David Feherty

David Feherty works for CBS Sports as an on-course reporter and golf analyst. Feherty is a contributor to Golf Magazine and has his own column in the back of the magazine called Sidespin.  David is a very entertaining sports announcer and also has his own TV show called Feherty.  Feherty's job as a sports announcer is to follow a group in a tournament call their every shot.  He tells you what club, how far, what kind of lie they have, and why kind of shot they should play.  He makes watching golf very entertaining because of his quick witted jokes and his foreign punch lines.  Feherty makes the game easier to understand also because he explains what is going on and clarifies things that might be confusing to the everyday amateur.  His talk show, Feherty, is a show that every golf knows about and is a every golfers dream to be on.  The show originally debuted in June 2011 as the most-watched original series in Golf Channel history. Feherty received an Emmy nomination in 2014 for “Outstanding Sports Personality”. Feherty has gone one-on-one with celebrities across golf, sports and entertainment, including former President Bill Clinton, basketball Hall-of-Famers Bill Russell and Charles Barkley, actors Don Cheadle and Samuel L. Jackson, and golfers Tom Watson and Greg Norman and many more.  He creates a different perspective in golf with getting to sit down and talk about these players.  His personality makes it easier for golfers to talk to him about anything.  His show gives the audience an insight on previous tournament victories/play, personal issues, how they practice and train, to what is their favorite thing to do other then golf. Feherty’s success extends beyond broadcasting. He has authored six books, with several making the New York Times “Best Sellers List.”  Thanks to his sharp wit and clever jokes, he has become golf’s most irrepressible personality and a viewer favorite.
















http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Feherty
http://www.golfchannel.com/about/bio/david-feherty/

Media in Golf

With Rory Mcilory on the rise and Tiger on the fall, there are questions that are raised if golf is on the up or the down?  Many would say that golf is declining because of Tiger's fall from beginning the best to be ranked in the mid 50s in the world.  And this would be true, many credit Tiger's dominance for the construction for new golf course and country clubs.  Many of these course are now shutdown or don't make very much money at all because of the decrease in popularity but there has been a spike in recent years as new young players have stood out on tour.  These include Rory Mcilory, Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, Keegan Bradley and many others.  Even though they aren't a Tiger Woods, they still are helping the game get more popular.
Media in golf is very important in the growth of the game.  As many players are on social media and this helps grow the game.  29% of German golfers use social media to follow golf.  More people get there information on golf from social media then from TV, newspaper, or internet sources.  Even though some of the Golf Channel shows have increased ratings like, morning drive, the golf fix, and the school of golf, more people still get their information from social media.  The broadcasters for golf are NBC, CBS, and the Golf Channel.  Also ESPN covers the British Open but that is the only tournament they cover.  TV ratings have decreased because of factors like playoffs to win tournaments.  In the past two years there has not been many playoffs and these playoffs help TV ratings.  Even though TV ratings are down, the audience in golf have increased about 7 to 8 percent.  I believe this is because of increase of young players contending for tournaments.  Players that are now 21-25 are at the top of the leaders boards consistently.  Ratings might show a decrease in interest but I believe the game is becoming bigger and more popular in a way.










http://www.golfchannel.com/news/golf-central-blog/finchem-tv-ratings-down-total-audience/

Should Golfer's be Considered Role Models?

Golf is a game that teaches young kids good judgment, honesty, and good etiquette.  I believe golfers should be look at as role models because golfers aren't usually that crazy where they are getting thrown in jail or getting caught doing drugs.  They are usually guys who don't really mess up.  Even though there are those stories like the ones of Tiger Woods, John Daley, or Dustin Johnson where the player does mess up, but they usually bounce back.  These players should be good role models because it will help grow the guy and make kids get more active in the sport.  Golfers show good character and class when they play and I believe this rubs off on young kids.  With these golfers becoming role models it will help teach kids many things like to , manage your emotions, practice personal responsibility, and help prepare for business.  Golf is a very frustrating sport and getting frustrated is the downfall to most peoples games, so you have to control these emotions.  Even though this is one of the hardest things to do but once you accomplish it, it helps it a lot of situations. Golf also helps with business as much business is talk about over a round of golf.  This sport gives kids an opportunity to learn about personal responsibility.  Golf you have to be responsible for you and your stuff, also for your actions.  Golfers own it to the fans and to the Tour for being good role models as they already posses good character and respect for the game which helps teach young kids life lesson and how to act properly.









