Smylie Kaufman Talks PGA Tour's Innovative Broadcast Experiments
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00:00One of the sort of the headlines in this past week that is very applicable to what you do
00:08on a weekly basis, Smiley, is some of the new TV changes that the PGA Tour is experimenting
00:12with.
00:13We saw one of them this week that really isn't necessarily new.
00:17In fact, what it really looks like to me is a borrowing of the concept that's worked for
00:22many years on the DP World Tour.
00:24It's the walk and talks that we've seen for a couple of years now on the PGA Tour, except
00:29instead of having a set of air pods in and that player talking to broadcasters, commentators
00:34are in her booth and you're not seeing them.
00:37There is a on course correspondent holding a mic and going back and forth with that player.
00:41And that is what you've seen on the DP World Tour for a number of years now.
00:44So that's something we saw this week at the Black Desert Championship.
00:47And then kind of two other pieces of the just I don't know if you want to call it a modernization
00:54of the broadcast or just experimenting with new things.
00:56But one was more of a focus on that cut line on, you know, really that Friday coverage
01:02window of just less of a focus on the leaders and more of a who's sweating that cut line
01:07and what's that number going to be?
01:08And can we use more modern analytics and things like that to give you an accurate guess as
01:13to where that cut line is going to end up?
01:15And then also a a more of a narrow focus in the broadcast on a specific hole or a specific,
01:23you know, at the Saracen Farms, like a dribble par four, just just instead of going wide
01:28on the entire golf course, seeing a bunch of guys come through and play one section
01:31of the golf course.
01:32And Smiley, this applies to you because, you know, you've been doing the Fridays with Smiley
01:37at one hole location this entire last season.
01:40And you know, a lot of that's been cut line focus.
01:42So just what are your reflections on the ways in which the broadcast hopefully changes and
01:47what you're excited about to kind of see NBC Sports and Golf Channel do from your employer's
01:52perspective?
01:53So this is all coming from the networks, obviously listening to their audience, but also communicating
01:58with the PGA Tour and their subcommittees that they have set up.
02:02So there are players that meet with the networks and also just try to formulate a plan of of
02:08how to make it more engaging, see more golfers and just make it a different experience from
02:13day to day.
02:14So the traditional way in which we've covered golf, which is Thursday, Friday, typical featured
02:19groups, you go around the entire golf course with those, you know, two or three groups
02:24outside of some big shots that you kind of find around the golf course that that kind
02:28of gets sold.
02:29And they're like, OK, let's go over to seven.
02:30Most of the time, you kind of know I sit on the couch and something's about to happen.
02:35The way that's going to be this fall and the way they're they're trying to test it out
02:39is that, like you said, you know, going to one hole, whether it be, you know, for Shriners
02:45this next week, it will probably be the drivable far for 15th hole and then the 17th hole,
02:50which is a par three.
02:51And I think what you're going to see in this is that we're going to see most likely just
02:57about every single player that's in the field come through these holes.
03:02So instead of only seeing, let's say, twenty five guys of the one hundred forty four, we're
03:08going to see closer to the full field on the TV screen while you're sitting there watching.
03:13So if you're a parent or you're a cousin or you're a friend or you're a fan of X, name
03:18this player that doesn't get on TV, you know, once every five events, unless he holds out
03:23a shot.
03:24Hey, this is this is now this fall an opportunity to see him play, whether it be, you know,
03:30that drivable hole or that going forward in two or that par three.
03:34So you'll typically see that on Thursday and then Friday.
03:37If your fan or friend or whatever it is, is on that cut line.
03:41That's going to be the storyline.
03:43And and that's that's the big thing that's been echoed from the players.
03:46It's like we don't show enough of our golfers and that we don't focus enough on the cut
03:52line.
03:53And I could not have green up more on this.
03:55I've always said that, man, it'd be cool to have some type of like a red zone experience
03:59on Fridays.
04:00But now we're just going to do it on the broadcast and Saturday and Sunday.
04:04We've always focused on on the leaders and setting up these storylines of who's going
04:08to win these golf tournaments.
04:10But now we have Friday to really, you know, lean into what is one of the coolest things
04:15that we have in professional golf, which is a cut.
04:17You know, this is what guys decide whether they're going to get paid or not.
04:22Not just the players, the caddies, too.
04:24So it's a it means a lot for somebody like me, knowing going into every week, you know,
04:30you're just trying to give yourself an opportunity on the weekend to go make a paycheck and move
04:35up, whether it's the corporate tour pointless or the PGA Tour FedEx got pointless.
04:41And that was our sole focus.
04:42So I love that Friday is going to be that way.
04:45I think just the graphics that I've seen this entire fall of just the rolling leaderboards
04:50of so weird seeing, you know, a 20 person leaderboard of where the cut is.
04:55You just never have seen that before.
04:57So for me, I'm always checking that anyways to see who's making the cut and who isn't.
05:02Now I get to watch it on Friday.
05:04So I think it's a great way to to kind of test this as we kind of move into hopefully
05:09getting people to turn on the TV on a Friday.