List of U.S. Open (golf) broadcasters
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

As of 2020,
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
is the official broadcaster of the U.S. Open, as the result of a 8–year deal with the USGA for exclusive rights to its tournaments through 2027. Coverage is telecast by
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
(over-the-air) and
Golf Channel Golf Channel (also verbally referred to as simply Golf) is an American sports television television network, network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently ...
(cable). Coverage was previously televised by
NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
and
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
through
2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
. NBC's most recent period as rights holder began in
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
;
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
held the broadcast rights from
1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
through
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
.
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
held the broadcast rights from
2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
to
2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
.


Coverage overview


American coverage


First NBC era (1954–1965)

NBC first began televising golf events after it was awarded the television rights to the U.S. Open in
1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...
. The tournament continued to air on the network through the
1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...
event, however NBC rebuffed a long-term deal to broadcast the event when the
United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...
(USGA) decided on a true contract in
1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...
. The network, however, did televise a handful of PGA Tour events over the following decades.


ABC era (1966–1994)

ABC broadcast golf events for the first time in 1962 when it began televising the
Open Championship The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the most prestigious. Founded in 1860, it was originally held annually at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland. Later th ...
as part of its
anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a differ ...
'' Wide World of Sports''. The network later gained the broadcast rights to the
PGA Championship The PGA Championship (often referred to as the US PGA Championship or USPGA outside the United States) is an annual golf tournament conducted by the Professional Golfers' Association of America. It is one of the four men's major championships ...
in 1965, and the U.S. Open in 1966.
Chris Schenkel Christopher Eugene Schenkel (August 21, 1923 – September 11, 2005) was an American sportscaster. Over the course of five decades he called play-by-play for numerous sports on television and radio, becoming known for his smooth delivery and bar ...
and
Byron Nelson John Byron Nelson Jr. (February 4, 1912 – September 26, 2006) was an American professional golfer between 1935 and 1946, widely considered one of the greatest golfers of all time. Nelson and two other legendary champions of the time, Ben Hog ...
were the initial hosts of the tournament coverage. In 1975,
Jim McKay James Kenneth McManus (September 24, 1921 – June 7, 2008), better known professionally as Jim McKay, was an American television sports journalist. McKay was best known for hosting ABC's '' Wide World of Sports'' (1961–1998). His introdu ...
and
Dave Marr David Francis Marr, Jr. (December 27, 1933 – October 5, 1997) was an American professional golfer and sportscaster, best known for winning the 1965 PGA Championship. Early years Marr was born and raised in Houston, Texas, the son of a pro ...
became the lead broadcast team, while
Bob Rosburg Robert Reginald "Rossie" Rosburg (October 21, 1926 – May 14, 2009) was an American professional golfer who later became a sports color analyst for ABC television. Early years, college Rosburg was born in San Francisco, California. He played gol ...
joined the network as the first ever on-course reporter, and
Peter Alliss Peter Alliss (28 February 1931 – 5 December 2020) was an English professional golfer, television presenter, commentator, author and golf course designer. Following the death of Henry Longhurst in 1978, he was regarded by many as the "Voice of g ...
joined as a co-anchor. Beginning in 1982, ABC adopted its most well-known format of the ''Wide World of Sports'' era. The broadcast operated using anchor teams, in which an anchor and an analyst would call all of the action from the tower at the 18th hole, and the teams would be rotated on coverage after about a half-hour. Meanwhile, the three on-course reporters, which included
Judy Rankin Judy Rankin ( Torluemke; born February 18, 1945) is an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, she joined the LPGA Tour in 1962 at age 17 and won 26 tour events. Since 2010, Rankin has served a ...
and
Ed Sneed Edgar Sneed Jr. (born August 6, 1944) is an American professional golfer, sportscaster and course design consultant, who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. Sneed was born in Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated from Ohio State University ...
in addition to Rosburg, would be utilized when prompted by the anchor team. McKay and Marr would be the lead team, with
Jack Whitaker John Francis Whitaker (May 18, 1924 – August 18, 2019) was an American sportscaster who worked for both CBS and ABC. Whitaker was a decorated army veteran of World War II. He fought in the Normandy Campaign and was wounded by an artillery stri ...
and Alliss as the second team. Occasionally, Rosburg or Whitaker would host if McKay was unavailable, while Roger Twibell would take over the secondary team. After his 1986 Masters win,
Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...
would appear on ABC after the end of his round and served as an analyst for the rest of the telecast. In 1990, Roger Twibell took over as lead anchor, with Dave Marr as his analyst. Peter Alliss became sole anchor of the second anchor team. During this period, ABC acquired the rights to several non-major PGA Tour events, mostly important events such as the
Memorial Tournament The Memorial Tournament is a PGA Tour golf tournament founded in 1976 by Jack Nicklaus. It is played on a Nicklaus-designed course at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, a suburb north of Columbus. The golf course passes through a large n ...
and
The Tour Championship The Tour Championship (stylized as the TOUR Championship) is a golf tournament that is part of the PGA Tour. It has historically been one of the final events of the PGA Tour season; prior to 2007, its field consisted exclusively of the top 30 ...
. 1990 would also mark the final PGA Championship to be broadcast by ABC. In 1992,
Brent Musburger Brent Woody Musburger (born May 26, 1939) is an American sportscaster, currently the lead broadcaster and managing editor at Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN). With CBS Sports from 1973 until 1990, he was one of the original members ...
, who had been heavily criticized for his hosting of golf coverage while with
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...
, took over as host. Marr was dismissed from the network, while Twibell was reassigned to ESPN's golf coverage, although he occasionally hosted on ABC for a few lower-level tournaments. The format was also reorganized to more emphasize the on-course reporters.
Steve Melnyk Steven Nicholas Melnyk (born February 26, 1947) is a former American professional golfer and golf sportscaster best known for his success as an amateur golfer. Melnyk won both the U.S. Amateur and British Amateur. Early years Melnyk was bor ...
moved over from CBS to become lead analyst; however, Alliss would anchor for stretches during the telecast. Beyond the team in the booth, all of ABC's other voices were on the course, including Rankin, Rosburg, and newcomer Mark Rolfing. In 1993, ABC used
Peter Jacobsen Peter Erling Jacobsen (born March 4, 1954) is an American professional golfer and commentator on Golf Channel and NBC. He has played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He has won seven events on the PGA Tour and two events on the Champions ...
as a lead analyst; however, Jacobsen returned to playing in 1994 and Melnyk returned to the lead analyst position. ABC continued to hold the television rights to select PGA Tour events, with the schedule increasing slightly as a result of a new television deal with the
PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
in 1995, however it still mostly emphasized only the important tournament events. The network lost the rights to the U.S. Open following an ugly split from the
United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...
(USGA) in 1994. Nicklaus held his position of entering the booth during the major championship telecasts through the period from 1992 to 1996.


