Fans blast Beeb PGA ‘shambles’

FRUSTRATED golf fans vented their anger at the BBC after they were unable to watch almost six hours of the opening day’s play at the US PGA Championship. Open champion Jordan Spieth began his pursuit of the Grand Slam at 1.25pm (UK time) yesterday but BBC coverage began at 6pm. Even then action could be seen only via the red button, iPlayer services or the BBC website. BBC2 showed one hour’s play from 11.15pm. The Beeb won the rights to the event after the collapse of talks between the PGA of America and Sky Sports, who last month launched a new golf channel. Angry fans branded BBC coverage ‘truly awful’ and ‘laughable’. One tweeted: ‘BBC sport now have USPGA and they put it on the red button. Comical.’ Others blamed Sky, saying: ‘How have Sky Sports lost the USPGA when they launched a dedicated golf channel. Shambles. #joke.’ The BBC, who committed to showing the World Athletics Championships on both main channels before winning the PGA rights, said: ‘We are showing all the golf action available from the host broadcaster, whose coverage starts at 6pm.’