by Jeff Skinner
Like any self respecting golf fanatic I spend plenty of time with my television tuned to The Golf Channel. The addition of their new show “Morning Drive” has made my mornings a lot better and has knocked ESPN’s Mike & Mike off my TV. I enjoyed Greenie and Golic and maybe come football season I’ll tune back in but for now Morning Drive has won me over.
The team of Gary Williams and Erik Kuselias has a great job: they get to talk golf and a little bit of other sports all morning. The format is an exact copy of The Mike & Mike show that Kuselias used to frequent during his stint at ESPN. But the subject matter is 90% golf with a bit of pop culture and a small bit of current sports talk. That formula works fine with me.
Williams and Kuselias do a good job of touching on all the current golf topics and their banter is entertaining although Kuselias can try a bit too hard at times. The third member of the team is sure to appeal to those demographics that the Golf Channel covets. Holly Sonders is a young, attractive former college golfer (Big Ten Team Championship) that adds just enough sex appeal to keep all of us tuned in.
Morning Drive hit the ground running and has picked up speed each week. It looks like there isn’t a guest that they can’t get on the show. Plenty of golfers appear in studio or call in and everyone wants to get in on the act. They’ve had everyone from Arnie and Jack to Tiger and Phil. Ian Poulter hammed it up in studio and Bubba and Rickie vandalized each other’s posters. Annika is a regular contributor and she didn’t even miss a show after she gave birth to her second child. The merger of NBC Universal and Comcast has proved a boost to The Golf Channel as all the talent that covers golf for NBC is now available and Morning Drive has made good use of that connection.
The Golf Channel has given Morning Drive great support as all of their contributors have been a part of the show and that just makes the format that much better. There are plenty of interesting and insightful voices on The Golf Channel and Morning Drive is another vehicle for them.
For golfers the only thing better than playing golf is talking golf and Morning Drive gives us another outlet for that conversation. For my money Morning Drive is one of the best efforts of The Golf Channel.
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