It’s undeniable the Charles Schwab Challenge loses a bit of its magic without fans on site at Colonial Country Club, but there will be a few new elements introduced to make the broadcast a bit more enjoyable.
The most exciting addition: a few players will be mic’d up.
After its success during The Match: Champions for Charity, CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said on a conference call Monday the Charles Schwab Challenge will be next event attempting to make the game more personable by putting microphones on players.
McManus said there are a few players who have agreed to be mic’d up beginning Thursday as the PGA Tour holds its first event in nearly three months. The players who will be mic’d up is expected to be announced later in the week.
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“We’ve been talking to the Tour about it for years,” McManus said. “I think there’s probably a greater appreciation for wanting to contemporize golf coverage a little bit and I think the players are beginning to realize that they can play a real role in that and making the product a little more interesting for the viewer at home.”
Putting a microphone on Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson along with partners Tom Brady and Peyton Manning paid off two weeks ago as droves of fans — traditional golf fans and unlikely viewers alike — tuned in for one of the first major live sporting events in two months amid the COVID-19 pandemic. While players at Colonial will only have a microphone and not have earpieces to be asked questions during the round as Woods and Co. did during their charity match, CBS is hoping to generate the same type of buzz as golf follows UFC and NASCAR as major sports returning to action in the United States.
While not every player is interested in participating, McManus said in fact most aren’t willing yet, he is hoping those who try the microphones this week at Colonial will convince others of its value to fans, the game and ultimately themselves. CBS plans to make mic’d up players part of its weekly golf coverage.
Six-time major winner and current lead analyst for CBS Sports Nick Faldo said as a player, he too probably would have refused to have a microphone during a round as he feared it would have affected his privileged conversations with his caddie. In 2020, however, times have changed and the need for a more personable game is undeniable.
“What a great opportunity,” Faldo said. “We have plenty of fun talkers, fun tweeters haven’t we out there? Maybe they’d like to get their face and their sponsor on TV. I can’t see any harm. They have to switch it a little bit the players are entertainers right now and they have to do a little entertaining.”
The challenge of not having fans on the course presents an opportunity to add another interactive element to the broadcast. CBS will also introduce Inside the Ropes, an on-course interview with players on a certain hole. In accordance with social distancing guidelines, each player willing to participate will go into a tent alone on a certain hole, which one is to be determined, and answer a printed question to an unattended camera. The questions will range from specifics about their performance at Colonial to how it feels to be playing after three months away from competition.
Just like with the mic’d up players, McManus hopes to make Inside the Ropes part of CBS’s weekly Tour coverage as players grow more comfortable with the new plan to engage viewers. Jim Nantz, who will anchor all four days of the joint Golf Channel and CBS Sports broadcast alone from Colonial’s 18th Tower, wholeheartedly agreed.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for the game for the PGA Tour,” Nantz said. “They have a chance to go before a sports-starved nation and have a chance to create a fanbase, a wider fanbase than it’s ever had before and how you do that? But a lot of it has to be personality driven. We have to hear from the players.”
Tackling the strange landscape of running a professional sporting event in the time of coronavirus and social distancing goes beyond having no fans and making the tournament more engaging. CBS and Golf Channel are coordinating their efforts over the event’s four days by cutting the members of its broadcast teams on site for the Charles Schwab Challenge in half compared to pre-coronavirus production.
Nantz will be joined in Fort Worth by on-course reporters Dottie Pepper and Mark Immelman while Faldo and fellow analysts Ian Baker-Finch and Frank Nobilo will provide commentary from Orlando. Commentator Amanda Balionis will also work remotely from her home. Other members of the production team will work in an increased number of trucks on site and remotely from Golf Channel studios across the country.
While the CBS addressed coronavirus guidelines in preparing for their broadcast, it also plans to address the death of George Floyd and resulting nationwide protests at the top of the broadcast.
“I just think there would be a recognition on the part of our announcers that golf and sports coverage is not a matter of life and death but it’s a little perspective,” McManus said. “Let’s have some enjoyment out there. Let’s appreciate the athletic competition but let’s also remember that there’s a lot of other things going on in this country that we don’t need to necessarily recognize except in the opening but we have to keep in the back of our minds.”
Live television coverage of the Charles Schwab Challenge will begin Thursday at Noon ET on Golf Channel and move to CBS beginning Saturday afternoon for the third and final rounds.
The full broadcast schedule for the Charles Schwab Challenge can be found below.
Thursday, June 11
6:45 a.m.-8:30 a.m. ET: Twitter
7:45 a.m.-7 p.m. ET: PGA Tour Live
4-7 p.m. ET: Live coverage (GOLF Channel)
Friday, June 12
6:45 a.m.-8:30 a.m. ET: Twitter
7:45 a.m.-7 p.m. ET: PGA Tour Live
4-7 p.m. ET: Live coverage (GOLF Channel)
Saturday, June 13
7 a.m.-6 p.m. ET: PGA Tour Live
1-3 p.m. ET: Live coverage (GOLF Channel)
3-6 p.m. ET: Live coverage (CBS)
Sunday, June 14
7:45 a.m.-6 p.m. ET: PGA Tour Live
1-3 p.m. ET: Live coverage (GOLF Channel)
3-6 p.m. ET: Live coverage (CBS)
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