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Fans Revolt Against CBS’ New Blimp Technology

Golf on television is not an easy sport to cover.

Unlike many of its competitors, the game is not contested on a set field or court and as opposed to one ball being in play, there are typically upwards of 60 balls in motion at one time.


Despite the explanation of the fact, golf fans tend to be especially hard on the broadcast providers of their favorite sport, often leveraging “coverage takes” that would be more appropriately deemed “coverage complaints,” so when CBS trotted out some new technology on Saturday at the PGA Championship, it was no surprise that fans made their displeasure known.

The Aerial Tracer offers fans a bird’s-eye view of the hole while mixing in a shot tracer element that sounds good in theory, but apparently didn’t hit home for many golf fans. 

Making matters worse, the rollout of new technology didn’t come without hiccups. The accuracy of the Aerial Tracer came into question on numerous occasions, including Brooks Koepka’s opening tee shot.

While the tracer took over much of the screen, it showed Koepka’s ball heading towards the rough on the dogleg right first hole. The announcers only had the tracer to go off of originally and bemoaned the errant shot only to have an alternate camera angle show the ball land safely in the fairway.