Charlie’s Corner: A Day in the Life – Makeup, Sweat and Stress

Welcome to Charlie's Corner, the blog home for Golf Channel analyst Charlie Rymer. A lifelong Myrtle Beach golfer, Rymer, with his characteristic wit and unique perspective, will be weighing in on all things golf for Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.

I never, not in my wildest dreams, thought I would be putting makeup on to earn a living at the age of 42.  Well, for this past year and a half that's exactly what I've been doing.

And I gotta tell you…it's not that bad, at least once you get used to it.  I have noticed that they seem to put more makeup on me than some of the other announcers though.

Doing a live studio television show is an interesting process. A lot of moving parts have to come together to pull it off. At Golf Channel everyone involved in a show meets 5 hours before show time.

The producer runs the meeting and goes over the show block by block.  There is a piece of collaborative software that breaks the show down into manageable blocks of time. Each block has to be coordinated so everyone can be on the same page. 

For example, if I break down a sequence of shots that a player hit during a given round, I might then talk about a stat for that player followed by a look at how he faced the same issue earlier in the year. There is plenty of work that needs to be done to put that segment together. 

The video needs to be located and edited. The stat needs to built by the folks in graphics.  And I have to figure out what I'm going to say and how long it will take me to say it. 

Often changes are made last second and all plans fly out the window.  And to be honest, those are the really fun days.  The pressure can be fairly intense and the work isn't for everyone.

Thin-skinned people should likely avoid the television industry.  But as for me, I love it!

The banter among produces and announcers is quite lively.  And that’s the part I really enjoy.  Make a mistake and you are going to hear about it.  If someone else makes a mistake you get after 'em. 

What’s surprising is that we carry on right up until the last second before air time and also coming back from commercials.  Even though it can get intense, it’s all in good fun and it really helps break the tension for the whole crew. 

And the worst part? That would be trying not to sweat under the studio lights.  Think “Easy Bake Oven.” 

Sometimes I feel like a turkey basting in an oven under those lights.  I can tell you that if I had one of those built-in-ready timers it would have popped more than once this year. And you can just imagine the hard time I would get over that!