The Tale Of A TV Golf Spotter – Or How I Came To Love Network F Bombs

Unless you have been on the inside of a TV network's coverage during a PGA Tour or LPGA Tour event and are familiar with their manic methods of bringing golf to your big screen TV, you would have no way of knowing just how crazy things can be behind the scenes. Watching a golf telecast on TV you would never know that people are screaming orders and yelling for camera angles, swearing like sailors on a troop ship, cursing spotters that miss a call and even yelling at each other back in the production trailer.

TV Golf Needs Spotters

While on-course spotters are invisible to most TV people (who will cross the street to avoid one) they play an important role in the smooth operation of a network golf show. If they do their jobs correctly they are never seen or heard unless called upon and never, ever, under penalty of death, do they speak to a player unless the player speaks to them. Their role in the vast machine that brings the PGA Tour to your television each week is under-appreciated and under-paid and is about to become extinct due to technology like Shot Link. This is why it is time to tell their story.

Golf Spotters Are Unique

As a veteran TV golf spotter for most of the major networks over the past 15 years and some 25 tournaments I can tell you some amazing stories about the life of a spotter. But first you must be given an idea of just where the spotter fits in with the crew of a network golf broadcast. If you thought PGA tour caddies were under-appreciated, they are stars compared to the spotter! On the TV golf food chain they are somewhere between a divot and an out of round Titleist golf ball.

The cardinal rule in a TV compound is lead, follow, or get the h*** out of the way! And that applies doubly to the spotter, relegated to a back seat role in the confusing pandemonium of a network golf show. Last to know what is going on, trying to stay out of the way, wanting to be a part of the team and treated like a leper.

Steve Melnyk Is A Jerk

First, spotters are mostly invisible by the "talent", even with your TV credentials and inside the network compound, if you rush up to a golf announcer you have seen on TV and attempt to stammer a few words of adoration you are likely to be met with the "thousand yard stare." After mumbling something about an important meeting they are off to whatever trailer it is that they hide in until it's time for the "show." Us spotters are barely tolerated even by the low-on-the-totem-pole spotting co-ordinator who wants you in the compound and ready for assignments early, so he doesn't have to go looking for you when it's time to go on the air, even though you won't be on the golf course until much later. Problem is he farts around till almost noon before he blesses you with your assigned group, this makes him feel much more important than he is and you end up running out to the golf course so you can be in position when coverage starts.

Spotters are to be avoided at all costs by the producers, with their hectic schedule and pressure packed jobs they have no time to hear about the time you saw Lee Trevino at the airport. To clarify; spotters are about the lowest members of the food chain in TV golf broadcasts of the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, The Champions Tour, the Nationwide Tour or any other tour.

There are a few exceptions to this, the camera and sound guys pretty much hang together and some are down-to-earth guys and gals. The catering people generally don't know you are a low-life spotter so they smile at you and turn away when you ask for more of something at the food tent. (spotters are told to wait until the real crew has eaten). There were a couple of producers I worked for that were actually nice, senior producers like like Jack Graham, Mark Loomis and Margaret Schaefer. I became especially fond of Judy Rankin – on course announcer, a great lady, member of the World Golf Hall Of Fame and a genuinely nice person. Some producers were total ***holes, (wherever you are Sal, I bet you are still the world' biggest jerk!) 

A spotter has to talk his way into the tournament on the day of the 1st round because they don't have their credentials yet and nobody thinks to tell security, they have to beg, borrow or steal a parking pass to be anywhere near where they locate the TV compound and usually end up without a pass, walking or taking a shuttle to the golf course. Once there they must stay away from the food tent until the regular crew eats (spotters are independent contractors and have no status in the network pecking order). Once the spotting coordinator gets around to assigning groups and you have your radio and clipboard it's usually a good idea to make yourself scarce.

You see, spotters have a kind of bad reputation with the regular TV crews. There have been some real characters to show up as spotters, tour caddies, to use one example, guys who couldn't get a "bag" for the week looking for a little cash, looking for drinking money, not the most reliable people and sometimes hard to find when it's time to work. You can usually find them off chatting with fellow caddies and they act insulted if told to get with their group. My friend John Kerr has elevated the status of the TV golf spotter with his choice of guys who know golf and could keep their mouth shut. It's too bad that ShotLink will eventually replace the on-course spotter, it sure was fun while it lasted.

Spotters are are not employees but are rounded up at each PGA Tour stop by a guy who knows how to find golf savvy people, golfers who won't turn into Brett Musberger wanna be's when they get a radio in their hands, pissing off the producers with their long winded analysis of a players shot. Spotters are not to be seen and are to keep their mouth shut until asked for a hitting order or to respond to a stats question from a producer. But it sure is entertaining when you hear a producer bitch out a spotter for some transgression, just don't let me F*** up Lord.

Things look very calm and smooth as you watch the broadcast at home, people like Mike Tirico and Jim Nance make it look so easy. It was 1992 and I was in Scotland at Muirfield, no less, home to The Honourable Company of Endinburgh Golfers (golf's royal family) and host to the 121st Open Championship. I was about to find out just how crazy things could be when I worked for abc sports and the BBC as a spotter for the British Open Championship in 1992.

On the final day of the Open I drew an unknown pair, Ernie Els, a S. African player at the time virtually unknown to U.S. golf fans and Steve Parry, the Australian, neither of whom were in contention. I was disappointed but I could understand the producer wanting to use his best man for the tournament leaders. Nick Faldo (the eventual winner) who was paired with Steve Pate were assigned to a more experienced spotter but it turned out he was a personal friend of Els and wanted to go with Earnie's group. He asked the producer to trade with me and to my surprise they agreed! All of a sudden I am charged with the hitting order of the tournament leaders and as luck would have it, they were playing like 10 handicappers. Great drives right down the middle, then fat shots, pulled shots, pushed shots, and it became a matter of who could get up and down with the least damage to their score.

I could sense Faldo's frustration at his mediocre play and I silently celebrated with him when he stiffed a five iron to 2 feet on 15 for birdie. John Cook who actually had a one shot lead at the time was playing the par 5, 17th hole and 3-putted for a par. His tee shot landing in the rough on 18 cost him a bogey and it was now Faldo's tournament to win or lose. Pate had self-destructed with four holes to play and Faldo came to the 18th hole needing a par to win.

Long story short, Faldo makes par and wins the Open Championship by one shot. That's when he gave his "I thank the British press from the heart of my bottom" speech.

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