Capelle On Golf

At their worst graphics are unwanted intrusions on our TV screen. In my opinion channel logos, especially the larger ones, are never welcome. I could also do without the scrolling scores of the entire field. If I must know what player X is doing, I’ll run over to my computer during a commercial break.

At their best, graphics do a superb job of telling the story and of giving us valuable information while making the most of the medium. Below is my take on a few of the latest innovations and ideas for new ones as well.

The Balls Rolling Everywhere Graphic
There is a graphic that shows the balls rolling around and off the green in all directions. This one gives you a good idea of the challenge the players face in hitting to the green, and in playing shots around it.

Splish Splash
Another neat graphic at THE PLAYERS showed the number of balls that went in the lake on the seventeenth hole. As they posted each year’s total you could hear a splashing sound. In case you missed it, here are the number of balls that failed to find dry land over the last five years. This year one in every 6.89 tee shots by the best players in the world went in the drink. Sergio Garcia’s tee shot on second round went down the path leading to the green and led to a double bogey. Seven shots found the pot bunker.

2004 30
2005 67
2006 57
2007 93
2008 62

If you look at this from a positive perspective, 70.49% of all tee shots found the green and 13.11% ended up on the fringe or rough surrounding the green.

The Missing Leaderboard Graphic
A simple but significant improvement on Saturday showed where each player stood when the leaderboard appeared on the screen. For example, the first player in fourth place would have a 4 to the left of his name. This made it easy to see a player’s position relative to the other leaders. It must have been a mirage because I don’t recall seeing it once on Sunday, the day when the standings count the most of all. Hey TV producers, what are you thinking? It only took you 50+ years to discover this obvious but great idea, then one day to ditch it.

Wind Direction and Speed Graphic
When an announcer tells me the wind is quartering from the left or some other such nonsense about the breeze, I find myself scratching my head. Maybe you feel the same. At any rate, there is an easy solution. All the TV folks need do is show an overhead view of the hole, have a big arrow pointing in the direction the wind is blowing, and mention the current speed and the gusts. Then we’ll have a great idea of how the wind could affect the shot.

The Tracer
The tracer is a new gizmo that shows the ball’s path through the air. Since anything is possible with technology these days, I would imagine that they could show a shot’s flight pattern from other than behind the ball. It would be especially cool to see an overhead view of how a ball curves on its way to the green.

The Distance of Putts
ShotLink measures all putts down to the inch from all lengths, but we seldom have this information before a golfer putts. It would be great if a small graphic appeared a few seconds before each putt showing its length since it is such an important component of each putt’s level of difficulty.