Golf commentary prep – how to follow a full field

Definitions used on this page

• Full field is a regular tour event with the maximum number of entries, often well over 100 players. Invitational and limited-field events are smaller.
• The cut is the point, usually after 36 holes, where the field is reduced. The exact rule (how many players and ties go through) varies by tour and event.
• Thru is the number of holes a player has completed in the current round.
• Round-by-round is a player's score per round, for example 69-71-68.
• Tee time is the scheduled start time for a group. Early and late starters can face different conditions on the same day.

Step 1: Check what the data will give you (early in the week)

Before you research, check that your tour is covered and what is missing. The live table at /coverage/golf shows the status of each tour, with notes when the latest measurement found gaps, for example tournaments without round-by-round scores or a sampled event that returned no field. Golf data coverage for commentators explains how to read those notes.

Open the field early in the week, not on Thursday morning. If the field is not there yet, you have time to find it elsewhere.

Step 2: Choose your players (Monday to Tuesday)

This is the most important decision of the week. A useful mix:

• The favourites: the three to five players most likely to contend.
• Your audience's players: the home-nation or home-tour players your viewers care about, whatever their ranking.
• The stories: a defending champion, a player returning from injury, a debutant, someone with a strong record at this course.

Eight to twelve is enough. You will still talk about others, but these are the ones you prepare in depth.

Step 3: Prepare your players in depth (Tuesday to Wednesday)

For each chosen player:

• Pronunciation. Golf has one of the most international fields in sport. Check every name you are unsure of.
• Recent form, as round-by-round scores where you can get them. "69-71-68" tells a better story than "finished 12th".
• Record at this course or event.
• One human line: background, a change of coach or equipment, a personal story the player has talked about publicly.
• Tee time and playing partners for rounds one and two, as soon as they are published.

Step 4: Prepare the rest of the field with one line each (Wednesday)

You will be asked about players you did not choose: someone shoots 64 on Thursday morning. For the rest of the field, prepare one line per player: nation, a recent result, one fact. If time runs out, do this at least for everyone in the top 50 of the relevant ranking.

Step 5: Prepare the structure of the week (Wednesday)

• The cut rule for this event, and roughly where the cut line usually falls at this course.
• The course: the closing stretch, the holes where scores move, any water or out-of-bounds that changes strategy.
• The weather and the draw: whether the early or late wave is likely to have the better conditions on day one and two.
• Fill time: the history of the event, the course designer, a rule viewers often ask about (relief, drops, penalties).

Step 6: During the rounds

Live golf is many stories at once. Three habits help:

1. Keep your players pinned where you can see them: what hole they are on, what is coming next, or their tee time.
2. Let the leaderboard find the story. When someone climbs ten places in an hour, that is your next talking point, even if they were not on your list.
3. Watch the cut line on Friday. Players moving above or below it are the drama of the second round.

How LiveCast does it

LiveCast keeps the field, your chosen players and your notes in one place for the whole week. The recorded golf demo, the final round of The Masters 2025, shows how it behaves live.

• The field comes from the leaderboard on covered tours, sortable by position, name or nation. Tied positions like "T12" are sorted as ties.
• Star your players and they are pinned at the top of the leaderboard and gathered in their own panel showing the hole they are on, the par of the next hole, or their tee time.
• The event feed lists eagles, birdies, bogeys, completed rounds, lead changes, big climbs and drops, and players crossing the cut line, with a filter for your starred players and a one-line summary of the last 60 minutes.
• Notes you write on a player follow that player to the next tournament.

Where a tournament does not send hole-by-hole scoring, the event feed says so instead of staying silent; the leaderboard still updates. For more on the golf screens, see golf in LiveCast.

FAQ