Ryder Cup Becomes Best Dramatic Series in the Sports World

The Ryder Cup golf competition, which began in 1927, wasn’t televised until 1979. ABC devoted only 2 1/2 hours of final-day coverage that year, and got a 1.8 rating.

ABC covered the next Ryder Cup in the United States, in 1983, and also in 1987, when it was at Muirfield in Ohio and the Europeans won for the second time in a row. The coverage was still minimal and the ratings were in the 2s.

The 1989 Ryder Cup, which ended in a tie, was the first in England to be shown in the United States, but it was only on cable. The USA Network did 8 1/2 hours.

A lot of sports fans probably thought the Ryder Cup was a rodeo or a motorcycle race or something sponsored by a rental-truck company.

Then the 1991 Ryder Cup at Kiawah Island, S.C., televised by NBC, provided some of the most dramatic television in the history of golf. When Bernhard Langer missed a six-foot putt that enabled the U.S. to regain the Cup, the scene was stamped in the minds of those who saw it. The Sunday rating was a 2.8.

With Ryder Cup play beginning today in England, the USA Network and NBC, combined, will televise 19 1/2 hours. It’s now a major event, big enough to overshadow Week 4 of the NFL season and the baseball races.

USA will devote nine hours of coverage to the opening round today, beginning at 8 a.m. NBC will cover Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday. On the West Coast, all coverage is delayed.

*

Add Ryder Cup: Leave it to NBC’s Johnny Miller, who will work the 18th-hole tower with Jim Lampley, to stir things up even before the competition begins. During a conference call with reporters this week, Miller questioned the naming of Raymond Floyd to the U.S. team by captain Tom Watson.

“To me, I wouldn’t call it a total obvious pick,” Miller said. “I love Raymond and he is the best 51-year-old golfer in the world. But he was mainly picked because of his relationship with (Fred) Couples.”

Watson’s thinking was that Floyd and Couples make a good team, that Floyd helps Couples concentrate and play smart golf.

“Fred has matured and doesn’t really need Ray Floyd that much any more,” Miller said. “Ray is a great chipper and putter, but he has a dismal Ryder Cup record (9-15-3).

“He is 51 and has a bad Ryder Cup record, so you ask, why pick him? The answer may be because of his guts and fire, but to me he is a bit of a controversial pick.

“(Watson) could have picked quite a few players who bring as much to the table.”

*

Add Miller: In a less controversial vein, he said the first of the two team-play rounds today is probably the most important because the U.S. can’t afford to get behind.

“If a team gets three or four points ahead, it will probably win,” he said. “If the U.S. team gets behind the first day, they will have to play aggressively and Belfry does not do real well with aggressive play.”

USA, in covering today’s round, will use its own announcers--host Bill Macatee and analysts Peter Kostis and Ben Wright--plus Miller and NBC colleagues Roger Maltbie, Dan Hicks, Bob Trumpy, Mark McCumber, and John Schroeder.

Lampley can’t be a part of the USA coverage because his contract with HBO doesn’t allow him to appear on any other cable network.

*

A good bye: Maybe NFL byes aren’t such a bad thing after all. Because the Raiders don’t play this weekend and because the Rams are on the road, Los Angeles viewers will get a CBS doubleheader Sunday.

And the second game, after the Rams and Houston Oilers, is a good one--San Francisco at New Orleans.

*

Add Rams: Former San Francisco 49er, UCLA and Encino Crespi High guard-center Randy Cross, along with play-by-play partner Jim Nantz, will call Sunday’s Ram-Oiler game.

Regarding the Rams’ quarterback situation, Cross, from his home in Atlanta, said, “The bottom line is execution and winning, and Jim Everett has done very little of both since 1989. I wouldn’t be surprised to see (T.J.) Rubley in there pretty soon.

“I think both quarterbacks, Everett and Warren Moon, will be on pretty short leashes.”

*

Good actors: “Monday Night Football” just keeps rolling along. Its 19.0 rating this week gives the series a three-week average of 19.2, an increase of 15% over last season.

All is going well, but what was going on between announcers Al Michaels and Dan Dierdorf toward the end of last Monday’s Kansas City-Denver game?

