In a rush to embrace whatever the metaverse is, NBC and the PGA Tour decided to animate the Players Championship trophy in some kind of mixed reality experiment.
It’s glorious. Look at this monstrosity. Listen to poor Mike Tirico have to set it up, presumably while also wondering how he can get in on the new wave of broadcaster salary bumps.
https://twitter.com/GeoffShac/status/1502056954553716736
The Players is the PGA Tour’s flagship event, and every year they try to differentiate it in some way. This year that’s the Golden Man, as golf Twitter has dubbed it. Considering how badly the weather has disrupted things so far (it’s likely going to finish on Monday at this point, and the weekend wind forecast looks like it could mean plenty of chaos), the Golden Man has actually served to be one of the more entertaining aspects of the event, albeit not in the way anyone intended.
https://twitter.com/SilenceFaldo/status/1502285391751262208
Do we think the Golden Man makes a move today? pic.twitter.com/BH6401wgzZ
— No Laying Up (@NoLayingUp) March 11, 2022
— D.J. Piehowski (@DJPie) March 10, 2022
https://twitter.com/CalumStewart88/status/1502169459024220164
SportTechie had the reasoning behind its existence, if you want to read a PGA Tour exec offer up plenty of jargon to try and justify the existence of something silly to the point of being unjustifiable. It’s an animated trophy. It’s not even so dumb it’s good, it’s just so dumb that it’s so, so, dumb, and that in itself has become funny.
It shouldn’t exist at all.
Let’s hope it never goes away.
[image via @NoLayingUp]
About Jay Rigdon
Jay is a columnist at Awful Announcing. He is not a strong swimmer. He is probably talking to a dog in a silly voice at this very moment.