Why Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson feel your video-conferencing pain

Jim Nantz and Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods was not alone during his video call with Jim Nantz.

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Tiger Woods was camera-bombed. Brooks Koepka, too. By a dog. 

Rory McIlroy lunch-bombed.

McIlroy and Phil Mickelson were notification-bombed. 

As Woods, Koepka, McIlroy, Mickelson and all of golf learned to stay at home the past three months due to the coronavirus pandemic, they, too, like most of us, learned to use video calls. Send the invite, receive the invite, start the call over a phone or computer.   

In a recent ad, CBS showed some of the education. 

The network has filled the past few months without golf with broadcasts of old golf tournaments. Players have helped with commentary. Woods talked about the Masters. Mickelson, too. Koepka reviewed the PGA Championship. All over video calls.     

“Hey, Tiger,” host Jim Nantz said. “Hey, Jim,” Woods responds – as a person briefly walks behind Woods and then walks away. 

Similar thing happened to Koepka. 

“Funny, right after … “ Koepka says as his dog, Cove, walks in next to him. 

McIlroy appeared to have dialed in during Nantz’s second meal of the day. 

“Hello, Jim. I just did the same thing as you,” McIlroy says as Nantz wipes his face with a napkin. “Just finished lunch.”

McIlroy was also dialed up during the broadcast. 

To McIlroy’s right, his cellphone chimed twice at one point. 

“Do not disturb,” McIlroy says as he touches his phone. 

Mickelson appeared to try to help Nantz with his phone.

“Yeah, or go to notifications and just turn it off,” Mickelson said. 

The ad ends by saying that golf is returning this weekend. No more videos. 

“I’m very excited just to get back and play golf,” McIlroy said. 

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Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Magazine. In his role, he is responsible for editing, writing and developing stories across the golf space. And when he’s not writing about ways to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native is probably playing the game, hitting the ball left, right and short, and drinking a cold beer to wash away his score. You can reach out to him about any of these topics — his stories, his game or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.