The Hawk-Eye Two: Rules officials Mark Dusbabek, Orlando Pope ensure nothing escapes their sight

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Carl Yuan sends a shot sailing toward a sea of corporate tents, begging the question of what to do next.

Rory McIlroy takes a drop that was once within the letter of the law, but, unbeknownst to him, not anymore.

Hideki Matsuyama is bound for certain victory when his ball wobbles in the grass but doesn’t change its position.

Not long ago, armchair adjudicators might have played a role in the resolution of these scenarios, which occurred at this year’s Sony Open in Hawaii, AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational, respectively. (The first and third examples did not elicit a penalty, while the second infraction was worth two strokes.) Back in the old days, the PGA TOUR’s rules officials could not see everything or be everywhere all at once. Although it was extremely rare, a viewer call-in could still set in motion the enforcement of the Rules of Golf and have an outsized influence on the competition.

Such a scenario is nearly impossible at this week’s THE PLAYERS Championship, or any event through the TOUR Championship in August for that matter. That’s due to the PGA TOUR’s use of Hawk-Eye technology, an optical tracking system that utilizes fixed cameras on every hole, and, just as importantly, the human eyes to monitor it.

There are a total of 129 cameras at the ready at TPC Sawgrass this week: 67 for NBC, 58 for PGA TOUR LIVE and four specialty cameras. If a ball plugs in a fairway, rain pools up to necessitate a squeegee, or any scenario calls for a ruling, Chief Referee Mark Dusbabek and Tournament Referee Orlando Pope will see it in real time from their cramped, monitor-filled lair inside an inconspicuous broadcast truck on site. Think of the game-makers’ control room in the “Hunger Games” but without sinister overtones or the ability to control the weather.

“Here’s kind of our mission statement,” said Pope, who serves as senior director, TV rules and video analyst when in a TV analyst role for the week.“We want to make sure we’re not getting outside intervention from viewers saying this stuff happened. We’re watching basically seven tiles, seven feeds: (ESPN+) one, two, three, four, a couple par 3s, and then the main feed when the telecast starts.

“I can slow stuff down and replay it if something comes up,” he continued, “blow it up and make it bigger, check all kinds of stuff and Rules situations.”

Added Dusbabek, who also works dual roles as lead TV rules and video analyst when in the TV analyst role for the week: “The more we have eyes on it, the more we can communicate to the media before maybe someone says the wrong thing and social media blows up.”

Staying up on the technology and sometimes taking inspiration from other leagues like the NFL, NBA and Premier League soccer, Dusbabek and Pope, who will add a third video analyst and additional feeds for THE PLAYERS, have seen their roles evolve.

“We started out just doing this in the video tower on 18,” Dusbabek said. “Then it moved to video review and TV from the Rules office, but you were just watching the telecast, which was delayed by 10 or 15 seconds. Then we got a DVR, so it was live and at least we could rewind it and play around with the one feed we were watching.

“Then they found us space in a truck that we shared with a PGA TOUR Radio person,” he continued, “and we were able to do the Hawk-Eye system.”

Soon they expect to move from their truck in the TV compound to a state-of-the-art, media-specific wing of PGA TOUR headquarters slated to be finished in late 2024. (The RSM Classic in November has been penciled in for beta-testing.)

“It continues to improve every year,” Dusbabek said.

Unlike Gene Steratore, who analyzes officiating decisions for CBS, Dusbabek and Pope work for the league itself, i.e. the TOUR. If you watch golf, chances are you’ve heard one or the other, most likely Dusbabek, during the telecast. You might have even seen them; two cameras are mounted amid their welter of monitors in the truck.

This elaborate set-up, which will be in place for 24 tournaments this year, is not just to nab transgressors. It can hasten the arrival of help, as Dusbabek and Pope can send assistance as soon as they see a need.

Suppose Collin Morikawa misses his drive left of the fairway, his ball up against a fence, and may need a ruling. Dusbabek and Pope can have an official in position, and the gallery rope down with the crowd parted, by the time Morikawa reaches his ball.

Sungjae Im hit his first shot of this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am straight down the middle of the fairway, but it plugged in the rain-saturated fairway. In those cases, Dusbabek and Pope can rewind the tape, use a telestrator to circle exactly where the ball landed, then clip it and text it to the Rules official on the ground. (Im was successfully reunited with his ball.)

On the flip side, Dusbabek and Pope start a timer when a player begins his search, so they know when three minutes are up, and the ball should be declared lost. If there’s any pushback, they’ve got video support.

“The technology is actually a benefit; we help a player more than we hurt him,” said Dusbabek, who as an ex-linebacker for the Minnesota Vikings is uniquely qualified to know the difference.

Usually, he’s the one who explains to viewers and whoever is in the 18th tower (Jim Nantz for CBS, Dan Hicks for NBC) what just happened vis-à-vis the Rules of Golf. While Dusbabek does that, Pope will run back the tape, highlighting the salient details. On occasion it’s just one of them working solo, ramping up the degree of difficulty.

“You hear the producers, the reporters, everyone – on-air and even off-air in commercial breaks,” Dusbabek said. “Then I have the Rules radio piped into my left ear, the producer in my right, plus everybody else talking. That’s where you juggle a little bit.

“Let’s say I’m asked to talk about a Tony Finau ruling,” he continued. “Orlando can be over there slowing it down and replaying it for me so I can make talking points about it.”

The net effect of all of this is not just to make viewer call-ins mostly a thing of the past. It’s also to help players get through rounds with minimum aggravation and speed up pace of play – beneficial for many reasons, not least of which is the network’s ability to end on time.

Dusbabek and Pope are realists; they know that no matter how well they do their jobs, viewers will think they’ve just seen an infraction. And they don’t even want those viewers to lose that passion. What these two hawk-eyes work so hard to accomplish is to be a step ahead of the caller, or, better yet, two or three steps ahead. Soon, it might be four or five. The evolution continues.