LET highlights a lowlight

The great electronic age prophet Marshall McLuhan (who coined the term "the global village" and predicted the internet) famously once wrote: "the medium is the message."
Anyone who cares about the Ladies European Tour - and who is aware of the current state of the Tour's television packages - might feel slightly queasy reading McLuhan's words.
Make no mistake - the LET is, and always has been, up against it on television. Taking on the two men's tours (which are covered in dazzling style by big broadcasters) and also the more glamorous LPGA is a thankless task. There is no comparison between the four days of live coverage those tours can boast and the LET's one hour weekly highlights package.( Left Handed TaylorMade Rossa Corza Ghost Putter)
But, at the end of 2010, the tour changed production company and the results have caused growing unease amongst those on and around the circuit.
When, at the European Nations Cup in late April, I talked to representatives of the Tour about the quality of the very first highlights package (which covered the Lalla Meryem Cup in Morocco), I was asked to remain patient.
It was a reasonable request, but, over two months later, patience has worn thin and the apprehension is widespread - players and caddies are worried, viewers and fans confused and, amongst the LET-connected media at Wentworth during the BMW PGA Championship(Left Handed TaylorMade Rossa Corza Ghost Putter), questions were being asked and eyebrows raised.
If you haven't seen the programmes you might wonder about the alarm and question what could be so wrong about a simple highlights package? The unfortunate answer is: where do we start?
How about with the nuts and bolts of the production? The camerawork is clumsy, the commentary often ill-informed and the editing unusual. Those factors in themselves are bad enough, but the sum of these problems is greater than their parts and it impacts in two ways.
The first is that the action is compromised: player's good rounds have been illustrated by drives that miss fairways, approaches that miss greens and short putts that are missed. The second is that the programmes consistently fail to tell the final round story in a cohesive manner.
The impression gained by all of this is best demonstrated by some of comments I have received or heard: "It makes the tour look amateurish." "It doesn't do the players any favours." "It's like watching golf coverage from 40 years ago." "I don't know what's going on half the time." "The commentary was laughable." "It's more like lowlights than highlights."
Or, to put it another way, a bit of a PR disaster.
At the recent Tenerife Matchplay I saw the new production team in action and heard many voices of discontent from those looking on.
But what of the Ladies European Tour (Left Handed TaylorMade Rossa Corza Ghost Putter) itself however? Last week I spoke to Axel Kaulmann, the Tour's Commercial Director who oversees TV production and distribution, to ask for the Tour's view of the current situation.