Golf's Blimp Issue Becomes Evident Thursday In Scottsdale

We're about to find out just how important the blimp shot is to golf.

Barring a last minute alternative, Thursday's Waste Management Open is not expected to include aerial shots of the massive crowds convening at TPC Scottsdale's 16th hole ampitheater. This is due to Goodyear's lessened interest in golf and the high cost of running an airship.

As Golfweek's Forecaddie noted this week and I explained on ShackHouse, the two primary providers of blimp coverage are not interested in golf for different reasons.

MetLife, suppliers of stunning aerial images over the years to NBC, Golf Channel and others, changed marketing heads and signaled last fall that they were getting out of the business.

Goodyear, eager to sell tires and without a direct tie to golf like their competitors at Bridgestone, will only be at the Genesis Open near the blimp's LA base in the coming weeks. Beyond that, their status at golf tournaments remains unclear.

While we all want as many golf shots as possible on a telecast, blimp shots put the spectacle of professional golf into context. They allow us to see where the course sits in relation to a major city and, when equipped with a camera operator, to see replays of epic shots. Or, they simply show us beautiful landscapes.

While fixed wing planes can give us the context--as will happen during the weekend coverage at Pebble Beach--they cannot sit still to give us the true birdseye view of a golfer playing a shot the way a blimp can.

The issue remains fluid and I suspect that there will be resolution of some kind, but in the meantime prepare to see what golf looks like without one of its key storytelling tools.