Germany's Martin Kaymer became the first man from his country to win the prestigious 114th US Open Sunday at Pinehurst Resort,North Carolina,and Comcast NBC Universal sadly marked its final broadcast of the storied golf tournament after 20 straight years of coverage.Kaymer,29,had previously won the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Sraits,Wisconsin;the World Number One ranking for eight weeks in 2011;10 tournaments on the European Tour-plus the Ryder Cup as a member of Team Europe;as well as the 2014 Players Championship a few weeks ago in Florida.
Kaymer's nine under par 72 blew away the rest of the field by a margin of at least eight strokes.His closest competitors were Americans Erik Compton and Ricky Fowler,who shared second at one under par.Compton,34,a survivor of two heart transplants who is happy to just be alive,became the sentimental favourite as he notched his best PGA showing ever.*
Europeans have taken the last two US Open trophies,with Englishman Justin Rose taking America's national championship last year.Speaking of Kaymer's performance,Ricky Fowler said that Martin was in his own golf tournamnet.Seeing how in control his golf game was kind of pushes me,becuase I was not far off.*
Phil Mickelson,44,was calm as he reflected on his road ahead.The Hall of Famer had carded a poor seven over par at Pinehurst as his putting seemed to desert him,but he looked forward to the next four or five years and the exciting courses on the US Open schedule.The US Open is the only one of the four majors he has yet to win,and only five other men have accomplished this grand slam of golf.*
Meanwhile,the broadcast booth was dealing with another kind of drama.NBC analyst Johnny Miller choked up as he and colleague Dan Hicks signed off.After 20 consecutive years of televising United States Golf Association events,Comcast's NBC Universal and partner Disney's ESPN were outbid by News Corp's Fox Sports last August for the next 12 years of USGA events,which besides the US Open include the US Senior Open,US Women's Open and USGA amateur events.Fox got a 12 year multimedia deal running from 2015 through 2026.Its winning bid was reportedly around 74 million dollars a year-twice what NBC/ESPN were paying.
Fox Sports has zero experience at golf coverage,so there's a big unknown for USGA golf fans in the years ahead.The USGA is the official governing body of the sport in the USA.*
US futures and Asian markets reflected concern about the Iraq crisis and the Federal Reserve possibly raising interest rates sooner rather than later.The S&P futures were down 6.78 points,while the Dow and NASDAQ futures dropped 48.0 and 9.66 points,respectively.Oil futures climbed 0.4%,and gold rose 0.6% as Treasury rates fell.Most Asian markets were down or virtually flat on the Iraq and Fed worries.The Nikkei was down 1.04%,while the Hang Seng fell 0.6% and the KOSPI was flat in Monday trading.
Comcast(CMCST A),News Corporation(NWS)
No comments:
Post a Comment