Nice to have quotage on a Saturday. Here’s what the TNT crew said during the early 3rd round coverage of the Open Championship.
Notes from TNT’s Coverage of the Open Championship from the Ailsa Course at Turnberry in Scotland
Round Three – Saturday, July 18, 2009
TNT’s coverage of the Open Championship concludes Sun., July 19 from 6 am – 8 am ET/PT. Watch live video coverage on PGA.com
Announcers: Ernie Johnson (play-by-play), Ian Baker-Finch (analyst), Bill Kratzert (analyst) and Jim Huber (reporter)
Baker-Finch on the absence of Tiger Woods’ coach Hank Haney and the poor performance of Tiger Woods which caused him to miss the cut of the Open Championship: “Tiger told me that Hank (Haney) is going to work with Tiger leading into the majors and not come to the majors so he can just go out and concentrate on this game and concentrate on golf. Hank watches from home, I’m sure Hank’s seeing exactly what’s happening on those bad shots. They’ll go back and they’ll discuss it. Tom Weiskopf had a great expression last night, he said he’s going to retool. (Tiger is) going to home and retool, work on the things that went wrong under pressure and come back stronger next time.”
Kratzert on Tiger Woods following a similar pattern this year that he did in 2007 when he won the PGA Championship: “We saw the same pattern the year he won the PGA at Southern Hills. He did not play well over here, he was frustrated, didn’t hit any balls. All of a sudden, he went to the practice range, he kind of figured it out on his own and went on and won at Firestone and then won at Southern Hills. All of a sudden that started that streak of seven victories in a row. So he’ll go home and he’ll figure it out. He’s really disappointed with his performance and it is totally unacceptable for him.”
Baker-Finch on teeing off on the 10th hole: “You’re elevated, the water and the cliff to the left hand side, severe rough on both sides, bunkers to avoid as well as that left to right wind…if you’re going to fear a tee shot, that’s the one you’re going to fear.”
Baker-Finch on the lack of confidence Justin Rose has in his swing: “I played with Justin Rose for the first two rounds at the Colonial (Invitational) a couple of months ago and he’s just not quite there from a confidence standpoint with his swing. When the pressure’s on, it gets a little bit tighter.”
Kratzert on Steve Marino who started Round Three in second place: “(Steve Marino) is a feel player, is his golf swing technically sound? I would have to say no, but the fact that he putts the ball so well and the fact that he’s like a (Fredrick) Jacobson…there are a lot of players out on the TOUR that get the job done with quality and there are a lot of players who get the job done with quantity. I think Marino is one of these quantity players, but if he keeps the hot putter he’s going to stay in it.”
Baker-Finch on the classic 1977 Open Championship which featured a showdown between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus dubbed ‘Duel in the Sun’: “I just have seen that at least 20 times, I think it’s the best. There are a lot of great Masters moments, but I think that the ‘Duel in the Sun’ with (Tom) Watson and (Jack) Nicklaus is just the absolute classic. There was a period of time there from 1977 to 1982 when we saw Jack and Tom battling it o
ut in a lot of major championships.”
I love the quotage. But if you visit here often, you knew that already.
