Sarah Stirk
I’ve been out covering the Players Championship at Sawgrass pretty much every year since 2010, barring Covid, so it was quite weird watching this one from my living room. It was good fun seeing the players struggle with the tough conditions from afar, and I especially enjoyed watching Justin Thomas battle the elements to card a bogey-free 69 when the wind was at its strongest. However, all the weather delays did make it frustrating for everyone involved and I spared a thought for my Sky colleagues.
It’s obviously a great privilege to work at these events, but when no one’s quite sure when the next delay is coming, things can get a bit frantic behind the cameras. It took me back to the very first tournament I covered for Sky, the Joburg Open, which really was a baptism of fire. There was lightning and storms and the players were continuously on and off the course. We managed to get through it unscathed and being up against it like that turned out to be a great way to bond with the team.
It gets particularly hard when you don’t know how long the delays will be. If play is off for four hours, we’ll have some highlights lined up to fill a lot of that, but when it’s 20 minutes here and half an hour there, that’s when you earn your corn as a presenter. I know a lot of the guys, Rich Beem especially, have become amateur weathermen and are constantly on their phones looking at satellite images, but they’re all such experts that they can generally fill whatever gap is needed. It can get a little dangerous when my fellow GM columnist Radar is given uninterrupted airtime as you’re never quite sure where it will go, but that’s what makes him such an entertaining pundit. He definitely keeps us all on our toes in the studio!
It can also get a bit hairy when you’re on the ground at a tournament and the producer asks you to try and grab a player or two to interview. Most are great, especially the European guys, and you know which ones to avoid if they’ve had a particularly bad day. It’s just a case of standing outside the locker room and trying to get a few minutes here and there. There’s always a PGA Tour official or the meteorologist who we can talk to for an update, which helps too. This is where good relationships built over the years with players and agents is key. On that note, I have to say Ian Poulter is one of the best when it comes to fronting up, whatever the situation. He may have had a shocker on the course or a certain incident has really annoyed him, but he’s always willing to chat to us and talk it through. That’s often where the most revealing material comes from. Rory’s the same and I think he went up even further in everyone’s estimation after his emotional interview at last year’s Ryder Cup. Fans of any sport want to feel they’re seeing the real athlete behind the marketing facade and I think golfers are some of the best out there for that.
Despite the delays, Sawgrass still delivered great drama, as it always does – thanks, in no small part, to Pete Dye’s design. It takes a while for the players to get to grips with the layout – just ask Rory, who missed his first three cuts there – and this is a lot to do with how visually intimidating it is off the tee. You just have to look at the roll call of winners to see it doesn’t suit one playing style over another. It comes down to who’s playing the best that week, which will always make for a compelling tournament.
Talking of winners, it’s quite apt this month’s issue focuses on the short game because Cameron Smith is one of the best in the world at it. The wheels could well have come off when he went in the water on 18, but his recovery shot was out of this world. His caddie, Sam Pinfold, summed it up perfectly when he said he tends to steer clear of the Aussie on any shot from 60 yards and in because he’s just a genius on and around the greens. We always talk about players like Rory and JT having a real chance if their putting game is on, but this guy nails it every week. His driving wasn’t great in the final round, but his short game rescued him and he won the top prize. There’s a lesson there for all of us.
“Fans of any sport want to see the real athlete behind the marketing facade”