Extras set Sky coverage apart, but BBC needs to jump forward a few decades

Kevin Markham reflects on the Open at Royal Birkdale.

In the wake of The Open, as the golf media reel off all the statistics around Jordan Spieth’s victory, and the R&A proclaim The Open Championship a massive success with a record English attendance of 235,000, there are so many other elements that get pushed to the side.

The work of the volunteers and the greenkeepers most notably. Royal Birkdale looked immaculate and if there were complaints about the course from any of the players, I certainly didn’t hear them. For most of us watching on television, we had to watch and listen to what Sky wanted us to see, or what the BBC considered to be the ‘highlights’.