“That’s like the No. 1 bullet point” - Collin Morikawa discusses a perceived problem in Golf, highlights potential solutions
American golfer Collin Morikawa is all set to kickstart his 2024 PGA Tour season at this week's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The tournament will see 80 of the best pro golfers and 80 celebrity golfers pair up to play at the Pebble Beach Links Course.
Despite the big prize purse and the challenging course, there is one thing that seems to be lacking as far as the audience opinion goes - the poor broadcasting coverage.
Ahead of the tournament, Collin Morikawa spoke in the pre conference about how the season is going so far. He too, pointed out the fact that there are very few good shots that actually make it on the big screen.
Speaking via Yahoo News, Collin Morikawa said:
“Well, I mean, you first need to see more golf shots. Like that’s like — that’s like the No. 1 bullet point. How do I make it more interesting? That’s a great one. But just seeing birdie putts and seeing more shots, that’s going to bring more viewers in because you can actually watch golf, right?"
Morikawa spoke about the need to lure more fans into watching tournaments. He said that while the tournament format cannot be changed, the way they are shown on television can be made a lot more interesting.
"So that’s already going to make it entertaining of itself. You can’t change what golf is. You can’t change the aspect of we’ve got 18 holes, you’ve got players to start on Thursday, you’re going to have two waves, all this stuff, you can’t change that, right But you can change the fact of seeing more golf shots and that’s a big part of actually saying I want to go watch golf, right?”
Collin Morikawa, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler in the talented field that is set to tee it off at 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am
The 2024 Pebble Beach Pro-Am has a prize purse of a whopping $20 million. While the pros and amateurs will tee it up for the first two rounds of the tournament, and only the pros will move on to the weekend rounds of the tournament.
Morikawa expressed his excitement to be a part of the tournament again this year, saying:
“I’m excited. We flew up Sunday and I actually forgot how nice this piece of land is in the entire world."
Justin Rose is the defending champion. However, he will face tough competition from the likes of Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland, who are top favorites to win the tournament.