Yes we like golf a la the Beeb.

Meanwhile, over on Setanta there's the same BBC pics (after a three-second delay), a gazillion ads for the Pension Board ("are you putting enough in?") and Shane O'Donoghue doing longer sessions at the mike than Ivor Roberts on the starter tee.

A truly curious Hibernian 'hybrid'.

Any doubts about the usefulness of this apparently superfluous coverage were totally dispelled on Friday morning when the Beeb took one outage after another.

While some viewers rang Liveline to complain, others resigned themselves to watching substitute programmes.

Yet others flicked to Setanta, which was munificently providing us with real 'live' (three seconds late) golf coverage, lots of ads for the superannuated and Shane O'Donoghue. Even after the Beeb resumed service I did sneak back every so often and, yes, Shane O'Donoghue was still talking away in a Myles Na Gopaleen/Fr Ted talk-for-Ireland marathon.

The boy does know his game too.

As if the early outages weren't enough the afternoon brought a homungus 'dead air' moment. The silence was the result of one man, one interview. Hazel Irvine to Boo.

In 1953, America sent over the Wee Ice Man , he won the Jug and Carnoustie got Hogan's Alley, . This year the Yanks sent Boo Weekley, the Tall Nice Man. He wrestles with Orang Utans, ropes alligators, chews baccy, hunts and fishes and calls Hazel 'ma'm'. Boo Weekley was never in Yurp up to Loch Lomond. He never heard of Jean Van De Velde. That was bad enough but then came the bombshell. Boo silenced the whole golf world when he announced that he never watches golf on TV.

He appears to be alone in the golf world on that. For it would appear, from pre and post interviews, that most of the golfers do very little other than sit at home and study pin positions and club selections. Or else sit at home, sipping a malt and with "a nice steak served up by the old lady" (vintage Alliss 1999) and delight in the misery wrought on their fellow Tour players by Barry Burn, Lucky Slap, Cedric's Hollow, Spectacles etc. Who said golfers are too chummy? Schadenfrauders to a man . . . miserable creeps who make Voldemort look like Dumbledore, Tony Soprano like Benjy Riordan.

Even old Lee Trevino was on the Open Preview programme aside a roaring fire and chuckling evily that he wouldn't miss it for the world.

Nor would we. All those swashbuckling Spaniards, the canny Korean, those crazily named Yanks (monikers that make the Potter names sound mundane ), the Order of the Phoenix with all their sorcery . . . weaving long irons, magic blades and broomsticks. Little wonder Nick Faldo confessed on Saturday that he only missed the cut to watch (and commentate for) ABC. Faldo should really try and put a halt to all his confessions though. Ian Poulter couldn't wait to see the others suffer either.

Nor can we. But you have to spare a benign thought for one man who said he would be watching too: Van de Velde. He has to endure endless replays of '99. Who knows what he made of those two John Senden bounces at the 18th yesterday.

Ah, golf is truly a cruel, cruel game. But what a game.

What a tournament. And the outcome guaranteed to be more conclusive than The Sopranos and less corny than Harry Potter. And with charmers Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington right there (and deservedly) in contention and the links-loving Yanks squaring up to the Yurps. Boo-tastic!

TODAY'S COVERAGE BBC2 11am. . .2.30pm;

BBC1 2.30. . .7.05pm Setanta Sports Ireland, 11am BBC Radio 5, 12.50pm Highlights, BBC 2, 11.05pm