Michaels, while giving some baseball scores, appeared to get upset when Dierdorf inserted that the Phillies’ Curt Schilling had won his 15th game, questioning Dierdorf’s baseball knowledge.

That got a heated response from Dierdorf, and the two went back and forth. When the announcers were shown on camera, Dierdorf, who along with Frank Gifford was standing, accused Michaels, who was seated, of cowering and pouting.

It was all an act, according to Michaels. Problem was, the act was too convincing. Some viewers were convinced it was a real spat.

Said Michaels: “It was nothing. Dan and I are great friends. Sometimes attempts at humor don’t come off. Dan does tend to get carried away.”

TV-Radio Notes

Bob Starr, recovering from a combination of Legionnaire’s disease and viral pneumonia at his home in Orange, will not be back on the Angels this season, according to KMPC program director Scott O’Neil. “But we’re hoping to have him back for the Rams’ home game Oct. 3 against New Orleans,” O’Neil added. “His doctor has ordered him not to fly.” . . . Chris Roberts, Starr’s replacement on the Rams who continues to do UCLA as well, got a rave review from, of all places, XTRA this week. Morning co-host Chet Forte went out of his way to praise the job Roberts did on the UCLA-Nebraska game last Saturday. “I listened to the game on the radio. I don’t know who the UCLA announcer is, but he did an outstanding job,” Forte said. His partner, Steve Hartman, who knew Roberts’ name, agreed. . . . Second-year UCLA radio commentator David Norrie is also deserving of praise.

Fay Vincent, in his first interview since he was ousted as baseball commissioner, told CBS’ Jim Gray last weekend that labor strife is baseball’s biggest problem. “I was perceived as too soft on labor,” he said. “There must be a partnership, a compromise with the players. If the Palestinians and the Israelis can get together in the Rose Garden, certainly you would think that these people can get together.” Asked how owners would have responded if he had been the one to come up with the television deal that goes into effect next season, Vincent said: “I am sure I would have been excoriated. I just can’t imagine the screams of outrage.”

Dallas-Phoenix, Emmitt Smith’s first game back, set a TNT cable ratings record of 11.0. It’s the highest-rated NFL game on cable since ESPN got a 12.5 for Pittsburgh-Houston in 1990. . . . The New York Giants have a bye this weekend, so TNT will use Phil Simms as the guest analyst on its stadium show for Sunday night’s New England-New York Jet game. It will be Patriot Coach Bill Parcells’ first game back at Giants Stadium since he coached Simms and the Giants. . . . How does a game story go from press box to print? Channel 2 sought that answer last Sunday, following Times writer Steve Springer’s Raider story from the Coliseum to the newsroom to the presses. The feature will be a part of Sunday’s “L.A. Football Co.”

Saturday’s UCLA-Stanford game will be on ABC Saturday at 12:30 p.m., and on the following Saturday, Oct. 2, ABC will televise USC at Arizona at 4 p.m. . . . With Jim Lampley at the Ryder Cup, Marv Albert will fill in as host of “NFL Live” Sunday. . . . After the Ryder Cup, Lampley will head for Cardiff, Wales, where he will call the Lennox Lewis-Frank Bruno fight for HBO next Friday.

USA will carry a Larry Holmes fight next Tuesday night. Just what boxing needs. . . . Raider-flavored show: Jim Plunkett is the subject of the “Where Are They Now” segment on this week’s edition of HBO’s “Inside the NFL,” and Howie Long will take his turn as the host of the “NFL Diary” segment. “Inside the NFL,” always an excellent show, is televised Thursdays at 11 p.m., Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 11 a.m.

Washington State linebacker Anthony McClanahan, from Bakersfield, was on with KMPC’s Tony Femino Wednesday and talked about appearing on “People’s Court.” He said he was sued by a girl who paid $1,500 for a prom dress and was angry when he reneged on taking her because he had to compete in a track meet. Of the show, McClanahan said it is run by all women. Said Femino: “Wonder who is bagging all the women since Judge Wapner is too old and Doug Llewelyn is a geek?” Crass. Very crass.