Covering a golf tournament.. help!

Solid advice. There's not much else anyone can to add this thread after that gem.

 

I cover most of the state events here and one of the volunteers works in the pro shop.
Today he walks up, we chat for a bit and part. As he's walking, he turns around and says "Rhody, any time you want to play, just give me a call in the pro shop."

Ding. Ding.

 

Bumping this since I have a freeelance gig covering the Champions tour this weekend. Know the basics, of course, but never covered any golf at this level.

First tee time is 7:30 a.m. Don't think I have to be there from the start on the second day, do I? I like the idea of hanging near the scoreboard and tracking the key players. On Sunday, I may follow the last group around. Know Golf Channel will be there and will likely be able to see any key replays. OTOH, Daly's entered, so who knows what will happen.

Opening the floor to the collective wisdom (and collective wiseguys and gals) of this humble forum.

 

Get there as early as possible every day. Parking!! Traffic!!! First day, walk the course as much as possible, check the scoreboards, pick a player to focus on. Whatever. Second day, focus more on end of the day scores. Third day. Game's over. You know how to write a game that's over.

 

Ask for an Inside the Ropes pass when you get there. Champions Tour is pretty relaxed. They should give you one. Golf is infinitely easier to cover from inside the ropes.

First day story is almost always the Round 1 leader, unless you want to do something more feature-focused and follow Daly and write about him. (It depends on what the expectations of your employer are. If they want tournament COVERAGE you might have to stick to the leaders, but if you can write four fun stories, follow Daly on the first or second day, write about him, the fans, his life on the Champions Tour, etc.

They almost always bring the leader into the clubhouse for a press conference after his round. Anyone who shoots a halfway decent round will stop at the designated flash area. Champions Tour guys are usually happy to talk, so if you need a little extra detail, ask the guy if you can walk with them after they wrap up their media session.

You'll be able to see from inside the media center who is doing what, so you won't have to sit by the scoreboard, which will only have about 10 names on it, and is a little hard to follow in real time.

It's probably a good idea to get there by 9:30 on the second day in case someone who went off in the afternoon on Thursday is going low Friday morning. That way you'll be able to catch their back nine, get some color, be there when they wrap up, etc.

Almost no sport is better at providing transcripts than golf. If you're out on the course and someone says something funny in their presser or flash, you'll be able to get the transcript. That's just how golf is.

On Sunday, there is very little reason to get there before the last four groups go off. You can follow the last group on Sunday, but what you may realize is, it's very difficult to see what's going on if there are multiple players from multiple groups in the hunt. The winner might come from the third-to-last group because he posts a 64. The dirty secret of golf is: If the tournament is close and there are lots of guys in the mix, you have to watch it (for the most part) on TV in the media center so you can keep track of everything. If it's a battle between two guys, or if one guy is running away with it, definitely walk with that group.

Enjoy it. It's a fun sport to write about.

 

Don't be surprised if you find yourself cringing in shame at the response to that question. I asked something just like that to a kid leading an NCAA Division II championship once (it was held at a course I usually played back then). His answer -- "What bunker?" -- led me to appreciate Bob Jones' "[Nicklaus] plays a game with which I am not familiar" all the more ...

 

Good stuff, really. It's odd that I don't know who will have the first day, since we're all headed out to Friday night football. I'm thinking Day 2 will focus on the leaders, as well as who missed the cut. One feature angle blew up on me since First Tee partners each pro with a top junior golfer for the first two rounds (Pebble and Poppy Hills), but no locals were picked. Everything's at Pebble on the last day, just like in the AT&T.

On top of all this, it's my first trip ever to Pebble Beach.

 

Ninety-nine times out of 100, who missed a Chanpions Tour cut isn't the story.

 

I don't know about the Nature Valley, but most Champions Tour events don't have a 36 hole cut.

PGA Tour Champions a cut above (since there is no cut)

EDIT: It appears, at least according to what I'm reading, there is no cut at this event.

 

This is going to sound silly, but I found that when I covered my one and only big golf event (U.S. Women's Open), it was best from inside the media tent. There were TVs all over the place, pretty much allowing you to watch all of the action. If you were to follow one group, especially during the first two rounds, you have no idea who is moving up or down on the leaderboard. Whether you see a shot from 45 feet away or on an HD monitor, it doesn't matter. I don't think you're missing much.

 

The first Champions (Seniors) event I covered was incredible. I couldn't get John Brodie to stop talking. He probably would have invited me to dinner if I didn't tell him that I had to leave. Then Chi Chi Rodriguez started talking to about six of us and he kept going and going, too. After he finished, he came to us and shook everybody's hand and thanked us for interviewing him. The final round was on Easter, they had a great meal for us, including champagne and strawberries.