PGA Tour return ‘more complicated’ than Super Bowl with radical new confession cam, mic’d up players and health fears
WORLD No 1 Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson took to the course ahead of the PGA Tour’s big return on Thursday.
The duo will headline a star-studded field at the Charles Schwab Challenge, which includes nine of the top 10 players as golf makes a comeback after coronavirus.
But with no fans allowed on the ground, TV broadcasters have brought in radical new measures to entertain viewers.
The logistics that have gone into making sure it works are even “more complicated” than the Super Bowl and its 99.9million viewers, according to one telly boss.
The biggest innovation will be the “confession cam”.
Pros will be able to step into a tent somewhere on the course and provide a 20-second soundbite or answer a question during their round.
It is not yet clear whether some pros will be told they have to do it, or if it will be up to them.
CBS network in America, who will broadcast the tournament, have also been aggressively persuading players to wear microphones during rounds.
They were used to great success in Tiger Woods’ charity match against Phil Mickelson last month.
Banter was flying back and forth between the golfing legends as NFL icons Peyton Manning and Tom Brady joined in too.
The chat was not quite so good when McIlroy and Johnson teamed up to beat Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff the weekend before.
Broadcasters want as many pros as possible to be mic’d up.
But former world No 1 Justin Thomas has already said he won’t.
He said: “What I talk about with Jimmy [Johnson, caddy] and what I talk about with the guys in my group is none of anybody else’s business, no offence.
“As close as those mics are on the tees and the greens, and as close as they get the boom mics during competition, I feel like I basically am mic’d up.
“I can’t say some of the stuff I’d usually say. It’s not that it’s bad [but] if I want somebody to know what I’ve said, I’ll say it in a press conference, I’ll say it in an interview or put it out on social media.”
There are no plans to pump fake crowd noise in – as Sky have offered in the Bundesliga.
Instead, efforts will be made to keep the course as safe as possible amid the lingering threat of coronavirus.
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There is only half the normal TV workers on site and signs urging people to respect social distance guidelines are placed on the course.
CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said: “This is the most complicated production plan I’ve ever been involved in and that includes Super Bowls.
“It’s different than anything we’ve ever done.”