There are three seasons in professional golf: the winter tour, the summer tour and the made-for-TV tour. In recent weeks, we’ve seen the Grand Slam of Golf on TBS and the Shark Shootout on ESPN and CBS. Saturday comes one of the oldest-the Skins Game on ABC.
“In a sense, the Skins Game is not something made for TV,” disputes Vin Scully, who will be broadcasting the event for the 10th time in its 11 years. “It is something all of us play. I never really looked at it as a made-for-TV event as opposed to barrel-jumping.
“Just last year, the players came back to the 17th hole for the playoff, and all four shots came inside eight feet. The first three players just missed their putts. Payne Stewart knocked his in and made $220,000. That was as much tension as I’ve seen in any golf match in the world. This is a different approach to the game, but it is very much a part of the game.”
Arnold Palmer, one of the Skins Games originals, returns to take on the Tour youngsters-defending champ Stewart, Fred Couples and Paul Azinger (back permitting). With Palmer a last-minute replacement for bad-boy John Daly, the producers (OCC Sports Inc. and Trans World International) hope for the record-breaking audience the telecast had two years ago when it had the largest national rating in history for a Saturday golf event at 6.3.
And, says Palmer, the move may pay off. “The interest I’ve heard since I’ve become involved is tremendous,” adds Palmer, at least 30 years older than the other three contestants. “People have been calling and sending me telegrams wishing me luck, because they know I’m going against the odds. When the people asked me to play, it took me a while to say I would. This will be the last (regular Skins Game) I’ll do. But, on any given hole, I could hit a couple good shots, make a good putt and that could could be a key to the Skins Game.
“If I were all three of those young guys, I’d be out there to stop Arnold Palmer from getting a skin simply because it would be embarrassing if he won a skin or two. If they plot against me, I won’t mind it. As a matter of fact, I’ll enjoy it. That’ll only make the skin, if I win it, that much more enjoyable.”
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Just like a good made-for-TV movie plot.
Choice of one: The Skins Game also plays a role in ABC’s college football plans this weekend. Because of the golf telecast, the network had committed to only one regional telecast Saturday. Unfortunately for Chicago viewers, that telecast will feature Penn State and Michigan State, while most of the rest of the nation will get-swallow hard-the Florida State-Florida contest.
Rose Bowl update: ESPN will telecast the Wisconsin-Michigan State football game live at 10:30 p.m. Dec. 4, picking up the contest in progress unless network officials can talk the Tokyo promoters into moving back the kickoff half an hour. ESPN is adding two cameras to the Japanese coverage in addition to sending Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson to handle the announcing chores.
House call: Hall of Famer Julius Erving will replace Quinn Buckner on NBC’s “NBA Showtime” pregame show starting Christmas night after signing a multiyear contract with the network earlier this week. “I don’t see myself as a reporter,” said the legendary Dr. J, who has busied himself as a soft-drink distributor and cable-TV operator in Philadelphia since retiring six years ago. “I had some experience with a cable show when I was a player. I felt comfortable in front of the camera. This shouldn’t be too much of a transition.”
NBC Sports Executive Producer Tommy Roy said Erving was selected over such candidates as Norm Van Lier and Mychal Thompson because “whenever there was a big event in the NBA, Julius often was there and was so well-spoken. He not only was well-received by the fans, but whenever we would talk to the current players and ask them who their hero was, Dr. J was virtually the unanimous choice.”
Local focus: “Chicago Slices,” the quirky magazine show on WPWR-Ch. 50, turns again to sports at 10 p.m. Sunday with features on Roosevelt High basketball coach Manny Weincord, WSCR-AM host Mike (“I’ve never been in a locker room”) Murphy and John Anderson, the Sox fan who caught a Dave Winfield milestone home run.
No connection: Any decision to add ESPN2 to TCI cable systems in the area by the first of the year apparently is in the hands of TCI executives in Denver. “Corporate will determine what systems will be carrying (ESPN2),” says an official with Chicago Cable, TCI’s largest local affiliate. “We’re increasing channel capacity in the first quarter of ’94, and we hope ESPN2 will be one” of the new channels.
Originally, it was thought when TCI signed a retransmission agreement with ABC/Cap Cities, ESPN2 would automatically be added as soon as channel capacity increased. “Our agreement is not structured that way,” says George Bodenheimer of ESPN. “We have a corporatewide agreement with TCI that calls for a specific commitment to ESPN2. They can satisfy that commitment” by carrying ESPN2 anywhere in “their universe. Chicago was one option. We’re going to encourage distribution from TCI sooner rather than later.”