Jon Rahm Is A Man Of The People, Complains About How Difficult It Is To Watch Golf On TV

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The 2024 U.S. Open was a unique one for Jon Rahm given it was the first time in his professional career he didn't actually tee it up in the major championship. The Spaniard withdrew ahead of Thursday's opening round due to a foot injury which presented him with the unique opportunity of watching the tournament from the comfort of his own home.

He wasn't exactly impressed with what he saw.

If there is one singular thing golf fans across the United States can agree upon, it's that the TV broadcasts of golf tournaments have quite a bit of room for improvement. NBC played host to the U.S. Open this past week, but actually finding live coverage of the tournament was easier said than done.

In today's age where streaming rules all, much of the early morning coverage was on Peacock throughout the week with a particularly heavy load on the streaming service on Friday. USA Network also hosted some of the live coverage early in the week as well.

Rahm, like the rest of us, just wanted to watch the golf and questioned why the tournament bounced around so many places. 

"Honestly, this has been for a long time, and I think it's more because I'm in the situation I just watch golf on mute. I want to watch the shots and I try not to -- was it a bit of a -- I don't know what the word is, but to go from ABC to NBC to Peacock, then back to the next thing, yeah, they should make it a little bit easier," Rahm told media ahead of LIV Golf's event in Nashville this week. "It is an Open after all. Just turn on one channel and hopefully be able to watch the whole broadcast."

While Rahm's complaint is a valid one, the one gripe that has particularly rubbed golf fans the wrong way over recent years is the overwhelming number of commercials and the ‘Playing Through’ situations where a commercial takes over half of the screen and the full audio while meaningful golf shots are being shown in a little box on the other side of the screen.

And yes, of course, the PGA Tour and these networks have to please advertisers and we are starting to see commercial-free hours late in tournaments, but this is years and years worth of frustration that simply won't leave a disgruntled golf world that absolutely loves to complain.

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Mark covers all sports at OutKick while keeping a close eye on the world of professional golf. He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga before earning his master's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee. He somehow survived living in Knoxville despite ‘Rocky Top’ being his least favorite song ever written. Before joining OutKick, he wrote for various outlets including SB Nation, The Spun, and BroBible. Mark was also a writer for the Chicago Cubs Double-A affiliate in 2016 when the team won the World Series. He's still waiting for his championship ring to arrive. Follow him on Twitter @itismarkharris.