This Open Golf Championship is the second last to be covered by the BBC. From 2017 it is due to move over to Sky.
It is a controversial move but I think a good one. Obviously the elements have presented a challenge this year to players and broadcasters alike.
However, the Scottish weather provides no hiding place for the BBC and nor should it for the Royal and Ancient.
Technically the R&A decision on Saturday morning to cut some of the Old Course greens (but not others) in a links course expecting some big wind was ridiculous. In 1970 the Open was played successfully on the final day at the Old Course in just as great a hooley.
I know because I was there.
The only difference was that 45 years ago the grass on the greens was allowed to grow and not presented as some poor imitation of an American ice rink.
Wind, and the handling of it, is part of the game. In the Open of 1970 the lowest round on the then Saturday final day (and the only one under par) came from the 55-year-old Scottish golfing great John Panton.
Panton knew how to play in the wind and under the wind. He knew how to adapt his game to the conditions and on Saturday morning he would have beaten Dustin Johnston in a straight match, even if he was giving him 150 yards off the tee and around 25 years in age.
The failings of the R&A are not the responsibility of the BBC but their deferential reaction to them is telling. The BBC gave viewers the impression that golf had never been played in a wind before.
On Saturday we could have watched footage of St Andrews from 1970 and the Championship Committee should have been asked the straight question of why on earth did they cut the greens to “protect the course” which needed no other protection than a gusty blaw which makes the Old Course what it was always meant to be.
In a straight contest between Sky’s coverage of the Aberdeen Asset Scottish Open at Gullane last week and the Open at St Andrews this week, it is the Sky golf team who are ahead of the BBC in terms of quality by a country mile.
This is due not to the difference in the standard of the commentators which are both generally high, although the BBC have never been quite the same since they made the daft decision to dispense with the services of the hugely entertaining and knowledgeable Sam Torrance.
They also have an annoying tendency to regularly announce that they are off on a break after 10 minutes slaving at a hot microphone!
Peter Alliss is still capable of the odd bon mot but there is nothing to compare with the poetry of the past.
I grew up listening to the great Henry Longhurst, who was a Nobel laureate of the microphone. His descriptions of the game reduces modern commentating to footless whimsy.
However, it is the production values and the lack of understanding of the interests of real golf fans which really show up the Beeb as second rate.
The camera shots and angles are poor compared to the sustained excellence of the US PGA Tour coverage that we can see every weekend on Sky.
Friday night’s golf coverage illustrated what has gone wrong with the production values of the BBC. It was late at night but the people still on the Old Course included most of the leaders.
The BBC relegated the golf to BBC4, with around two hours of daylight still left on St Andrews meantime.
Then the BBC focused what coverage they did deign to provide almost entirely on three players.
First there was Dustin Johnston, which was fine because he was leading the tournament.
Then there was Jordon Spieth, which was OK because he is the hottest golfing property on the planet.
Thirdly there was Tiger Woods, which was simply ridiculous since the former world No 1 is now more of a harmless tabby cat than a prowling jungle beast.
In contrast, Scotland’s 1999 Open Champion, Paul Lawrie, is having an outstanding tournament, glistening like a granite rock in the tough conditions. He was but a couple of strokes off the lead but virtually none of his great shots were covered live.
No doubt the Beeb producers think that no one notices. They are wrong.
So after next year Sky are due to rule the Open airways.
This means gavel to gavel coverage of each day and intelligent and sensible analysis combined with multi-options for the viewer so that the people can choose which golfers they want to watch rather than be at the mercy of producers with an unhealthy obsession with Tiger Woods.
Finally, Paul Lawrie’s great run at the Claret Jug is another reason for supporting his challenge tournament next week at the traditional Murcar Links just outside Aberdeen.
There will be two Open champions on display Paul himself and John Daly.
This is a full tour event and boasts some real golfing stars with many multiple winners on the European Tour, including PGA champions and World Matchplay winners.
Thanks to Paul’s efforts in making this event happen it means that there are no less than four world class professional golf events for men staged in Scotland this year.