In a profile piece at Golf.com, James Colgan writes about Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed super tour, with a focus on a man named David Hill, who was brought on board to create the “most exciting golf television ever.”
Hill, 75, who was the founding chairman of FOX Sports, has a resume to deliver the goods.
In the interview with Golf.com, Hill revealed a few of the innovations that Norman’s new venture will attempt to implement, such as 54-hole events (versus 72-hole formats) with shotgun starts.
“I think there’s a couple of things that do that,” Hilll told Golf.com. “The three-day event, the 54 holes — anything you can compress makes things better, because right now the audience has got more alternatives than any time in the history of man.
“With the shotgun start, everything happens between 2-6 p.m. It’s there — it doesn’t start at 6 in the morning and go on and on and on. So you have this concentrated drama in front of you with storylines left, right and center.
“So it’s not a slow, linear progression — ‘and here we are in the Waikiki and it’s late Saturday’ — it’s what’s happening now! Boom!”
Hill, who partnered with Norman as he attempted to launch the World Golf Tour in the mid-90s, envisions a golf broadcast that is more engaging.
“The trick with television production is to work out what’s not there and add it,” he said. “I like all my productions to have the audience leaning forward. And I feel that when people are watching golf, they’re leaning back.”
“What Greg wants to do is to create what we see as the most exciting golf television ever.”
Read the full story at Golf.com.