http://blog.thefirsttee.org/2013/10/07/10-reasons-young-people-play-golf/

Messing Up Off the Course

Dustin Johnson is one of the longest if not the longest hitter on tour.  He is entertaining to watch as he bombs his drive 340 yards down the middle of the fairway.  So it was a shock to everyone on tour and to all the fans when they heard he was taking a leave of absence last July.  This leave of absence would stretch out to 6 months keeping the 8 time PGA tour winner out of the PGA Championship and the FedEx Cup playoffs.  Not to also mention that he would have qualified for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, which we all know would have been a big help to team U.S.A.  This leave of absence was because of Dustin testing positive for cocaine.  This left Dustin and the PGA tour in a uncomfortable situation where it was either suspended him or to let him  take a 'leave of absence'.  All this did was make it easier for Johnson in his time that he took off the course to get back on track.
Johnson said that this was something that has been apart of his life, he blames most of his problems on his drinking habits.  As Dustin took time away from the game he said he didn't need rehab but brought in a team of experts, such as a life coach.  He also spent a lot of time with his family.  He is engaged to Paulina Gretzky, daughter of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.  Him and his fiancé rented a house near her parents in Southern California eating ever breakfast and dinner together.  Johnson said he play six times a week with Wayne and broke the course record at Sherwood Country Club with a 61.  He has already made his return from his leave of absence and Johnson is confident that this problem will never come up again. 








http://espn.go.com/golf/story/_/id/12198973/dustin-johnson-says-cocaine-problem

What the Super Bowl Does that Ever Sport Should Do

The Super Bowl does the best job in getting people to watch the game.  Even though football is one of if not the most popular sport in America, the Super Bowl does the best job with advertisements and endormesments.  This makes the Super Bowl get higher tv ratings and make even more money. NBC Sports PR has announced that the Patriots’ Super Bowl XLIX victory over the Seahawks delivered a 49.7 overnight rating, the highest in Super Bowl history. This makes the game more popular and something that ever sport should learn from.

This is something that golf could use. Even though in the past 10 years the sport has grown a lot, it could still use some help.  Golf could use more advertisements to increase there tv ratings for their regular your events.  For the tours major event they do a good job in advertising and making it a big deal.  For the tours four majors is when the have the highest tv ratings. If they could somehow use the same ideas for the regular tour events to help increase tv ratings. They could also make the fields stronger so the tournaments could be more exciting so more people would watch. This would help grow the game and make it more popular.  The main thing the Super Bowl does is help grow the game, this is something every sport can learn from and should try to reenact 

Super Bowl Reactions

This past Super Bowl was one to remember, not just for the great game that was played by the two teams, but for the fans and how many people got screwed out of tickets.  Many people bought tickets from smaller ticket brokers like SeatGeek and Prominent Tickets.  These ticket brokers couldn't provide for the fans.  These brokers practice something called short selling where brokers sell tickets that they don't have at a price and then when it gets closer to game time they buy cheaper tickets and thats where they make their profit.  It wasn't the case this year where normally ticket prices drop as it gets closer to the game time but this year ticket prices were increasing as it got closer to the game. 
So this puts these brokers in a situation they normally aren't in.  They were selling tickets they didn't have and then when they went to buy these tickets at a cheaper price, they weren't there.  So this left people who thought they bought tickets with none.  These fans paid for air fair, hotel rooms, etc. and then when it came game time they were left with no tickets and no entry to the game.  This also left all the brokers in a worse position then they were, not only they lost money from tickets, they also paid back all the people they screwed out of tickets twice of what they paid.  This Super Bowl you could say was very memorable, and for some that memory was not good at all.




http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12255886/hundreds-super-bowl-tickets-fall-through