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Anyone who loves the sport of golf also loves to watch golf on TV. Yes, many people will say that it's a snooze fest, boring, or like watching grass grow, but for those of us who play the sport and are tuned in to the intricacies of the sport of golf, watching golf on TV is a joy. As the 2024 PGA Tour season is underway, I have a call to action for TV coverage of the sport of golf - bring those cameras closer!
While watching the 2024 Masters tournament this year from TV cameras shooting from high up in their towers, I noticed something - well, it was what I didn't notice - the undulations, variations in elevation, slope, and overall difficulty of each shot is lost with the way TV coverage for golf is shot today. When the cameras are raised high in their towers and shooting down on to a green at Augusta, for example, the TV viewer is none-the-wiser for truly how difficult these putts, chips, and pitches are around the green. The elevation at which golf is shot flattens the ground beneath it and makes it appear more manageable than it truly is! This is leaving spectators with the wrong assumption that these shots are easier than they appear and may be affecting the overall viewer's satisfaction with watching the sport (i.e. "like watching grass grow"). By bringing the cameras closer to each player we all would benefit from seeing the shot difficulty with more of a firsthand perspective and thus have more appreciation for how talented PGA Tour players truly are! It'd also keep us coming back for more!
PGA Golf on TV Today Needs to Evolve
As we're all witnessing history in the making with the play of Scottie Scheffler or the ever-expanding scope of golf with the entrance of LIV Golf, we all want to see the action more intimately. For years, the Golf Channel, CBS, Paramount+, NBC Sports, and others have rinsed and repeated the way in which the game is filmed. Now is the time, in the day and age of intimate social media engagement and first person videos, to bring the cameras closer to the action in the same way that other major professional leagues do. Evolving the coverage of golf on TV and for streaming services will bring a new excitement to the experience of watching the best players in the world compete against each other. ShotTrackers, mic'd up players, and digital flyovers of every hole makes me believe that the filming of golf can also evolve and bring a new energy to the sport.
When Golf on TV Today Embraces the Video Formats of Tomorrow
We all stand to benefit with a more intimate look at the sport of golf and golf on TV today. When I reflect on the NFL and the NBA, I think about the advancements in television coverage and camera positioning. Think about the onset of the review in professional sports and how that has necessitated more angles to determine the correct call. While the review itself is a polarizing subject, I want to focus on how these multiple angles and camera positions actually enrich the viewer's experience with the sport. When we can see whether Steph Curry's foot is on the line or the aerobatic gymnastics that Kyrie Irving needs to perform in order to complete a layup before running into the cameraperson underneath the hoop, my jaw is on the floor. I'm truly in awe of these athletes and the camera crews play a central role in that awe inspiring experience. While the action in golf is fundamentally different, the skill level required to perform the best shot possible is something we're losing in the current coverage of golf on TV today. This call to action is to help us all be in more awe of these players and their talents because the worst PGA Tour golfer is 1000x better than the scratch golfer who lives next to you.
For years we've been able to hear Jordan Spieth sound off on himself after a poor shot or maybe even catch a hot mic where a player swears at himself for making a poor decision. The crews are setting themselves up to capture moments for the spectators, both planned and unplanned, which help the viewing experience be much richer than if we only saw and listened to shots from the tower. There are plenty of options to consider for bringing the sport of golf alive with better TV coverage. Here's what I mean.
I want to see professional golf shot from more angles.
When we provide a first-person perspective of shooting an approach shot from behind the golfer or cover a challenging pitch shot from somewhere near the green or player, we can all sit in more appreciation for what these players are doing as well as truly see how varied the terrain of the most challenging courses in the world look. When Scottie Scheffler pitched in during the RBC Heritage tournament with what felt like the most perfect pitch every executed, the viewer had no idea how challenging that was from Scottie's perspective. We knew it was good, but the terrain required he execute the perfect shot that landed in a 2-3ft area. Bringing more cameras closer to the green and from varied angles would help us all really appreciate that shot and the many others that are truly amazing.
Enable more raw footage from influencers or public figures in the crowd.
Social media is ubiquitous and there is a real opportunity for the PGA Tour to team up with notable social media channels and handles to create more of a spectator's view from behind the ropes, or even better, in front of them. Generation Z and even millennials are digital natives and they are very accustom to raw video shot from a cell phone. We don't need super high production quality to value the content itself, so don't overthink it! Find the social media influencers who are covering the sport of golf in both informative and humorous ways, and enable them to take over the PGA Tour Instagram account or even provide ancillary coverage to the soothing sounds of Jim Nance's voice. While polarizing in its output, the varied experience opens the door for more young people to enjoy the game of golf. Not only may they recognize the social media accounts now helping cover tournaments each weekend, the format also meets them where they are with organic, raw content that's easily digestible.
Assign camera crews for featured groups every weekend.
Golf fans will scour tee times and pairings to determine which is their top option for viewing purposes. There are key players that everyone wants to see: Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler, Ludvig Åberg, and others. For the viewers who cannot make the tournament in-person, the next best option would be to leverage the experience of TV crews with unprecedented access to the tournament's grounds and players. Work with the players to make sure that they are comfortable and aren't negatively affected by a more intimate experience of being filmed closer or around their shots. I'm confident that there is a happy medium here which respects the players' space and also enriches the viewing experience.
Leverage the PGA Tour's social media accounts to distribute content.
The PGA Tour has 4.9M followers on Instagram alone, and thus has a viable distribution channel for content filmed in a more raw, organic way. Instagram and TikTok, where the PGA Tour has nearly 2M followers, are perfect outlets for small snippets of video content. Any shots or video taken by the PGA Tour or its fanbase can be aggregated into those channels for additional viewership, more content for publishing, and also to create platform-relevant content that'll help bring more visibility of the sport to the next generation of fans and players. The structure is in place to take advantage of a new and incremental way of covering the sport of golf for TV and for viewing in general. Remember, many Gen Z and millennials do not have a TV subscription and may not have any way to view the professional sport of golf, so meeting them on socials is the next best option. Can you imagine the Waste Management tournament from the spectator's perspective? We've already seen some of the good, bad, and very ugly of that tournament, which to be clear is not what I'm advocating for. Instead, I'd love to see the experience of being in the 16th hole's skybox when a player scores a hole-in-one. That would be absolutely riveting and I imagine that fans will be drawn to the excitement in a way that the current coverage of golf does not hit on as well.
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