Quick Review: "Golf's Longest Day"

Traveling back from Columbus, I only got to see the second half of Golf Channel's "Golf's Longest Day" look at U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying, but what I saw seemed pretty spectacular for a first crack at covering something no one thought to tackle until 2012.

Considering the task at hand--11 sectional sites across the country--the goal of capturing a sense of the day would be difficult-to-impossible, but with at least two YouTube-worthy moments and introductions of fresh faces making their major championship debuts, the day was a resounding success.

Any questions about the channel's investment in sectional Monday will surely be eliminated as Dennis Miller's playoff birdie putt goes viral and makes its way into the NBC telecast from Olympic. More subtle was Golf Channel putting Casey Martin's final putt in the dark on the air as a commercial bumper, not more than a minute after Twitter followers learned from on-site correspondents that the Oregon golf coach and former Stanford golfer had made it back to the U.S. Open. If you watch the replay, note the subtle moment after high-fiving his caddie where Martin stops, puts his hands on his hips, looks to the sky and considers the accomplishment of making it back to the Open 14 years after last playing at Olympic Club. He then goes to shake his playing partners' hand, but moments of accomplishment like that have only been mentioned in lightly-read stories until Golf Channel gave us "Golf's Longest Day."

The coverage was not without the expected hiccups. Some correspondents were much better interviewers than others, while there was not nearly enough footage of play captured. And I'd much rather hear from, say, Dennis Miller's gallery or some caddies or players who did not make it to Olympic than to get remote reports from Far Hills or Olympic Club. While those reports were well handled by Jerry Foltz and Tim Rosaforte, they were ultimately no match for the sights, sounds and reports from the Sectionals.

Still, that's a minor quibble. For the first year of such an unprecedented undertaking, Golf Channel is to be applauded. Particularly if you left your television on and listened to the dreck that was the ensuing programming: Big Break Atlantis. Go figure, a faux "reality show" following American golf's real reality show: U.S. Open Sectional Qualifying, which demonstrated all that is great with the game, and all that the Golf Channel has the potential to become as a gathering place for those who love the sport.