"PGA Tour players already refusing to wear microphones are missing multiple points"

As the PGA Tour players grapple with viewers hearing their conversations, players were asked about efforts to enhance what we eavesdrop on. Reportedly, Rickie Fowler and Graeme McDowell have volunteered this week, but several other top players want no part of wearing a microphone. And the reasons seem to not have anything to do with the actual equipment, but the “content” potentially overheard.

Awful Announcing’s Jay Rigdon considered the comments of Justin Thomas and Jon Rahm in shooting down interest in letting us hear more and rebuts why they are point-missing.

Justin Thomas, it should be clear, plays a spectator sport for a living. And in a world without fans in attendance (a world that might become the new normal, for the foreseeable future), any way to remove more of a filter between the at-home audience and the action is a good idea. It also rings hollow considering the nature of the game itself; there are no signs or plays for competitors to steal, nor is there much of a strategy that other competitors could find useful for themselves.

There’s also the fact that other sports already do this! Not necessarily with a live microphone that broadcasts can throw to throughout coverage, but NBA, NFL, and MLB players routinely wear microphones that networks use for quick replay looks or for edited packages, even as the game progresses. Just as a random example, David Ross was mic’d up during Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and still managed to perform just fine, but Justin Thomas thinks that Saturday at the Charles Schwab Challenge is a stage too important for that kind of distraction.

This ultimately seems to be the divide here: players view the intrusion as harming the sanctity of events that fans do not regard with the same respect.