (yet, the social media site went ballistic when CBS failed to go live to Pebble on time).

The big question is why didn’t CBS allow the Golf Channel to show coverage right up until the college basketball game was over? The two networks have used the word “synergy” ad nauseam since they joined forced, but when it mattered most, both came up short, missing coverage of Tiger Woods’ back-to-back bogeys on the 7th and 8th holes — which turned out to be a critical turning point in the tournament.

I understand CBS has a deal with the NCAA and college basketball is a cash cow for the network, but someone needs to come up with a backup plan for these situations. You would think the Golf Channel and CBS would be working together to make this possible, but Sunday’s screwup told a completely different story.

There has to be a solution to this problem. CBS has had no problem in the past handing the tail end of Saturday round to the Golf Channel. You have to wonder why the network continues to have issues doing the same thing on Sunday afternoon.

Devil Ball Golf – Golf – Yahoo! Sports