PGA Drama

Hope you got a chance to see some of the final round of a dramatic PGA Championship, in which the 18th hole claimed two victims who thought they had the championship won. Leading by one, Dustin Johnson took a 2-shot penalty by grounding his club in what he thought was a trampled area but turned out to be a bunker. Then in the playoff, Bubba Watson took a gamble and shot for the green, but it went in the water instead, costing him a double bogey and handing the championship to Martin Kaymer.

From a media standpoint, there were two interesting issues that came out of the tournament--

1) Televised professional golf can be interesting even without Tiger Woods. Once again, Woods was never a factor, finishing nine shots off the lead. But even without Tiger's storyline, the several 20-something up-and-coming stars put on a great show. The lead changed hands several times in the last hour, and it didn't hurt to have Johnson's drama on the final hole. The PGA Tour might not need to worry so much if Tiger never regains his dominance.

2) It's interesting to see how media technology continues to impact the game. While the PGA was trying to make a ruling on Johnson's situation, CBS continually replayed the incident from several angles and in slo-motion. All the time, PGA officials were watching the CBS feed to see if Johnson had indeed grounded his club. There have been several instances where viewers watching at home have called in rules violations they saw on television.

Nothing new here; technology impacts every game, including the NFL, MLB and NHL. But as the technology gets better and the picture sharper, we're going to have many more instances like we saw at the PGA on Sunday.