Simpson, ay?

This week’s coverage also taught us another lesson on networks focusing too much on the handful at the very top of the leaderboard and on the star players. When a Webb Simpson ends up winning, we feel somewhat deprived because we hardly saw any of him all week. I don’t know if we saw him at all for the first 60 holes of the tournament.

He finished the first 2 rounds at 5 over par, so we weren’t going to see him either of those days unless he has holed out somewhere. On Saturday, as long as he parring his way around, but still 4 to 6 shots behind the leaders, again, he’s not a big enough name for NBC to show us. So we didn’t see him, even as he shot 68 and inched his way closer to the lead.

On Sunday, I believe they finally picked up on the Simpson story when he birdied the 6th (though obviously that was shown recorded rather than live – until he started making birdies, we weren’t going to see him). Heck, did we even see him tee off on Sunday? He was ahead of Tiger, but they showed us Tiger teeing off.

Again, it goes to show that the lesson here is to show as many players as you possibly can throughout the tournament; don’t just focus on the leaders and bigger names – because a Webb Simpson, like so many others in the field, is capable of winning it.

I’d like to say that NBC learned its lesson; unfortunately, I know better.