Don’t Fear the Weeds

I’ve enjoyed CBS’s PGA Tour coverage lately. It’s a weird feeling.

One of several improvements the network has made this year is the addition of a mid-round player interview. At Torrey Pines, Max Homa put in AirPods and spent a hole chatting with the CBS crew. Keith Mitchell did the same at Pebble Beach. Both players were funny and insightful, and analyst Trevor Immelman was adept at asking them sophisticated but clear questions. The interviews brought viewers right into the action—a rare phenomenon on an American golf telecast.

The experiment reached an early peak this past Saturday when Tom Kim took his turn with the AirPods at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The interview itself was just okay, maybe a touch bland, but 20-year-old Kim kept it afloat with his charm and precocious gift of gab.

Then it was time for him to hit his second shot on the par-5 13th hole at TPC Scottsdale. CBS’s mics picked up the entirety of his conversation with caddie Joe Skovron.

Mic’d up Tom is the best Tom 🔊

Listen in to @JoohyungKim0621 and Joe Skovron draw up the perfect approach @WMPhoenixOpen. pic.twitter.com/m8ERUM6sKk

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 11, 2023

This right here. This is the good stuff.

Skovron, who spent 13 years on Rickie Fowler’s bag, really earns his percentage in these 45 seconds. They’re 225 out, and Kim starts off thinking he needs something like a 215 shot. He pulls a 4-iron. Skovron objects right away: “That’s too much.” Kim goes back for a 5-iron. “I was on mid 5, almost hard 6, bud,” Skovron adds. “Like a good 5 is landing on.” Sensing that Kim isn’t 100 percent on board, the caddie presses him to articulate the change of plan: “What are you going with number-wise?” After confirming some yardages, Kim says, “I think it’s a 205 shot.” Skovron responds, “Yeah, I would say a 200 shot.” Kim still doesn’t seem totally confident, but he’s coming around. “And short’s fine?” he asks. “Short is fine,” Skovron says firmly.

Not even a minute has passed, and the caddie has chopped at least 15 yards off the number in his player’s head.

Twenty seconds later, Kim hits a smooth-swinging, frozen-rope 5-iron. The ball lands a few yards short of the green, takes a big bounce, slows down as it crests a contour in front of the pin, and settles five feet away.

How satisfying is that? (Well, it would have been more so if he had made the putt. But whatever.)

For years, avid fans have been calling for mic’d-up golfers. For years, the PGA Tour’s broadcast partners have demurred. Players don’t want to give that level of access, they’ve said. Besides, casual fans aren’t interested in that kind of detail. It’s too far in the weeds.

The first excuse has been proven untrue. While some pros balk at any hint of a mid-round distraction, others—like Homa, Mitchell, and Kim—are happy to bring viewers into their process. I’m sure their hat sponsors don’t mind, either.

The second excuse is equally bogus. For a long time, golf broadcasters in the U.S. have seemed almost afraid of the complexities of the game. The assumption has been that normal people become bored or confused by talk of strategy, yardages, club selection, shot trajectories, and so on.

The thing is, most of the nuances of golf aren’t that hard to understand. It doesn’t take a genius or a hardcore golf nerd to follow the push-and-pull between a young player who wants to hit it 215 and a veteran caddie who knows that 200 is plenty. It’s simple.

Each golf shot is a story with a beginning, middle, and end. People like stories. We have to believe in that.