The PGA Tour are constantly attempting new ways to innovate and move the needle when it comes to improving the viewing experience for golf fans.
Watching a PGA Tour telecast nowadays is like night and day from even 15 years ago.
The quality of picture is obviously a lot better, but there is so much more real-time information given to viewers now as well.
There is no doubt that watching golf on television these days is a much better experience than it was years ago.
However, not every bit of new technology is additive.
One high-profile golf journalist has taken issue with the newest bit of technology unveiled by the PGA Tour.
PGA Tour urged to ditch new innovation
Golf fans were divided when the PGA Tour’s new innovation hit their screens at the start of June.
Some love it while others simply hate it.
When speaking on The Golf Channel Podcast, Ryan Lavner urged the PGA Tour to make a change regarding their new technology.
Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
He said: “I hate the predictive shot tracer thing for hit fairway and missed fairway that CBS has been rolling out. They used it on the 72nd hole.
“First of all, hands up, I am grossly colour blind so I have a really hard time with green is good and red is bad. There is such thing as red/green colour blind and that’s me. I can’t see it.
“Second of all it takes away some of the suspense. They had the par three predictor a couple of years ago, they would hit a tee shot and there would be a little circle on the green which would move to where the ball was going to end up.
“To me that takes away all the suspense. I want to hear contact, see ball flight and I want to be like oh is this going to be long, short, close or far away. Is he going to be able to make par or birdie? All the suspense is gone when you show this shot tracer and predictive value of whether they are going to miss the fairway or hit the fairway.
“Think about this. If you were watching a Major League Baseball broadcast and there is the pitch and Aaron Judge makes contact and all of a sudden there was a tracer and a predictive target for where that ball was going to land. I know it’s slightly different, but it’s essentially the same thing.
“They are making contact and all of a sudden you know where that ball goes – if it’s going to go in the left, centre gap. If it’s going to go 450 feet to right centre. You are cutting out five to seven seconds of suspense, where as a viewer that is what I want. That’s why I am watching.
“I know they have a shot tracer and that takes away a little bit of it, and I think that is sort of additive in certain situations, but predicting where it is going to go, using radar technology. I am over it, I don’t want to see it. Give me back my old fashioned golf broadcast.“
That is absolutely spot on from Lavner. Surely the beauty of watching a golf telecast is the anticipation of what will happen after the golf ball has been struck?
Sometimes less is more for the PGA Tour
Surely nobody can argue that the introduction of the TrackMan shot tracer has not improved the TV viewing experience for golf fans.
However, that was where the technology should have stopped.
The new innovation takes away all of the intrigue. As soon as a golfer hits his tee shot, viewers now know whether or not his ball will end up in the fairway.
The PGA Tour should ditch the new technology in my opinion.
And it seems like there are other fans out there who are thinking exactly the same.