There’s been a lot of hype since the LPGA announced a partnership with FM that would help enhance its broadcasts this year, and those bells and whistles debuted Thursday on Golf Channel for the first round of the Fortinet Founders Cup.
With hype comes expectation, and the broadcast delivered in quality of a few new things but not in quantity.
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There were more cameras and graphics. There was and a drone and shot tracing. There just wasn’t enough of all of those things. All were promising first steps and a good foundation from which to build, but it was easy to leave still wanting more.
There were more cameras as advertised and different angles. There were two cameras on World No. 2 Nelly Korda—an overhead angle and a close-up angle—while putting on the 10th green at Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club in Menlo Park, Calif. That’s the kind of thing seen on PGA Tour telecasts. It was nice to see that on the LPGA.
The drones were the clear star of the show, and there will plenty of those awesome shots of the course and area over the next three days. There were shots of the course layout, and Sharon Heights provides the definition of beauty shots, and its location near Interstate 280.
This is the fifth event of the LPGA season, but after the season-opening Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, won by Korda, the tour went to a three-event Asia swing. This week marked the first time the tour was able to activate on the enhanced production. (Hyo Joo Kim shot nine-under 63 to lead the first round by two shots.)
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More microphones led to listening in on a conversation between Grace Lee and a rule’s official. If there’s one thing golf viewers seem to be interested in it’s rules.
One unfortunate thing, and through no fault of the LPGA, was that the broadcast was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. ET and it was delayed by 12 minutes until coverage of the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship concluded. Golf Channel stayed on to watch Jordan Spieth finish his first round.
The LPGA announced that there will be four times the amount of shot tracing, and there certainly was more. Korda, Yealimi Noh and Brooke Matthews had shots traced with Kordan having the most. Again though, more would be nice.
“You’ll see more camera coverage at our domestic events, a modernized booth look and graphics,” said Chad Coleman, the LPGA’s new chief marketing officer. “You’ll see some fun broadcast headshots and fun facts about certain players that will help increase that connection with fans to those players. There’s more consistent storytelling throughout the broadcast, more integration of our athletes and caddies and some of the things that you’ve seen early on already this year, like the walk-and-talk interviews, the booth visits.
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“In terms of a clearer showcasing of their skills, I think this is arguably the most important component of this. More shot tracing is data that helps fans see the precision and the strategy and the decision making. There’s more tools like green visualizations and graphical enhancements like that that make everything easier to understand. We’re super excited about these changes this year in partnership with FM.”
There was a fun video graphic of Japanese star Chizzy Isato, where she introduced herself in Japan and English. That was awesome and creative but it seemed to be the only one used during the three-hour window. Then there was another photo graphic of Korda and a few fun facts, like her coffee order, favorite hobby and superstitions. (It’s flat white with whole milk, needlepoint and three tees in her hair.) Where were the others?
There were two in-round player interviews in the coverage, and more of those have been promised. One was with defending champion Noh, who is from Northern California. It was an informative interview with Karen Stupples, who chatted with her after a birdie on No. 10, so the timing was great. There was talk about golf and pastries. Wonderful.
Kay Cockerill interviewed Andrea Lee, who attended nearby Stanford, and that was insightful too. Meg Mallon joined Grant Boone and Morgan Pressel in the booth, and Mallon was a good storyteller as always. Judy Rankin was supposed to be back for an appearance but did not feel well enough to travel west.
This is the first season in the 75-year history of the LPGA that there is televised coverage of every round of every tournament. That’s huge. The enhancements are great, but there’s not enough. Yet.
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