The Asian Tour’s Kolon Korean Open is this week, meaning we get some live golf at very odd hours.
That’s never a bad thing, of course, and in this case it provided us with one of the best examples of #TourSauce in recent memory, but that alone isn’t worth a post. Every week pro golfers do things like drop the club in frustration. In this case, we got something even better: a contender for best sports sound. It’s tough to pin down the entire list of great sports sounds; there’s the obvious, like when a kicker hits the upright (or the crossbar, which is a subtle difference, aurally) or when a hockey player drills the post or bar.
Golf has one already, too, when a ball hits the flagstick.
This, though, is something else, and it’s a rarer thing, made possible by a very wayward drive from world #298 Yikeun Chang and a well-placed microphone:
The smash zoom work there is also A+ cinematography, and Chang’s understated “Ooh” as his tee shot flies directly left is also classic.
But it’s the way the driver tumbles and clangs off the turf, with the shaft bouncing around just so, that gives us that perfect sound, a sound that signifies “Something has gone terribly wrong with this golf swing.”
Chang would go on to bogey the hole, but his contributions to the sports soundscape will not be forgotten.
