BBC Surrenders Open

The powers that be at the BBC have revealed that their coverage of the Open will end one year earlier than previously planned – and that’s next year, thank you very much.

From 2016 the Beeb will show TV highlights, provide some radio coverage, and a bit of online coverage, whatever that means. And that’s your lot. There will zero live coverage.

So from next year, Sky will basically own the whole kit and caboodle, and if you are not a Sky subscriber, well bad luck.

We think that it’s an abject surrender, and a terrible missed opportunity for the game. As it stands there is a pitiful amount of golf on the BBC, but The Open was still their great showcase for the game, and provided the opportunity for a younger audience to experience one of the world’s great sporting events.

As we all know, there’s a ton of drama on the first two days, and with a full field out their trying to make the cut, it can be an enthralling introduction to the game at the highest level with a world-class field from all the major tours. And not an ad-break in sight to break your concentration.

But now a dirty great pay-wall is going up, and with the Ryder Cup also long gone, there’s precious little high quality live golf to float any new comers boat.

We’re sure that Sky will do a decent job, but we can’t help thinking that it’s another own goal by the BBC and the R&A: a plague on both their houses.