NBC Sports lead golf producer Tommy Roy has home-field advantage for this week’s coverage of the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Roy lives just a few miles from the club, and his team knows this course better than any other on the tour.
“The goal year-in and year-out has been to give the fan the best seat in the house,” Roy said. “One of the great things about this course is it is like a stadium, so it allows for some interesting camera angles. We brought back the periscope cams that sit atop two pipes that are anchored to the bottom of the pond, allowing the camera to rotate 360 degrees. That covers the 17th hole, giving us every view possible. [There’s a] crane camera 150 feet in the air above the trees from right of the 16th fairway where the camera has a clear view of 16, 17 and 18. Another camera operator is taken by boat to the island right of the 17th green, where he is marooned for approximately eight hours to get the best reaction shots.”
The Players Championship is considered golf’s fifth major because of the quality of the field and the amazing challenges this unique course offers with its iconic 17th hole island green. It is a tantalizing hole with pin placements that intimidate even the world’s best players.
“There is no other course on the tour where the three closing holes — 16, 17 and 18 — are so much fun for fans to watch,” Roy said. “This is a tournament where the golf course is really the star of the show. Don’t get me wrong, the real challenge is seeing the world’s best players take on a very unforgiving course.”
By the time the last putt drops Sunday, the NBC crew will have logged more than 40 hours of coverage spanning the four days of the tournament.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
