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<\/a>Before takeoff, Mike Carr hooked drop lines to Snoopy One.<\/p><\/div>\n
In the beginning, the airship views were all for show, with the focus on producing pretty panoramic pictures for the telecast. Over the years, the relationship has deepened and become much richer, with Murray and the other pilots now considered an integral part of the television crew.<\/p>\n
The overhead images from a camera mounted to the front of the blimp give new meaning to the term high definition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first, the blimp was used basically just to show a wide shot of the area,\u201d said Lance Barrow, who learned at Chirkinian\u2019s elbow before succeeding him as the network\u2019s sports producer in 1997. \u201cNow it has become a vital part of our coverage. I couldn\u2019t imagine putting on a broadcast without it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s opening round had been a long one for Murray, who spent more than six hours in the two-engine, propeller-driven airship with rudders that he controls with his feet. Except for a GPS unit, which looked like the ones mounted in cars, and a television monitor, the dashboard resembled the control panel of a Piper Cub, the simple, light World War II-era aircraft.<\/p>\n
The retro nature of the airship, which was traveling about 30 miles per hour, led one passenger to ask Murray if anything should be read into a blimp program underwritten by a life insurance provider. He laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, airships are the only aircraft that hasn\u2019t scared me yet,\u201d said Murray, a blimp pilot for more than two years.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cAn airship is pretty much the easiest thing to fly. I could be hands off as long as the conditions are right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray would have a hard time convincing Phil Mickelson, a headliner at this year\u2019s Quail Hollow tournament. Mickelson, whose father was a commercial airline pilot, said he was motivated to earn his pilot\u2019s license because he never felt comfortable flying and thought that confronting a fear was the best way to conquer it.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Mickelson said he had never flown in a blimp. \u201cNo desire to,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI just don\u2019t like the aerodynamics of it.\u201d (Nor is a blimp ride on the bucket list of the former world No. 1 Rory McIlroy, who shuddered and said, \u201cI was in a hot-air balloon once and I didn\u2019t like it.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Even from 1,500 feet, the blimp\u2019s altitude during golf telecasts, Mickelson, a five-time major winner, was easy to spot Friday. His group, which included the reigning United States Open champion Justin Rose and the former world No. 1 Lee Westwood, had a large, amoeba-like gallery that moved from hole to hole.<\/p>\n
Perhaps because of the early hour, few clusters of fans were visible elsewhere on the course. Missing from the field was Tiger Woods, the world No. 1 and 2007 Quail Hollow champion, who is rehabilitating from back surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when Tiger\u2019s playing,\u201d Murray said, \u201cbecause then my job is just follow Tiger.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hour\u2019s ride to the course from Chester Airport in South Carolina was extraordinarily smooth, owing to the cloud cover, Murray said. During the flight, Murray was in contact with the control tower at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, north of the course. He referred to his airship by its tail number instead of its name, as he usually does, he said, because in local jargon, police helicopters are called Snoopy One, Snoopy Two and so forth.<\/p>\n
There are back-seat drivers and then there are the voices in Murray\u2019s ear during a telecast. He takes direction from air traffic controllers, the people in the television truck on the ground and the camera operator seated behind him while following the television coverage on the monitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally, I carry a course map, so when they\u2019re talking about a hole, I know which one to go to,\u201d Murray said, adding: \u201cWe\u2019re not up there hovering around. We\u2019re moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
As he maneuvers the blimp over tens of thousands of spectators, sometimes standing like a ship\u2019s captain to get a better view, Murray can feel the tension rising. \u201cI get nervous that I am being too loud for the golfers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Murray need not worry. The drone of the blimp overhead has become white noise for the golfers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, the blimp helps us,\u201d said Rickie Fowler, who won here in 2012. \u201cThey always idle into the wind. So that\u2019s one way you can tell wind direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
On windless days when the sun is beating on the players, the blimp is an even more welcome sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a cloud,\u201d Fowler said.<\/p>\n
Having eyes in the sky can save a player a stroke or two. Murray said he and his camera operator often spot balls that people on the ground have lost. While at the controls of Snoopy Two at the match-play event outside Tucson in February, he said, he located a ball feared lost in the native area.<\/p>\n
Barrow, the CBS producer, said that when the blimp is airborne, he does not worry about the weather because he knows the pilot has done his homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time I see the blimp flying, I know we\u2019re not going to have a thunderstorm any time soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Is the blimp ever a distraction?<\/p>\n
With a sparkle in his eye, Stewart Cink said, \u201cNot unless you hit it really high.\u201d<\/p>\n