The Golf Channel once again dispatched Johnson Wagner out to a harrowing course to sink or swim with his short game after Friday’s action at the PGA Championship. Live From struck gold with the bit last summer when the player/analyst recreated Bryson DeChambeau’s decisive bunker save under the watchful guise of the People's Champion himself in a bit of television magic. Whoever came up with the idea has hopefully long since been rewarded with a raise. Because no matter how many times they trot the segment out, it always delivers.
Live sporting coverage thrives and compels because, despite the cuts, action is the most showy of all the clubs in a director's bag. There is no second chance at it. Whatever happens ... happens. There’s a loose script and blocking yet it’s beholden to the immutable fact that there are countless permutations of possibility once Wagner’s wedge strikes the ball.
