Golf fans on social media appear to be debating the idea of watching PGA Tour events without commentary. A video was shared on Instagram where the broadcast from a golf event was turned off. This later got circulated by golf influencer Rick Shiels on X.
The video was taken from The Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club back in 2019. Tiger Woods was playing in the final round of this prestigious golf major. The clip had no commentary, just the audience's roar when the PGA Tour legend scored a birdie. Shiels wrote on his X timeline:
"Would you watch a PGA Tour feed with no announcers? No talking. No music. Nothing. Just the golf and the fans. This cool edit shows what it would be like..."
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Needless to say, the video was from April 14, 2019, when Woods won in Augusta for the fifth time in his career. He shot 2-under in the last round, and a total score of 13-under 275. The edit captures the beauty of the sound of the drive and spectators cheering upon the 82-time PGA Tour winner's birdie putt.
A section of the fans appeared to like the idea of watching golf events without listening to live commentry. Some even expressed the idea of switching to golfer-caddy conversations in between shots.
"Yes.. golf broadcast are horrible. Very little golf endless talking about nonsense or showing drone videos of skylines," a fan wrote.
"I hope for a day soon where any broadcast of any sport allows you an option to turn a broadcaster off and just have the ambient sounds. NBA does this on occasion," someone else said.
"This is how i'd prefer watching the featured groups. Would much rather hear player / caddie & player / player interactions than listen to someone tell me about what i'm seeing," another fan said about PGA Tour broadcasts.
Other fans were not in favor of the idea.
"Couldn’t think of anything worse for golf. You need the atmosphere coming through the TV. It’s like getting the international feed instead of NBC when watching in Australia for The Players and last week as well," one fan wrote.
"If you could just get Azinger off the Champions Tour broadcasts would be good enough for me," someone else said.
"An event like The Masters would be a great event to try this…with very minimal round updates," a fan wrote.
This is not the first time this debate has come in the spotlight. Fans, golf influencers and Tour players have been sharing their takes over the years on this issue.
PGA Tour commissioner shared his take on broadcasting issues
Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner recently talked about the issue of broadcasting and announcing in golf and the way it has evolved over the years. He said during his press conference at the Players Championship (via ASAP Sports):
"We look very specifically at the number of golf shots that we’re showing per hour, and we do that with our network partners, and we’ve made material improvements on that front."
"We’re evolving in a way with our partners that has more golf shots per minute, fewer shorter putts, capturing the drama, doing all the things that we think that they want."
The Tour commissioner also spoke about recieving promising viewership with newer strategies with their broadcast partners. Recent updates include player-caddie interactions instead of long commercials between the shots.