Second NBC era (1995–2014)

In
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
, NBC Sports acquired rights to the USGA championships, including the U.S. Open, from
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
/
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
. ESPN retained rights to a portion of the weekday coverage, however, NBC was the dominant rights holder, including exclusive coverage of the weekend rounds. This took NBC's coverage to a new level and marked the first time in the modern era of television that the network had televised a major championship. NBC, the
Yanni Yiannis Chryssomallis ( el, Γιάννης Χρυσομάλλης; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni ( ), is a Greek-American composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand ...
composed theme music, "In Celebration of Man", and its lead analyst
Johnny Miller John Laurence Miller (born April 29, 1947) is an American former professional golfer. He was one of the top players in the world during the mid-1970s. He was the first to shoot 63 in a major championship to win the 1973 U.S. Open, and he ra ...
(who joined NBC in
1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
) became synonymous with the U.S. Open, televising it for the next 20 years, through
2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
.


Fox era (2015–2019)

On August 6, 2013, Fox Sports announced a 12-year deal to broadcast the three open championships of the USGA: the U.S. Open, Women's Open, and Senior Open, beginning in 2015. Fox succeeded the USGA's long-term relationships with
NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
and
ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
. Fox, which had televised just one PGA Tour sanctioned event in its history (the unofficial CVS Charity Classic in 2011), paid $1 billion for full rights to all USGA championships. The Fox network airs the final two days of the U.S. Open, Women's Open, Senior Open, and
Amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
, as well as late coverage of the first two days of the U.S. Open. The rest of the coverage airs on
Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...
. Also, the final two days of the U.S. Open air on Spanish-language channel
Fox Deportes Fox Deportes (formerly Fox Sports en Español and stylized in all caps as FOX Deportes) is an American pay television network dedicated to broadcasting sports-related programming in Spanish, aimed at the Hispanic population in the United States. ...
. On April 23, 2014,
Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the Fo ...
announced that
Greg Norman Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournament ...
would join
Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck, he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for the network's Nation ...
as its lead golf commentary team. Buck and Norman worked together for the first time at the 2014 U.S. Open, where Fox produced studio programming that aired against ESPN and NBC's studio shows. On November 18, 2014, in advance of its coverage of the
Franklin Templeton Shootout The QBE Shootout is a team golf event that takes place on the PGA Tour as an unofficial money event. It was originally played during the off-season, but now it is played during the wrap-around season's December break. The event began in 1989, as t ...
, Fox announced the full layout of its golf team. *Booth announcers:
Joe Buck Joseph Francis Buck (born April 25, 1969) is an American sportscaster. The son of sportscaster Jack Buck, he worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for the network's Nation ...
,
Greg Norman Gregory John Norman AO (born 10 February 1955) is an Australian entrepreneur and retired professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as world number one in the 1980s and 1990s. He won 89 professional tournaments, including 20 PGA Tour tournament ...
*Tower announcers:
Steve Flesch Stephen J. Flesch (born May 23, 1967) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions. He was a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, and worked briefly as a TV golf analyst for Fox Sports and Golf Channel before joi ...
*On-course reporters:
Juli Inkster Juli Inkster (born Juli Simpson; June 24, 1960) is an American professional golfer who plays on the LPGA Tour. With a professional career spanning 29 years to date, Inkster's 31 wins rank her second in wins among all active players on the LPGA ...
,
Curtis Strange Curtis Northrup Strange (born January 30, 1955) is an American professional golfer and TV color commentator. He is the winner of consecutive U.S. Open titles and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. He spent ...
