Office in the sky: My crash course as a camera operator 125 feet above TPC Sawgrass' 17th green

USA Today

16-03-2025

Office in the sky: My crash course as a camera operator 125 feet above TPC Sawgrass' 17th green
Show Caption
Hide Caption
Check out this view of the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass
Golfweek's Adam Schupak gets an incredible view of the 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass for The Players Championship.
Wargo operates a camera positioned off the 16th fairway that is raised above the course by a crane.
The camera is frequently used during golf broadcasts because it provides a birds-eye view of the course and can cover multiple holes at once.
While drones are becoming more common in golf broadcasts, they are not able to zoom in like the crane-operated camera.
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Before covering the second round of the 2025 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, I forgot to do three things: renew my life insurance policy, update my last will and testament or tell my wife that I was about to go 125 feet in the air on a 6-foot diameter platform on a stick with Darren Wargo, a 54-year-old camera operator, who may be a wee bit crazy.
After all, Darren's job is to operate a camera positioned just off the 16th fairway and raised above the birds by a crane where he'll stand still for upwards of more than 6 hours. This job ought to come with a warning: this job may be hazardous to your health and cause vertigo-inducing views to die for, so, whatever you do, try not to die in the .
What's the job like, I asked?
'You wanna go up?' he replied. 'It's the only way to find out.'
And so we did. He strapped me into a safety harness — make sure it clicks, he said, it's a long way down — in case I got the urge to go bungee jumping or sky diving – too close to sky dying for me – and I wasn't about to start now.
My queasy stomach did back flips, my legs locked and my back stiffened. But the birds-eye view of 17 is to die for and no one questions that the shots add value to the broadcast. Best that Darren or the crane operator, the man who held my life in his hands, could recall, there's been a camera in the sky on golf broadcasts since the late 1980s. The height gives the broadcast the ability to cover more than just one hole. We could see Nos. 15-18, the eighth green and No. 9. Drones are gaining in popularity and use but they can't zoom in (yet), which gives Wargo some job security for now.
Once he ascends into the air, Darren rarely comes down because the crane makes a loud whine that could disturb golfers. So, he packs a lunch and snacks in his backpack along with his rain gear and plenty of water. Bathroom breaks, you ask? Everyone does. He goes up with an empty bottle and comes down with a full one.
Darren admitted he was scared, too, the first time he went up to his office in the sky but now he doesn't even think about falling, even when the wind whips and makes the platform shake. I, on the other hand, have never felt so flat-footed and glued to the ground. About the time the morning wave of players made it to 16, I started to feel comfortable and we watched Doug Ghim slap his approach in the water. I pressed a button to zoom in on the right handle and another button on the left to focus. There were two more buttons on the hand grip: one to see what's on air and the other to show the leaderboard. Tracking the ball took a little practice but I zoomed the camera in on a near ace by Ghim whose ball sniffed the holes while spinning back to within 8 feet. Glad I could confirm that I don't suffer from vertigo but if I stayed for too many more groups, I was going to have to borrow a bottle.
Darren, your job is safe. I'll stick to writing.