Reigning PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka is fast becoming a man of many opinions and he offered his two cents on the recent discussion of whether PGA Tour players should wear microphones during tournament telecasts.
“I don’t understand why they want us to wear a mic when there’s a boom mic that stands 10 feet away from every shot that I hit,” he said. “If the announcers would just shut up and listen, you could hear every word that we’re talking about.”
In other words, don’t expect Koepka to be volunteering to wear a microphone any time soon.
Television networks have been begging golfers to wear microphones for decades. It was first tested out in 1980s, and quickly shot down by players. In more recent times, players on the Korn Ferry Tour have been more willing to experiment during Golf Channel broadcasts.
The subject gained steam recently when pros were wired for sound at the two televised exhibitions for charity that aired last month and Phil Mickelson, in particular, showed the potential when he diagrammed how he was going to play a pitch shot in real time.
And to the point @BKoepka made… you DON’T need a microphone on the player. The directional mics these days are so good, they’ll pick up all the conversation. The announcers need to “hush”.
— keith hirshland (@khhauthor) June 18, 2020
Rickie Fowler served as a guinea pig at last week’s Charles Schwab Championship and Adam Hadwin wore a mic during the opening round of the RBC Heritage, but they appear to be in the minority who have raised their hand.
Hadwin estimated upwards of 20 percent of players would be willing to do so, while Joel Dahmen guessed it’s probably closer to 50 percent, according to The Athletic.
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“I think there can be a lot of value to it, depending on how it’s done,” Hadwin told The Athletic.
“That’s why I’m interested in doing it. It’s something new, and I’m willing to try anything once.”
“Ohhhh chunk cityyyy” @ahadwingolf I often say this too when stepping on the scale during quarantine pic.twitter.com/WGuXCM4OTw
— Jessica Hadwin (@jessicahadwin) June 18, 2020
Justin Thomas was one of the first players to raise an objection.
“I would not wear a mic, no. That’s not me. What I talk about with (caddie Jimmy Johnson) and what I talk about with the guys in my group is none of anybody else’s business, no offense.”
Herein lies the problem: the players that golf fans most want to hear from see nothing to gain and too much to lose. And then there’s Koepka who suggests the easy solution is for announcers to just pipe down.
“I don’t understand what the thing is. Half the time the lady’s holding a boom mic and she’s listening to everything we’re saying all the way down,” he said. “If they would just shut up, they could hear everything.”
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