In the early morning hours of April 8, 2023, Justin Thomas was shaking as he walked onto the 14th fairway at Augusta National Park. Rain poured down from the pine trees as Thomas was interviewed live by CBS commentators Andrew Catalon and Trevor Immelman. He was one under par for the tournament at the time, one shot above the cut line. (Due to inclement weather, the final hole of Friday's tournament was postponed until Saturday morning.)
At 4:45 a.m., Thomas updated the audience on his day and his recent shots. "I've got a long day ahead of me," he told the CBS crew while walking and talking, sipping a protein shake.
Or not. Thomas quickly made bogeys on the 15th, 17th and 18th holes, falling 4 strokes behind par and missing the cut by one stroke. Ouch.
Did the on-course interview cause him to lose strokes on three of his final four holes? Well, wet course conditions may have had a bigger impact on his final result. But given the frantic senior players' focus on not being distracted, you can understand why Thomas never wants to do another on-field interview. Even the best players in the world have limited opportunities to play in the Masters.
So it’s surprising to see Thomas now carrying the broadcast media torch. In a letter to his PGA Tour teammates obtained by The Athletic this week, Thomas exhorted his teammates to step up and step into the spotlight for the good of the professional game.
“The more documentaries and specials I watch on other sports streaming services, the more I realize the main reason I love them so much is the access they provide and the insight the athletes give me; about them and their A fan of craftsmanship,” Thomas wrote. "Before watching some of the shows and games, I had no interest in rooting for certain players, teams, coaches. But the way some of them showed their cards and the way they went about their business made me a bigger fan."
Thomas captured a key to sports marketing in the 2020s: The focus is on the players, not the game. If viewers are given a compelling reason to connect with the athletes on the field, they will watch regardless of the score.
Take the NBA, for example: Given the league's proliferation on podcasts and social media, it's possible to become a deep, well-connected fan of the NBA without watching many or any actual games. Despite golf's lackluster reputation, it has charming personalities both up and down the leaderboards. But every incentive in the sport—from the long tradition of “gentlemanship” to uneasy sponsors to the desire to “focus”—suppresses those personalities, grinding nearly every player into the same cliché. . This may help the players' short-term prospects, but it fails to connect with the generations of fans who will carry the sport into the 2030s and beyond.
In an interesting coincidence of timing, Thomas' team made its debut in the TGL, a weekly indoor golf league in South Florida, just hours after Thomas' letter appeared. Thomas' Atlanta Drive GC provides the perfect visual metaphor for the state of today's golf celebrities: Thomas himself, cheerful and brash; Billy Horschel, dancing happily in jewelry; and Patrick Cantlay, Doing your own thing seriously and quietly. This team won on a buzzer beater that was easily the most impressive of the six teams so far, even allowing for Cantlay's virtual silence.
Hours after the TGL game, another major development in golf's bid to boost its public profile was put on hold: the news that "Full Swing," Netflix's documentary tracking men's professional golf, will launch a third season on February 25. This is certainly good news for golf given the possibilities that Full Swing unlocks for the sport.
The north star and treasure map for all non-rugby sports in America is Drive to Survive, the Netflix documentary series that essentially turned F1 into a weekly reality show. Full Swing may not have the same seismic impact, but 2024 is a huge year for golf news, from Scottie Scheffler's dominance (and arrest) to Rory Mack Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau's exciting showdown at Pinehurst to the Olympics. If this documentary can capture that—if viewers can turn to the 2025 calendar to see how these “characters” fare this year—well, it’s a dream scenario.
Thomas is right — for both players and broadcasters, the old ways just don’t work. Ratings are down, interest is down, and people are frustrated with the division and stagnation of the sport. Yes, many entities in golf are getting rich off short-term heat and investment, but if they want the game to be better in five years than it is now, the work has to start now.