British Open: HDTV or not?

With just a few holes left, Tiger Woods is six clear of field in the British Open. Unless he blows up (which he never does), he seems assured of his tenth Major Championship. Today, we're reserved to watching history in Standard Definition instead of High Definition. One could ask why, but another question is: did we really see the first two rounds in HDTV on TNT?

The answer is: yes and no. Turns out that the BBC provided a widescreen, SD feed to TNT. TNT then upconverted the Standard Definition feed from 480i to 1080i and broadcast the result in High Definition. The result is much better than SDTV, but not as crisp as a native 1080i broadcast. More importantly, what a missed opportunity for WABC to show golf history in High Def. Even the upconverted feed would be better than the 480i signal we watched in the final two rounds.