Not Excited About Soccer? Why Not Sample Some Golf?

If you’re not a soccer fan, there isn’t much to get excited about in the sports world these days.

The NBA finals are giving new meaning to the term ugly basketball. Baseball appears to be on the brink of a strike. Wimbledon begins Monday, but tennis has been dropping in popularity.

So where does one go for a silver lining? How about golf?

If anything ranks up there with playing golf at 7:30 a.m., it’s watching golf at 7:30, which viewers were able to do Thursday and can do again today, thanks to ESPN.

ESPN carries today’s second round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, Pa., with ABC showing the final two rounds. ABC’s coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday.

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This U.S. Open, the 29th for ABC, will be the network’s last before NBC takes over next year.

Losing the Open “was a big blow, a huge blow,” said course reporter Bob Rosburg, who is the senior member of the ABC crew.

But Rosburg and his colleagues aren’t thinking about next year.

“I still have the greatest job of all time,” Rosburg said. “I get to go to the greatest courses in the world and watch the best players.”

Rosburg, 65, in his 20th year with ABC, lives in La Quinta.

The San Francisco native helped Stanford win its first of three national golf championship in 1946, won the PGA Championship in 1959 and came close to winning the U.S. Open three times, finishing second twice and third once.

He won the 1972 Bob Hope Desert Classic by one stroke over Lanny Wadkins 11 years after his previous victory--in the 1961 Bing Crosby pro-am.

Asked who would win on the Oakmont Country Club’s narrow fairways and fast greens, Rosburg said, “I’d rather pick horses than golfers.”

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Brent Musburger anchors the Open coverage. Commentators include Steve Melnyk, the winner of the 1969 U.S. Amateur at Oakmont, Jack Nicklaus, when available, and Peter Allis, the renowned voice of BBC golf.

Other on-course reporters besides Rosburg are Jerry Pate, Judy Rankin and Mark Rolfing.

Jim McKay is busy this weekend serving as host of ABC’s World Cup coverage.

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The NBA, on the rise in recent years, is suddenly going the opposite way.

Game 4 of the NBA finals Wednesday night got a 12.9 national Nielsen rating. A year ago, Game 4 got a 19.8. In 1992, Game 4 got a 16.0.

The average through the first four games is 12.2, compared to 17.1 last year and 14.2 in 1992.

Viewers seem to be sending a message to the NBA: Get rid of the thuggery.

Meanwhile, Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals got a 5.2 rating on ESPN, the cable network’s highest rating for a hockey game.

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What’s tennis’ problem?

A lot of people are saying it’s the money-grubbing players.

NBC tennis commentator Bud Collins was recently quoted in TV Guide as saying, “You almost have to hold a seance to get them to communicate,” and he noted that even upbeat partner Dick Enberg calls tennis players “the worst athletes to deal with.”

Tracy Austin, who will be a part of NBC’s team at Wimbledon, said of the players, “They’re more interested in getting the prize check than in doing extra things for the fans and sponsors who pay those checks.”

HBO commentator Billie Jean King, during a conference call this week, talked about all the bad press tennis has been getting.

“I think it will serve as a wake-up call and in the end be good for the sport,” she said. “I think the top players need to band together, be more accessible to the media and promote their sport.”

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Give credit to XTRA’s Rick Schwartz for making sort of a one-man stand at the all-sports radio station this week, refusing to take calls from people speculating on the guilt or innocence of O.J. Simpson.

“Until he is charged, O.J. is nothing more than a superstar who has lost his ex-wife and the mother of his children,” Schwartz said, telling his morning-show partners, Mike Berger and Jeff Prescott, that if they were going to treat it any differently they could do the show without him.

“It’s a big news story, so we have to report the facts, but for us to deal in speculation is not right, and I’m sticking to that,” Schwartz said.

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At the other end of the spectrum, Sacramento station KHTK (formerly KRAK), during a talk show with Michael Rainey and former Ram Jack Youngblood, offered a T-shirt as a prize for the listener who came up with the “best motive” for the murder of Simpson’s former wife.

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XTRA seems to be easing up on its desire to replace Chris Roberts as the voice of the UCLA Bruins. As reported here last week, the station would like to find someone to do the nighttime talk show and also the play-by-play on UCLA football and basketball.

What the station is looking for is a wise-cracking talk-show host with a style that appeals to the 18-34 set and who is also a play-by-play announcer with a professional style that will appeal to UCLA officials and alumni.

Even if such a person exists, he must also be willing to work inexpensively, since XTRA is notorious for meager salaries.

If such a person is not found, Roberts probably will be retained.

The odds are with Roberts.

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What has become of Jim Healy? The daily inquiries are still coming in, but there’s little to report.

Healy has been off the air since Capital Cities took control of KMPC and changed the station’s format, and there is no word about his future.

Healy has been spending a lot of time at his second home in Coeur d’Alene, Ida.

TV-Radio Notes

HBO, televising its 20th Wimbledon, will offer early-morning live weekday coverage beginning Monday, running from 6 to 11. There will also be nightly wrap-ups, 7-8 p.m. Billie Jean King, who won in 1975, when HBO covered its first Wimbledon, Barry MacKay and John Lloyd are the commentators. Reporters include Larry Merchant, Cris Collinsworth and Andrea Joyce. Jim Lampley will again anchor HBO’s coverage. . . . NBC’s Wimbledon coverage begins next weekend. It will be NBC’s 25th Wimbledon. . . . Chris Evert won’t be part of the NBC team because of the birth last week of Nicholas, the second son for Evert and husband Andy Mill. Tracy Austin took Evert’s place.

Los Angeles-based Randy Rosenbloom has been hired as the television play-by-play announcer for Las Vegas’ new Canadian Football League entry, Las Posse, which begins exhibition play next week. The commentator is former Raider quarterback David Humm. . . . Lew Stowers, formerly a producer at KMPC who now works for KABC, is the radio play-by-play voice of the Anaheim Bullfrogs roller hockey team. The commentator is former King Charlie Simmer, currently the Mighty Ducks’ radio commentator. The games are carried on KORG (1190). . . . Joe Tutino, the executive producer of XTRA who also does sports updates, is the radio voice of the Anaheim Splash of the Continental Indoor Soccer League. KORG also carries the Splash.

Mark Curry, star of ABC’s “Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper,” will serve as host of the “Jim Thorpe Pro Sports Awards” special on ABC July 11 from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. Among the honorees will be Wayne Gretzky and Don Shula. . . . Pro beach volleyball continues to get considerable network coverage. The Miller Lite tournament at Milwaukee this weekend will be on NBC at 1:30 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. . . . ESPN’s Outside the Lines series focuses on “Our Violent Games” Monday at 4:30 p.m. . . . Scott Erickson of the Minnesota Twins, who pitched a no-hitter against Milwaukee on April 27, will be the featured guest on CNN’s “Calling All Sports” show Monday at 10 p.m.

Chick Hearn will be presented the Vin Scully Voice of Vision Award Saturday night at the Vision awards benefit gala at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The event is a benefit for the fight against retinitis pigmentosa and other degenerative eye diseases. Details: (818) 992-0500. . . . Roy Englebrecht reports there are still openings for his sportscasters’ camp July 13-18 at the Radisson Plaza Hotel in Irvine. Details: (714) 760-3131.