February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
As Harrington strode to the second playoff hole, along with eventual winner Sergio Garcia and a third playoff contender, Rory Sabbatini, the ABC network’s coverage of the tournament’s dramatic climax was suddenly yanked.
And instead of the hole that decided the tournament, viewers were treated to a TV golf fan’s equivalent of a triple bogey — “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Worse, the show was a rerun.
“It was deeply disappointing,” said New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade chairman John Dunleavy.
Dunleavy, an avid golfer, was watching the final holes of the tournament, played at Westchester Country Club in Harrison, along with other members of the Links at Union Vale club, a few miles to the north in Dutchess County.
The announcement that coverage was being ended just as the playoff threesome was heading for the second playoff hole was greeted with groans and hoots of derision in the Union Vale clubhouse.
“If Tiger [Woods] was in the playoff they wouldn’t have done that,” Dunleavy said. “I think ABC has been hearing about it. They won’t do that again.”
Ciaran Carr, the professional at Union Vale, said he was mystified at the sudden end of the live coverage.
“I had turned away from the TV for a minute and when I came back I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “Everybody I have been talking to is upset. I was talking to one friend down in South Carolina and he thought the cut off was just in his market.”
In fact, the last deciding minutes of the tournament were shown only to ABC viewers on the West Coast. All other regions of the country went to other programming after the network’s golf commentators said they had run out of their allotted time.
“It’s very disappointing. It doesn’t happen every week that one of our Irish golfers is in such close contention,” said Carr, a native of Drogheda, Co. Louth.
Dubliner Dave Jones, who is the golf professional at Silver Spring Country Club in Ridgefield, Conn., said he too had been left staring in disbelief when the tournament coverage vanished from his screen.
“It’s not that the three players were unknowns. You had two top 10 players, three from the top 30, and Garcia and Harrington in particular have to be fancied for this week’s U.S. Open,” said Jones, a former assistant-pro at the Westchester course where the Buick Classic was played.
For some, the switch from the climax of a live sports event to shots of people tripping over dogs in their backyards was reminiscent of the infamous “Heidi Bowl” football game of 36 years ago.
On a November afternoon in 1968, the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders, two teams at the peak of their game, were engaged in a titanic struggle in the Oakland Coliseum.
The Jets, led by Joe Namath, were 32-29 up with 50 seconds left. NBC went to a commercial, but when fans across the U.S. rushed back from the bathroom or fridge, they were confronted by a pig-tailed kid in the mountains. NBC had switched to the movie “Heidi.”
Meanwhile, the Raiders surged back with two touchdowns in 42 seconds to win 43-32. Countless befuddled fans were none the wiser.
On Sunday, some intrepid golf viewers managed to find snippets of the final minutes of the Buick Classic on ESPN. Most, however, were left staring at people falling over or running into glass doors.
A possible hint of the coverage troubles to come was evident on the ABC Sports Web site.
The Web site contained a list of 2004 PGA tournaments under the heading of “When to watch golf on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC.” A click on “Buick Classic,” however, merely informed the browser that the search for information was futile.
“You’ve reached an ESPN Web page that does not exist,” the Web site stated.
Repeated calls to ABC in New York, meanwhile, ended up in a telephonic bunker.
Expectations that Padraig Harrington might finally win a tournament on U.S. soil had built steadily throughout Sunday afternoon’s final round.
He fought his way into the playoff by holing a 16-foot chip on the 18th from the edge of the green.
It was the Dubliner’s putter that was to ultimately let him down. He missed an 8-foot putt to win on the first playoff hole — his ball was closer to the cup than either of his rival’s — and then opened the door to Garcia by hitting three, off the TV screen and just off the second playoff green.
Harrington finished in joint second place with four consecutive rounds of 68, a paycheck of $462,000 and a little unexpected anonymity to spare his blushes