The FedEx St Jude Championship might have ended in the most dramatic of fashions but PGA Tour star Michael Kim was left annoyed at one element of the coverage.
The PGA Tour’s TV coverage has come under scrutiny all season long as fans often debate online about the amount of ad breaks, the lack of live shots, and more.
As we know, the modern game and modern tech that goes with it does allow us, as fans, to see some cool features during the live action.
However, it is far from perfect and between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf, there is so much that can be improved on.
Still, while it’s normal for fans to bemoan these viewing points, it’s a bit rarer to see a current player do so.
But now, Michael Kim has suggested the TOUR are implementing something that is ruining things a bit.
Michael Kim complains about PGA Tour coverage as Justin Rose beats J.J. Spaun
Over the years and especially the last decade, the advances in technology across golf have been massive and as viewers, we are generally lucky to be able to see such visuals and information on screen.
But for all the good the modern tech brings to the game, some things are not quite up to scratch.
And according to Michael Kim, the TOUR and TV companies are getting it wrong when it comes to their ‘drone tracers’ for tee shots.
Taking to X to bemoan what we see, Kim has claimed that the drones actually provide inaccurate data and sometimes, ruin the idea of where the shot is going to end up.
Why Bob MacIntyre was annoyed with drones in 2024
Drones are very much a part of modern sport and we see them used across the world for all different reasons.
In golf, they are valuable assets in terms of getting to look at the course and layout.
However, they can also be a bit of a scorn on the players out there as Robert MacIntyre explained last year when he got annoyed.
“If it didn’t go away I was going to start throwing my clubs at it, that’s how annoyed I was getting! I was standing on the drivable par four and when everyone is silent all you can hear is, it’s like a big wasp,” MacIntyre said.
“Next hole I’m in the bunker and sure enough all I hear is this buzzing again. I look up and there it is. One of the guys must have been getting sick of me, because I knew he was the man to go to when the drone started annoying me.
“He just radioed get this drone out of here and I stood on the ninth fairway, wedge shot in, and sure enough all I could hear was this drone again. I had had enough at this point so rules official from the RNA was with us, I brought her over and I said ‘look, this drone needs to get out of here, I have said it three times now, this drone is annoying me, it’s putting me off, it’s too close’.
“I had a job to do and anything in my way was getting told to get out the way. That’s the way I was focused today. And that drone was doing my head in, so I told it to get out my way.”
For now, players simply have to suck it up and get used to things like this.
However, given the rate of tech evolution, it probably won’t be long until we have improved and quieter drones on course to make things even better for the viewer and player.
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