Scott Van Pelt's handling of hot mics picking up curse words was so perfect
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The 2020 PGA Championship was unlike any other golf major championship that we’ve seen as there were no fans in attendance at Harding Park to watch a great four days that ended with an incredible back nine of action and a first major championship for Collin Morikawa.
One of the benefits of having no fans at events continues to be what we get to hear from the players and the caddies from the mics all over the course. And yes, a lot of times we get to hear some bad words from players like Justin Thomas, who dropped a F-bomb on Sunday that golf fans loved.
ESPN shared the coverage with CBS at the PGA Championship, with the great Scott Van Pelt leading the way and finally we found our hero for dealing with those bad words. Too often when watching sports you have to listen to announcers apologize to us, the viewers, whenever – gasp! – a curse word by a player gets on the broadcast. The apologies are phony and completely unnecessary, as we can all handle hearing some swears while watching sports.
Van Pelt handled those moments perfectly during ESPN’s golf coverage. He didn’t apologize to us when those things happened but instead said stuff like, “I’m not going to worry about the language, if you play the game then you know what it is.” It was brilliant and it’s how all announcers should handle this stuff going forward.
Sports broadcasts need more realness like that from the announcers. Like I said before, we can handle hearing bad words because chances are we all use them and hear them all the time. If you don’t like hearing bad words while watching sports then you really need to calm down and just let them happen and get over it. They are just words. And if you’re a kid, well, you love hearing those words even more when watching a game. I know I did as a kid and I turned out alright.
ESPN’s coverage of the golf this weekend was so darn good (CBS’ golf coverage continued to be so darn bad). Van Pelt led the way and should be calling every golf tournament ever because he continues to show everyone just how good he is at having some fun while masterfully doing his job on live TV.
Sunday’s biggest winner: Collin Morikawa.
(Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
Morikawa won his first major championship on Sunday thanks to two shots on the 16th hole that he will never forget. Golf fans will never forget them either, as his drive on the short par-4 and his 7-foot eagle putt basically won it for him in stunning style. Just incredible stuff from a rising star who is going to win a bunch more of these things.
Quick hits: Astros-A’s brawl… Tiger Woods’ silly lanyard… Hilarious MLB home run.
– The Astros and A’s got into a bench-clearing brawl on Sunday, which MLB can’t be too happy about.
– Tiger Woods had to wear a lanyard at the PGA Championship, which was so silly because who wouldn’t recognize TIGER WOODS?
– Angels right fielder Jo Adell screwed up and gave a home run to Texas’ Nick Solak on a play that you need to see to believe.