Charlie Harville Recalls the Advent of TV Coverage of the GGO

This excerpt was taken from www.triadgolf.com

Charlie Harville Recalls the Advent of TV Coverage of the GGO
By Max Ulrich

To read the entire article go to http://www.triadgolf.com/sep98/mplayers.htm


"WFMY-TV took a big step in 1955 when it bought a 16 mm sound camera.

"This," says Harville, "was the first time we were able to take photos of golfers actually hitting the ball." You see, those sound cameras operated electrically and made practically no noise. Only trouble was, once you got the bulky equipment set up, you pretty well had to stay in that same location. First, you had to have electricity and second, the equipment was too heavy to move around.

Harville is very proud of the film they shot during the final round of that 1955 GGO. He says he still has the footage where they were located behind the 18th green at Sedgefield.
Sam Snead and Art Wall were coming up to that final hole deadlocked for the title.
Harville describes it this way. "Our footage shows Wall and Snead hitting their approaches to the final green, then chipping close. Wall was about five feet away and Snead about three. Snead elected to putt out, holing it for a birdie four. Wall missed his five footer and Snead had his fifth GGO championship."

With limited flexibility of TV coverage in those early days, Harville's account of the 1956 GGO is noteworthy. They had the sound camera all set, However, this time it was Snead and Fred Wampler finishing in a tie and when they went out for the playoff there was no way the bulky sound equipment could be moved around to pick up the action. Snead won the playoff. "