Monday 10 October 2016 15:10, UK
Ewen Murray reflects on the success of Sky's innovative coverage of the British Masters at Woburn, and has no doubts that the tournament will once again become the pride of the European Tour.
What a week it was at glorious Woburn, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to our coverage of the British Masters supported by Sky Sports was a revelation.
The viewers were treated to Nick Dougherty wearing a microphone and talking to us live in the commentary box, a world first in television coverage of a mainstream event, we had the superb live Masterclasses at the close of play, and all the new technical innovations were tremendous.
I was a little uneasy about speaking to Nick live at first. It's never been done before in tournament play and you have to consider Nick was trying to concentrate out there.
But he was fine with it. Even when he was struggling on the second day, he was happy to speak to us in the commentary box and he said he had a case of "the rights and the lefts". You can deal with one, but it's tough when you've got both!
He was describing how he was trying to deal with it and I really liked that, and I'm not surprised this innovation was so popular with the viewers. It gave them a great insight into what a player is thinking while walking to the green, rather than us saying what they're probably thinking.
Great insight
Another hugely popular introduction was the live Masterclasses. When you have players of the quality of Westwood, Howell, Donald and Poulter, Harrington and Sullivan, you can't go wrong.
It was a nice mixture of players talking about different aspects of the game. Lee was great talking about driving, something that's always been a strength of his game. Luke has always been an excellent putter, and his insight on that would have interested a lot of people. If you can take two less putts per round, it doesn't take long to get your handicap down.
It was also nice to see these players having the chance to show they have character and personality, and I thought they all came across really well. They need to be applauded for giving their time to the masterclasses. It was also interesting to hear them speak about trying to keep it as simple as possible, and I think that will be a big help to any club golfer.
The British Masters used to be one of the most prestigious events on the European Tour schedule, and there is no doubt in my mind that the tournament will regain that status. Last year proved that without question.
A viewing experience
We also showed that week what Sky can do with golf coverage, and we were exemplary in terms of production values. What we achieved was talked about far and wide - in particular the implementation of so much new technology.
One of my favourites was the robot camera on wheels on the fairways, although this was not given a name. I don't think Andrew Coltart's suggestion of the "toy thingy" will catch on! It was fantastic to get the viewers closer to the action and make them feel part of the coverage.
We also introduced the fairway tracer and that's been one of the best of our new innovations. We know how popular the Pro Tracer has been off the tee, and we put it in play for the second shot.
It's only a matter of time before we introduce it for pitching around the greens, and you can see all the variations in trajectory and spin. This new technology makes it so much easier to educate the viewers in terms of what the players are trying to achieve with each shot.
Watch the 2016 British Masters throughout the week live on Sky Sports 4 - your home of golf. Live coverage begins on Tuesday October 11 with the Hero Challenge from 7.30pm.
