Televising the Ryder Cup: How the magic happens

BEHIND THE CAMERAS: Televising the Ryder Cup: How the magic happens. Pic: Maurice Brosnan

In the corner of the golf course there is a mini town. Marco Simone is situated just outside of Rome and the crew responsible for bringing the Ryder Cup into homes and onto screens around the globe sit just off the fourth tee.

This golf tournament is the ultimate marriage of television sport and soap opera. Capturing it precisely is a phenomenal task that requires a mind-boggling amount of cross-continental communication between different departments. Over a thousand people. A plane, cranes and hundreds of automobiles. IMG Media is at the heart of a seismic compound for the entire week.

They bring their own towers, power, cranes and a plane. Hundreds of cabins are hired out for the week. Those sweeping shots of the undulating course from the sky? That takes a team. Plus permission and rights. In total the plane can fly for four hours at a time. It takes off and lands at a little airport located five minutes away. A squad are on standby to refuel and reload.

Another 15 people are responsible for the wire cam. The longest wire ever used on a golf event; it stretches 480 metres across from the tenth tee to the eighth green. That is what captures elevated looks and far-reaching views of seven different holes. The theatre in Rome will all be organic as players and their teams play their hearts out, but it takes a complex production to reflect its richness and depth.

IMG has several sporting partners including the PGA, DP World Tour, Wimbledon, UFC and the NFL. Their matrix moves to Italy this week where they capture the action as host broadcasters and transmit it to multiple channels around the world, including Sky Sports and NBC.

Executive producer and Galway native Mike Crowe stands in front of 200 monitors in the front gallery and strives to explain how the magic happens. He won’t see a second of the action in person. He will see every single shot across the three days.

They generate the world feed. In the top corner there are four monitors, showing the live feed clean and dirty (with graphics). The other two broadcast Sky Sports and NBC’s coverage.

The feed is presold in advance. Every country in the world can access it. The logistic circus takes months of planning. There is a weekly meeting to design the graphics alone. Circle or square? What colour should they be? Font, types of information, tickers and the pop down. Every box has to be ticked. Perish the thought there was a typo. There can’t be a tripod left on the course in a camera person’s shot. They can’t miss a beat because this is live television.

“This is our main gallery, but we have two separate galleries working in tandem and parallel,” Crowe explains. A sub-mix covers the action where the main gallery isn’t, another records every camera and goes back into the mainframe to cut a sequence not shown live.

“Anything we miss is picked up by Super ISO. They mop it up and play it back in to us. However, because there are only four games, we get almost everything live. So, they take care of the best isolated angles, player or fan reactions for every shot. They help enhance our coverage.” 

In the hotseat is a producer, conducting the orchestra with numbered instructions. Roll 27, 114, red or blue. A colour denotes recorded footage rather than live. Beside him and behind him are two rows of colleagues responding to his instruction, key cogs all feeding to the main chair.

The producer can’t take a drink while on shift. Nothing can get in the way of steering the ship. There are two main directors across the week too.

Crowe has an exceptional ability to watch several screens at once. While live footage is on the main screen, he spots a Jon Rahm approach shot on the tenth fairway in the bottom corner. “Wow,” he says, jumping forward like the Leonardo DiCaprio pointing meme.

Seconds later, the producer makes his call and Rahm’s shot airs to the world. Seamlessly, as if it was live. A 72-yard pitch for par that dunks in. The 2023 Masters champions raises his fist into the air and the crowd go into a frenzy. The shot, his reaction, the crowd all roll by in a flawless flash.

“This takes an incredible team of dedicated professionals. Cameras, sound, engineers, riggers, production management and production team all pulling together to bring the best show to the world.

“We have to do justice to the dramatic moments this tournament always delivers,” says Crowe. Mission accomplished.