Golf Question of the Week: Is Kelly Tilghman the Best Play-by-Play Announcer in Televised Sports?
Thursday night. Ah, the baseball playoffs are on TBS.
Hey, there's Craig Sager reporting from the field, looking resplendent in his pink shirt, fluorescent polka-dotted tie (with matching handkerchief) and Al Capone-pinstripe ensemble that would make Huggy Bear cry.
Click.
OK ... ESPN's got Florida State and Wake Forest. Chris Fowler's on the play-by-play, with Craig James and Doug Flutie providing in-depth insight.
Click.
At least The Golf Channel's showing a replay of today's first round of the Frys.com Open in Vegas. Maybe we can finally get to listen to an announcer who represents a voice of reason, free of gratuitous shtick but chock full of relevant analysis.
But wait - 15 minutes into the broadcast, TGC's lead play-by-play broadcaster is nowhere to be seen or heard.
Where's Kelly Tilghman when you really need her?
She must be taking the week off. Too bad, really. In a fall season where notable colleagues from other major sports are too busy feeding their oversized egos, just listening to themselves talk or ensuring that the lame Tom Hanks line from "A League of Their Own" will never, EVER die, Tilghman has distinguished herself in her first season as The Golf Channel's lead broadcaster by comparatively flying under the radar.
And in this day and age, I don't think that's a bad thing. It's kind of like the old adage about game officials, on how you can judge how well they've done their jobs by realizing how little you've talked about them during the game.
In other words ... if they don't make you want to hurl your can of Milwaukee's Best through the brand-new plasma screen, they must be doing one helluva job.
With that, I'll dare to pose the Question of the Week:
Is the pride of North Myrtle Beach the best lead play-by-play voice in major sports television?
In my view, here's who she's up against:
- Al Michaels, NFL (NBC)
- Joe Buck, NFL/MLB (FOX)
- Jim Nantz, NCAA Basketball/NFL/PGA Tour (CBS)
- Dan Hicks, PGA Tour (NBC)
- Mike Tirico, NFL/NBA (ESPN/ABC)
- Brent Musberger, NCAA Football (ESPN/ABC)
- Bryant Gumbel, NFL (NFL Network)
Remember - we're talking about play-by-play announcers, not color analysts (that's a whole other discussion for another time). Once you take the latter out of the equation, it's a pretty short list, isn't it?
If you're a devout NASCAR fan, feel free to write in your favorite candidate - I simply don't follow stock car racing enough to offer a qualified opinion.
Time to weigh in, Beach Bloggers. Where does Kelly Tilghman rank on this list?
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I can’t stand her technique… WAY too much information… reads all the on- screen info to us when we can read it ourselves.. this is TV, not radio…uses too many nicknames, she really thinks she’s something
Kelly is an undercover racist. She should be fired for her recent remarks about Tiger Woods.