It seems like this has been a tough summer for sports fans on the West Coast of the United States.
There are always some events that cause West Coasters problem, like Wimbledon and golf’s Open Championship. It’s no one’s fault, of course. It’s just that when something starts at 7 a.m. in England or Scotland, that means it starts at 11 p.m. the previous day (please don’t make me try to explain that) on the West Coast. So unless you are a die-hard fan, you aren’t going to be up at 2 a.m. watching golf or 4 a.m. watching tennis. So you miss the live event.
What made this summer tougher was the Summer Olympics. Not only were many of the live events on smaller cable networks in the wee hours of the morning for West Coast fans, but even the tape-delayed and edited prime-time coverage on NBC was delayed a second time for the West Coast. By the time Michael Phelps won a gold medal, the news was often 12 to 14 hours old for the West Coast fans.
Now comes one last challenge for West Coast golf fans. The RICOH Women’s British Open is being played this week at Hoylake just outside of Liverpool (yeah, yeah, yeah). The first tee times for today’s round were actually at 11 a.m. Wednesday night (I asked you not to make me explain this). The live coverage of the event on ESPN2 begins at 6 a.m. on the Pacific coast and is over by 9 a.m. Breakfast at Wimbledon is now Breakfast in Liverpool.
This will be the last major event of the year West Coast fans will suffer through because of time zone issues. The Ryder Cup is in the United States this year, so that won’t be an issues. The major tennis events are finished, and the Winter Olympics won’t be for another year and a half.
So set that alarm early and watch the last of golf’s major championships for the year played in the land of the Beatles (yeah, yeah, yeah). And rest assured knowing that for the rest of the year, you can sleep in.