Golf: Open chiefs ‘concerned’ by BBC cuts

OPEN Championship chiefs have expressed concerns over the BBC’s drastic reduction of live golf coverage.

The corporation has already cut its broadcasting of the Scottish Open and PGA Championship to just the final two days and will not have any live coverage at all from either of those events as from next year.

That, coupled with the BBC’s decision to use former England cricket captain Michael Vaughan as part of its team at The Masters earlier this month, has led to R&A chiefs vowing to keep a cautious eye on future developments.

“It is a concern,” said R&A chief executive Peter Dawson at yesterday’s Open Championship media day at Royal Lytham ahead of this year’s event.

“They [the BBC] have to stick at it and keep up with advances in technology so we have got an eye on that this year.”

The BBC has covered the world’s oldest major for more than 50 years and its current contract with the R&A, which also takes in the Walker Cup, runs until 2016.

“We’d like our relationship with the BBC to continue if we can,” added Jim McArthur, chairman of the R&A’s championship committee.

“But we do recognise that they have a number of sports and obviously broadcast in golf has dropped dramatically, so we are keeping our eye on it.”