One of the things that I have missed dearly over the past year is live golf events. Sure, you can survive without the thrill of high five-ing a stranger when a tour player rolls in a birdie putt. However, the absence of such connections becomes immediately apparent when human interaction is dramatically reduced. There is a certain bond and comradely that happens at these gatherings and it makes a difference in your quality of life. It lifts the human spirit and makes an individual feel that they are a part of a much larger and greater purpose. In a sense, it gives our lives meaning.
Fortunately, one of the most spiritual gatherings in all of golf happens to be right in my back yard and the event was back on the calendar for 2021. I am talking about the fourth annual Wishbone Brawl at Goat Hill Park. Lovingly referred to as “The Wishbone” or “The Brawl” by locals, The Wishbone Brawl is a 2 on 2 match that is played at Goat Hill Park to benefit North County Jr Golf and the Goat Hill Park Caddie & Leadership Academy. There are no ropes and the only real rule during the event is “don’t be a dick.” This year, Fred Couples & Will Kropp were set to take on Xander Schauffle & Dean Wilson. The star power was aligned and Goat Hill Park was ready to shine.
My role for The Brawl would be slightly different in 2021. I wasn’t going to be handing out high fives or even behind the lens of my camera. I was going to be the eye in the sky for The Fire Pit Collective live broadcast of the event.
When I say live broadcast, I am not talking about uploading a video stream from an iPhone. The Fire Pit Collective was going live with on course interviews, mic’d up players, multiple camera angles, and the hottest aerial coverage of the entire Wishbone Brawl. The plan was to bring every shot, every story, and every step of the Wishbone Brawl right into your living room.
Generating a live broadcast for a golf tournament is not a simple task and we had our work cut out for us. We wisely brought in our friendly neighbors, KuenyPearson, to help with the task. The crew ended up fashioning the world’s very first “Mobile Goatcast Delivery Unit,” or MGCDU for short. While the name has yet to be officially registered with the US patent office, this feat of engineering is unlikely to be matched in the near future.
A candid capture of the MGCDU in action. Photo credit: Gabe L’Heureux
Audio feeds, video signal strength, mobile durability, battery life, and about 125 other variables demanded constant attention. Slight hills presented a challenge. Positioning of the MGCDU needed to be calculated specifically with broadcast and timing considerations. Pre produced video features would buy us some time but routes needed to be pre planned and carefully considered. After a successful test run on the evening of the Brawl, the live broadcast was given the official green light.
Xander with his Olympic gold medal
Couples with the wooden driver he used to win the 1992 Masters
Goat Hill Park course record holder, Will Kropp.
PGA Tour winner, Dean Wilson.
As the Wishbone Brawlers begin to arrive, Goat Hill Park quickly filled with excitement and contagious energy. Comms were established and the crew readied for mobile broadcast deployment. I quickly gave myself the call sign Viper and prepared to launch the aerial video mechanism. Before we had a chance to think twice, the Brawl was underway and the broadcast was up and running.
“Sticking with Camera 1 on 2 green and cutting to commercial in 15.”
“Holding tight on Drone and moving to Camera 2 in 3,2,1…”
“We are getting a poor signal on 6 green from Camera 1 , we need to scramble the MGCDU stat.”
“Kill Kropp graphic, rolling audio on Couples with Ginella on 4, standby for cut to drone.”
All hands on deck as the MGCDU operates. Photo credit: Gabe L’Heureux
Since the drone video was the lone hardwired video feed into the MGCDU, I was the go to when all else failed. Which meant that I had to be ready to deliver stunning video footage at a moment’s notice for a solid 3.5 hours. I was essentially the Goodyear Blimp for the 2021 Wishbone Brawl. By Fire Pit Collective standards, smooth cinematic aerial footage was the only acceptable option. Good thing I had a cool call sign.
Over the course of the 3.5 hours of live coverage, I burned through 7 drone batteries, captured 1 hole in one, and nearly suffered a mid air collision with a tee shot on #6. While the team ran into our fair share of technical and bandwidth issues, we couldn’t help but consider the first time effort a rousing success. Just being a part of a team and a project like this was an incredibly rewarding experience. Hopefully the end product that we delivered brought some joy to those that could not be with us out at Goat Hill Park.
The scene on 18.
The official Wishbone presentation
After Will Kropp canned a “must make” 40 footer on 17 to extend the match to the 18th hole, Xander & Dean hung onto their 1 up lead over Couples & Kropp to seize the victory. However, we all know that the real triumph came in the form of the $50,000 that was raised for the charities involved.
The full live broadcast is up on the Goat Hill Park channel and an entire host of Wishbone features and stories are available over at The Fire Pit Collective.