AUGUSTA, Ga. — As golf fans watch ESPN’s coverage of the Masters Tournament this week, they might wonder how some information passed along verbally or graphically makes its way into the telecasts. It might be a statistic about a player, a slice of Masters history the viewer has never heard before or one of many other possibilities.
But where does that information come from?
The information is often the result of preparation by ESPN’s golf research team, led by David Gordon. A research producer in the Sports Research department, Gordon has been with ESPN for over eight years and is working his fifth Masters.
“There’s two buckets to what we do,” said Gordon. “First, there’s all the preview material that various groups need to feel prepared for the storylines going into the week. Once the live golf starts on Thursday, we’re in charge of the biggest research storylines.
“It’s all so that our production team, commentators and analysts can feel support on what they want to convey in their thoughts for the week.”
Gordon said that the research team comes up with many ideas on its own but also gets a great deal of input from ESPN golf analysts Andy North and Curtis Strange as well as others.
“Our analysts are obviously incredibly knowledgeable so if Andy or Curtis has a certain idea in the weeks leading into the Masters, I can help support that with research-based information,” he said.
During a live golf telecast, Gordon is situated only feet from lead anchor Scott Van Pelt and the analyst for the telecast. When a telecast isn’t in progress, he’s usually working on his laptop in the production area. Gordon is at the Masters with colleague Darayus Sanjana, who works with the SportsCenter team.
“When it comes to storytelling, context is key, and oftentimes in sports, that context comes in the form of numbers,” said Michael Eaves, who anchors SportsCenter and two practice round coverage shows from the Masters. “What our research team does before and during our Masters coverage is invaluable. They certainly make my job easier.”
Aside from golf, Gordon’s primary job with ESPN is as a researcher for SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt. He enjoys his time working on the Masters.
“First of all, the ESPN staff is fantastic,” he said. “It’s heightened here because everybody has their own first memory of being here. It’s hard to convey it, but ‘sacred’ is a word that’s fair for this place. So you combine the venue with all of the things we do when we’re here, which makes it an absolute blast.”
