Sunday 26 September 2010

BBC loses exclusive rights to Masters

IT’S a shame the BBC has lost exclusive live rights to the Masters golf tournament.

The corporation has been the only network to have screened the event in this country for the last 24 years and it will now be sharing coverage with Sky.

Next April the first two days of the tournament will be on Sky only, with both the BBC and Sky showing the final two days.

The Masters has been on the BBC since 1986 and throughout those years it has shown some great events.

One year that stands out was 1996, when Sir Nick Faldo won the green jacket. Greg Norman had led going into the final day, but the pressure seemed to get to him and Faldo took the event.

Another memorable championship was 1997. This was the year of Woods’ first major victory and he took the title by 12 strokes from his nearest rival.

Commenting on the new deal, Barbara Slater, the BBC’s director of sport, said: “The BBC is very proud we have broadcast the Masters every year since 1986 and we are delighted that this new deal enables us to continue this relationship.”

Meanwhile it was interesting to see the England squad chosen for the forthcoming Ashes tour of Australia.

England currently hold The Ashes and let’s hope they can retain them with a series win on Australian soil for the first time since 1986-7.

We don’t want another 5-0 defeat.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Who will Corey pick?

COREY Pavin has a difficult decision to make before he announces his four captain’s choices for this year’s Ryder Cup.

That choice is whether he should pick World Number 1 Tiger Woods, or if he should leave him out of the team.

Woods may be the best player of his generation, but he has never performed well in the Ryder Cup.

In his first Ryder Cup in 1997 at Valderrama Woods was expected to gain five points from five, but he only took one-and-a-half.

In 2008 at Valhalla, the last time the Ryder Cup was held, Woods was missing through injury and the team beat Europe. You could feel that America generated the team ethos, which I think had been the reason Europe had done so well in the proceeding events. That year Faldo was not able to instil the team ethic.

I feel that Woods will be picked today (Tuesday, September 7) and he will play his role at Celtic Manor, Newport, from October 1-3.

In my opinion Europe will win this year after a very close contest.

Montgomerie had all the qualities to be a good captain.

Meanwhile, The X Factor has started again and is as watchable as ever.

Did Abbey Johnstone and Lisa Parker ever seriously think they could be singers.