Courtesy Charles Schwab / Don’t Lie Down
Is there anything better than golf in May? The weather is warm, the birds are chirping, and the flowers are blooming. Everyone is getting ready for the hot summer golf tournament.
Good, barely everyone.
We all have a friend like the PGA Championship. which mean So Good. Who has had his fair share of great moments between the honesty and the good. Who just wants to be A gang member. But who, for some reason, spends the first glimpses of summer each year in a full-blown identity crisis.
Look around the room at the four majors of golf. There is the Masters tradition, golf’s greatest tradition. the US Open, golf’s greatest test; The Open Championship, golf’s most historic tournament; And the PGA, golf’s greatest… something. For years, the PGA has tested different personalities – the best golf courses, the golf course last major, golf’s second major, The People’s Major, a major private club—and for years, the PGA has failed completely find itself.
Sure, we all love the PGA. And sure, we all want a PGA in our group. But we also want what’s best for the PGA, and we’re sure the journey of self-realization begins with learning how to embrace their differences. By learning how, in the words of every unsuspecting friend, to love herself. To that end, we have a friendly note: Can a PGA’s identity sit before her (and ours) eyes?
Could the PGA be the greatest player in golf? innovative? Each year, the Foundation Change Tournament proves to be the perfect breeding ground for a host of new ideas in the world of golf. Not every idea qualifies as good (that’s one for you, Miles Off Site), but more often than not, ideas used by the PGA find themselves thrust into the furthest reaches of the golf world.
Nothing is truer than in the broadcast of the PGA Championship, where every year the PGA of America offers the golf world a vision of golf on television as it could one day be. Broadcasting the PGA Championship is arguably the best tournament in Golf TV. Championship that brought us Phil Mickelson An on-air debut, the amazing comeback of ESPN, and the creation of golf’s first “Manningcast”—all in the past five years.
The PGA has even more TV-quality set for 2023, which we’ll outline below in Hot Mic’s second massive preview of The Major Championship (working title: Major Mic). But first, we’re going to start with the biggest innovation of all by handing the microphone over to our friends at the No lying down.
ESPN’s No Laying Up Experience
Programming notes: “The PGA Championship Without Lying”: Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET, ESPN+
“matte and can”: Thursdays and Fridays, 11am-3pm, ESPN and ESPN2;
Saturday and Sunday, 9-10 a.m., ESPN+
It will be a busy summer NLU, which quickly became the darling of the golf media. Last week, Hot Mic broke that NLU‘s Chris Solomon He will contribute to Peacock’s coverage of the 2023 US Open, helping to bring an entirely new broadcast idea to life. As it turns out, all No lying down The crew will be joining ESPN in the PGA for something very similar, hosting a show that the network calls “The PGA Championship Without a Lying.”
The show, which will run as a lead-up to ESPN+’s Saturday and Sunday coverage, “will feature a host of guests to provide running commentary and conversation during the live show.” It will be produced by Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions, the same company behind the critically acclaimed “Manningcast” broadcasts.
Omaha will produce another alternate broadcast on the ESPN Linear Network that will take a similar format to NLU Displays. ESPN talent Matt Barry And Michael Collins She will host this programme, called “Matty and the Caddy”, taking over the role vacated by her Joe Buck in 2022.
In recent years, alternative broadcasts have grown in popularity with sports television networks, which see cheap programming as an easy way to attract large numbers of casual fans.
ESPN… Golf TV “kingmakers”?
Thursday, 5/18: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET (ESPN+), 1 to 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Friday, 5/19: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET (ESPN+), 1 to 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Saturday, 5/20: 8-10am ET (ESPN+), 10am-1pm ET (ESPN)
Sunday 21/5: 8-10am ET (ESPN+), 10am-1pm ET (ESPN)
Programming notes: ESPN+’s broadcast coverage will feature featured sets/holes and live coverage of the tournaments. The alternative television broadcast will be broadcast for four hours each day.
In many ways, the PGA Championship owes a debt of gratitude to ESPN.
In 2020, the PGA of America revived its world-leading golf coverage at TPC Harding Park, ushering in a new era of golf television coverage. ESPN’s coverage that year was something of a legend: blazing-fast, super-smart, and unabashedly tech-savvy presenter.
The following year, when ESPN returned to Kiawah Island, CBS followed closely, offering the first real vision of the forward-thinking broadcast that now dominates PGA Tour Sundays.
That first year on ESPN, the new picture of the PGA Championship was made for the world to see – still one of the best (if not the best) the best) in professional golf.
I wondered if ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt He accepted the role his network played in bringing a much-needed sense of identity to the PGA. object.
“I don’t want to be so bold as to suggest that we are like kingmakers, because I don’t think we are,” said Van Pelt. “The event is a major championship. That was before we were even a part of it, and it will happen if we don’t at some point in time.”
Van Pelt said that if there’s a sense of identity attached to the PGA now that ESPN has done it, it’s because ESPN inflates it — not Create He. She.
He said, “I don’t know that we give identity as much as we stick to bandwidth that we have to raise coverage in a way that I think we’re uniquely positioned to do.” “That’s a big deal. We’re going to bring everything we have to the table, cover it with the respect that great companies deserve, and have a little fun in the process, and I think that’s our identity. We bring our identity to cover this event, and that’s — I’m speaking for me here. I think that This is our approach.
CBS is entering the digital age
Saturday, 5/20: 1 to 7 p.m. ET (CBS)
Sunday 21/5: 1 to 7 p.m. ET (CBS)
Programming notes: CBS will use more than 120 cameras and 150 microphones throughout the play, including “multiple” drones and 12 robotic cameras.
Just like ESPN, CBS has taken the PGA Championship as an invitation to test new and innovative approaches to golf coverage—an effort that will continue this year in ways visible and unseen for viewers.
Those watching at home will see (and hear) the teams almost immediately during CBS’ coverage — largely because the network will be releasing a new graphics and music package exclusively for the PGA. But the changes will expand well, as CBS rolls out bells and whistles that stretch from robotic cameras and enlarged drone cameras to a quartet of remote-controlled toptracer “minicams.”
Of course, Oak Hill’s biggest broadcast addition will only be known to those on the production truck. But this change – switched from analog to IP audio and video Technology – It has the potential to greatly impact the way golf broadcasts are enjoyed.
While making this shift, CBS is changing its primary method of transmitting footage and audio from satellite to the Internet. It’s an effort that should speed up the network’s access to camera footage and various microphones, and ultimately, double the number of cameras and microphones it can use during a show. In addition, this shift can help support CBS’ capabilities to work remotely, and increase the number of people participating each week.
Overall, these updates only mark the beginning of changes for CBS’ product Shy sellers And the rest of his crew, but they’re exciting people for the future of golf on television.