The Return To Golf needs to start thinking about a Return to Sound.
After taking in this week’s ZOZO Championship at Sherwood Country Club and watching how other sports have adapted to the times, it’s clear professional golf needs to keep adapting to the bizarre times. Quickly.
The PGA Tour has kept their business going but it’s begun to feel like just that: doing enough to keep the doors open and cash flowing. And I realize this will be a big ask while the main focus is on keeping things safe. But as an entertainment “product” (gulp), it’s losing ground. Broadcast enhancements are needed. Immediately.
With the ongoing pandemic likely meaning 2021 golf will be played, at best, with very limited galleries, the natural melatonin that is a golf broadcast requires immediate rethinking to retain fans and sponsor interest.
To review: pro golf was the first major sport back and without fans, managed to make a broadcast work. That was thanks primarily to CBS going all in on extras, particularly in the sound department. Credit also goes to the players who were willing to wear a microphone. Since only the last nine holes felt like golf in the time of a contagious virus without crowds, the “Return to Golf” worked.
But those return events were in July and August before the NBA, NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball came along and used recorded sound effects and other visual tricks to simulate a full house vibe. Golf tournaments have fallen behind.
From a television viewing perspective, the ambient noise piped in to offset the dystopian sight of empty seats and fan cut-outs has made sports watchable. Piped-in roars and even the boos take games back to a level of viewing normalcy that only feel strange when the camera pulls back to reveal and empty stadium.
Set against these modifications, golf telecasts now feel as uncomfortably quiet as they do in person. At best, I’d call the in-person experience at the two events I’ve been to as feeling akin to a college tournament. At worst, the vibe is funereal. (Note: both events I’ve attended as a media member were played in California with limits on volunteers, “hosted experiences” and family members, which undoubtedly added to the somber sensibility.)
Justin Thomas confirmed after Sunday’s final round that the silence impacts his on-course mojo.
“I've got to find a way to kind of just stay a little bit more focused out there,” he said. “It's crazy, but sometimes it's hard to just kind of keep the killer instinct and stay in the zone when it's as quiet as it is out there.”
After walking around Sherwood at last week’s ZOZO and August’s PGA Championship, it’s clear that outside of events welcoming back small crowds the next two weeks, any audible solutions benefitting the vibe will have to come from television. Piping in noise at the venues would be downright controversial and bizarre.
Take the first tee announcements where players have generally been introduced to silence or the kind of strained applause normally reserved for lame-duck politicians. Imagine a DJ piping in larger ovations for stars, but mere smatterings of claps for lesser-knowns? Nope.
How about going all Kelly James and creating a 21st welcome to the round?
The scenarios are uncomfortable to even ponder: would the players awkwardly waive to the non-existent crowd? Could they take a joke if James inserted an edgy line into his amazing schtick before starting out in a significant tournament?
It’d all end as soon as the first nearby player has to back off a putt.
Attempting to gauge which applause level to pipe in at the 18th green would be even trickier. Television could pull off some of these effects unbeknownst to the players. But the engineer in charge would have to be keeping up with changes to various holes or the player’s popularity. This would also require a sound effects person or two would have to be added to the team. Given the aggressive spending cuts at NBC/Golf Channel, an improbable move.
So how about a recording of normal ambient crowd conversation around the clubhouse? Won’t work.
And music on the range—remember that European Tour experiment?—would seem weird and insensitive in a time of pandemic.
With PGA Tour players already over the wearing mic’s or doing mid-round interview ideas cooked up to improve their “product”, broadcasts have grown flatter than Matt Kuchar’s backswing. The situation has worsened since CBS ended an 11-week run where we enjoyed some great moments thanks to enhanced sound and other attempts at innovation. A few suggestions free of charge:
--Putting mic’s on players, their bags, tees and in cups (as Fox did), should continue to be a top priority. Hearing player conversations makes up for so much of the lost ambiance and almost makes us wish the crowds stayed away.
--Encourage more announcer conversations and debates centered around issues in the game to break up the rather monotonous role they play now as traffic cops and cheerleaders. The NBC team broke off into a few chats about the way Bryson DeChambeau was approaching Winged Foot and the discussions were fascinating.
--Use on-course reporters to do a “forensic” on an incredible recovery shot we’ve seen. Encourage them to say why the would have played a certain shot differently if warranted. Again, anything to break up the quiet moving from shot to shot or showing what seems like a neverending stream of three-footers for par.
--Go to a third party source to discuss betting odds. Former players and traditional broadcasters are not well positioned to say much of interest on the topic of odds or prop bets. Even if a viewer is not a bettor or interested in the topic, betting debates can inject energy into the broadcast if they are willing to take a stance on a proposed bet. Factors like course design and setup, or a player’s tendencies based on ShotLink data, liven up the “product” regardless of bets placed.
--Bring in third party voices to offer instruction tips. This is hardly a new suggestion, but given the spike in rounds played during COVID-19 and the sad end of most Golf Channel original programming, what better time than now to use telecasts to be more interactive for regular golfers? How about interviewing instructors who are out following their players about what they are seeing? Or asking them to give an impromptu tip?
--Birds are great and I’m sure they’ll be chirping at Augusta in two weeks. With surround sound, work those nature sounds, just make sure the mic’s are placed on property and not in the wrong region. (Years ago CBS was believed to be piping in bird sounds at Augusta and at Valhalla and it’s been a running joke ever since. Another reminder that little gets by viewers.)
—Put announcers in different places. Have them work as a range attendant, on a tee of a key hole as a marshal, as a ShotLink volunteer or as a group’s scorer. Put a microphone on them and instead of having them toss it to 16 from an on-site studio (not that towers are too expensive too), let’s hear what they are seeing and highlight the volunteer jobs that make a tournament tick. If Mike Whan can step in and work as an on-course reporter, golf broadcasters can try some different things too.
We all get that pro golf commissioners have plenty on their plates just keeping tournaments and sponsors going right now. But golf cannot afford to forget that broadcasts must evolve with the bizarre times. The Tours must demand more sound, more innovation and more creativity before its too late.
