CHARLOTTE — For the past five years, ESPN has been enhancing its PGA Championship coverage with animated pieces, referred to internally as “cartoons,” to make statistical information about players and courses more engaging for viewers.
This year, ESPN continues this tradition with six new animations, showcasing elements like the challenging “Green Mile” finishing stretch at Quail Hollow Club here and Rory McIlroy’s success at the venue. Appearing in some is Ez, one of the “ESPN Squad” characters introduced last year.
The enhancements are the result of a collaborative effort across multiple areas, including Production, Sports Research, and ESPN Creative Studio.
Courtni Regan, senior associate producer and a longtime member of ESPN’s golf team, leads the project.
“There’s a small group of us and we brainstorm ideas on what we can do,” she said. “And from there, I work on figuring out the creative direction of what we want to do while Research is figuring out the script.”
This year, Saige Smith, a researcher in ESPN’s Sports Research department, wrote the scripts for the project.
“Essentially, we have the inside track to the numbers that make the storylines what they are,” Smith said. “We try to put all of the relevant statistics for that storyline in a way that’s digestible and makes the context really stand out.”
Once the scripts are finalized, ESPN Creative Studio joins the effort.
David “Sparky” Sparrgrove Sr. Director, Creative Animation, and Adam Konyndyk, supervising animator, work closely with Regan to bring the visuals to life—building on a concept the group pioneered with ESPN Monday Night Football.
Big Studios, located in Toronto, assists with some elements of production.
“Sparky and Adam have so much experience across a lot of sports, so we’re able to just throw around different ideas on how we want to display the script,” Regan said.
“These custom cartoons are very collaborative,” said Sparrgrove. “We pride ourselves on being really good dance partners. We work very tightly with production. They know the properties the best.”
“Our biggest thing is making sure the golfers are represented well in the characters,” said Regan. “I think proper representation of who we’re showing is really important.”
All involved enjoy the project from the beginning stages to seeing the segments in use.
“They really are a labor of love, and they’re an important part of our storytelling arsenal,” said Sparrgrove. “They really cut through in a broadcast. It’s a great way to tell a story in a compelling way, and people take notice.”
“It’s a really cool opportunity for us to showcase our research in a way that’s so easily digestible and fun to watch,” said Smith. “We can write things out a little bit more, explain things in a creative way and have the visual element that speaks for itself.”
