WAT A HUGE
Games W D 38 12 9 SECOND SPELL Games W D 10 1 4
L 17
L 5
F 40
F 7
A 50
A 20
W% 31.6
W% 10
GOLF’S European Tour will not only look different when it resumes but it could also sound different.
In a revamped schedule dubbed the ‘UK Swing’, six tournaments will be played across the UK, starting with the British Masters on July 22 and concluding with the UK Championship at the end of August.
The coronavirus outbreak has meant all these events will be played behind closed doors, so in an effort to enhance their TV coverage, the Tour have announced they will be asking players to wear television microphones while competing.
I love the idea. The potential to hear the intimate conversations between a player and his caddie as they discuss strategy and tactics would be fascinating.
Learning more about the players themselves, their personalities and interactions with fellow competitors would also be great.
However, if I was a player, the potential to broadcast the conversations from my entire round would be the last thing I would want.
Sadly we live in a time where every word is scrutinised. It often feels as though people are actively looking to take offence.
Given that, I wouldn’t be agreeing to wear a microphone during a competitive round. I would be so worried that something I said could be taken out of context, misconstrued or be deemed as offensive it would totally mess up my natural game. I would also be worried about upsetting my sponsors.
We live in a world where Kylie Jenner (below) can tweet she no longer uses the App Snapchat as much as she once did, and the company’s share price tumbles $1.3billion as a result.
Can you imagine what would happen if Tiger Woods (above) was heard saying his new Nike top was restricting his swing or his Taylormade irons weren’t getting the same length as his previous clubs?
Gone are the days where athletes are encouraged to show their true personalities and give honest opinions – there is far too much risk.
One sport where a player is mic’ed up while competing is the NFL. You get a tiny package of clips totalling around 20 seconds of broken up conversations in highlight form. They are never live and usually long after the moment has taken place.
The clips are heavily edited and I would imagine need to be agreed to by one of the player’s advisors before they hit the airwaves.
Under a similar agreement I could see golfers being mic’ed up working out, but it will be a far cry from people’s hopes of getting a sneak peek behind the golfing curtain.