Watch: Charles Barkley Pushes Shot Tracer to Its Absolute Limit at the 'Black Masters' Tournament
In an effort to make golf easier to follow for people whose eyesight can’t always track a golf ball even when a camera is trained on it — an understandable problem, especially on a day with puffy white clouds in the sky — golf broadcasts helpfully offer a shot tracer.
The tracer, similar to the NHL’s experiments with the “glowing puck” back in the 1990s and the yellow chain lines on NFL broadcasts, gives a nice red trail superimposed over the trajectory of a golf ball.
It’s a nice, helpful bit of technology.
Well, until our new robot overlords met Charles Barkley and next thing you know they were sparking fried circuits and saying “ERROR…ERROR…THASS TURRIBLE ERNIE” in a robot voice.
The context for this is TNT’s “Black Masters,” a charity golf event organized by the crew of “Inside the NBA.”
Barkley and “Inside the NBA” co-host Ernie Johnson, along with some high-profile friends, gathered to play a round Friday at the Legends Course at Chateau Elan in Braselton, Georgia, not far from Turner Sports headquarters and “Studio J,” where “Inside” is produced, in Atlanta.
Other Black Masters competitors included Grant Hill, Gary Sheffield, Vince Carter and Chris Webber, with Shaquille O’Neal serving as guest emcee.
The 2019 Black Masters is underway! ?️♂️? pic.twitter.com/ZVqP8YsM7D
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 3, 2019
Sheffield won the event, shooting an 86 to unseat Johnson as champion.
Barkley, meanwhile — well, let’s go to the course, because it’s better to show than to tell, they say:
Chuck had an adventurous round at the 2019 Black Masters. ??♂️? pic.twitter.com/SJtvZRdtIu
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 6, 2019
On the bright side, there’s only one appearance in that four-shot montage of Barkley’s infamous stop-and-go golf swing. It seems like Sir Charles is finally learning how to swing a club in one motion.
On the other hand, the shot tracer seems to stop on two separate occasions, losing the ball behind a tree as if to say, “You want to know where the ball went? Go to church and ask there because God only knows.”
O’Neal narrated a highlight film of the tournament itself, and Shaq said it best at the outset:
“In all of golf, there is no event which honors mediocrity quite like the Black Masters.”
Maybe next year, Chuck. ?@garysheffield takes home the coveted black jacket as the champion of the 2019 Black Masters! pic.twitter.com/cxkSOfNWi4
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) May 6, 2019
On the bright side, Barkley himself has a tremendous sense of humor about being terrible at golf.
After all, in roasting the Orlando Magic’s Markelle Fultz, who is well on his way to joining Anthony Bennett and LaRue Martin as the worst first overall draft picks in NBA history, Barkley said of Fultz’s jump shot, “The closest thing I can think about Fultz is what happened to my golf game.”
But unlike Barkley’s golf shots, one presumes a shot tracer wouldn’t lose sight of even a Fultz airball.
Enjoy “Inside the NBA” while it lasts; after the conference finals, they yield the floor to ESPN and ABC for the championship round and fans have to wait until October to get back the best studio show in sports.
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