,
Scott McCarron Scott Michael McCarron (born July 10, 1965) is an American professional golfer who was formerly a member of the PGA Tour but now plays on the PGA Tour Champions. McCarron was born in Sacramento, California and graduated from Vintage High School i ...
, Ken Brown *
Rules analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...
: David Fay *Studio: Shane O'Donoghue,
Gil Hanse Gilbert Hanse (born August 12, 1963) is an American golf course architect. Hanse, along with his business partner Jim Wagner, was selected to design the Rio 2016 Olympic Golf Course, the first Olympic venue to host golf since 1904. Education A ...
, Mark Brooks In January 2016, Greg Norman was let go by Fox in response to poor reception towards his performance during the U.S. Open and was replaced by former ESPN analyst
Paul Azinger Paul William Azinger (born January 6, 1960) is an American professional golfer and TV golf He won twelve times on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the 1993 PGA Championship. He spent almost 300 weeks in the top-10 of the Official ...
. The network's 2016 U.S. Open team: The network's 2016 U.S. Open team: *Play-by-play: Joe Buck, Shane O'Donoghue *Analysts: Paul Azinger, Mark Brooks,
Jay Delsing Jay Delsing (born October 17, 1960) is an American professional golfer. Delsing was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He played college golf at UCLA with Corey Pavin, Steve Pate, Tom Pernice Jr., and Duffy Waldorf. He graduated from UCLA in 1983 w ...
, Brad Faxon, David Fay, Steve Flesch,
Natalie Gulbis Natalie Anne Gulbis (born January 7, 1983) is an American professional golfer who plays on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. Golf career Gulbis was born and raised in the Sacramento, California, area. She has Latvian ancestry. Gulbis started finding ...
, Gil Hanse, Juli Inkster, Buddy Marucci, Scott McCarron *On-course reporters: Ken Brown, Steve Scott, Curtis Strange In 2017, Fox made several changes to the commentator team: *Lead announcers: Joe Buck, Paul Azinger *Play-by-play: Shane O'Donoghue *Studio Analysts:
Darren Clarke Darren Christopher Clarke, (born 14 August 1968) is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland who currently plays on the PGA Tour Champions and has previously played on the European Tour and PGA Tour. He has won 21 tournaments worldwide on a ...
, Brad Faxon *On-course reporters: Shane Bacon, Steve Flesch, Juli Inkster, Curtis Strange, Ken Brown *Rules analyst: David Fay *Course design analyst: Gil Hanse *Studio Host: Holly Sonders For the 2018 U.S. Open, Fox announced that they would be splitting their lead commentary booths into two teams. This was done in an effort to avoid the occasional logjam caused by a three-man booth, which had been Joe Buck with analysts Paul Azinger and Brad Faxon. Therefore, Azinger would now be paired with Buck, and Faxon would be paired alongside Shane Bacon. On June 29, 2020, it was confirmed Fox had withdrawn from their 12-year deal with the USGA, and that
NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...
had taken over the remainder of the contract through to 2026.


Third NBC era (2020–2026)

Having reacquired broadcasting rights to USGA championships, NBC was set to air the rescheduled 2020 U.S. Open in September; the tournament had originally been scheduled for June before being postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.


International coverage

In
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, from 2015
Fox Sports Australia Fox Sports Australia Pty Limited (formerly Premier Media Group Pty Limited) is the division of Foxtel that owns and operates the Fox Sports television networks and digital properties in Australia. The group operates nine Fox Sports Channels as w ...
is the exclusive broadcaster of the U.S. Open until 2018. In the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
is the exclusive broadcaster for the U.S. Open. In the past,
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
held the rights from the late 1970s/to 1983. From 1984-85, the event was shown on
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
took over from 1986-1993.


Commentators


Play-by-play/anchors


Analysts


On-site reporters


See also

* List of ESPN/ABC golf commentators *
List of NBC Sports golf commentators The following is a list of television personalities for NBC Sports Group's telecasts of golf, which are carried by NBC and Golf Channel. Current announcers PGA Tour (NBC) *Hosts: Dan Hicks *Analysts: Paul Azinger / Gary Koch / Justin Leonard * ...


References


External links


U.S. Open Archives - Awful AnnouncingSEARCH RESULTS: U.S. OPEN GOLF (252)
{{DEFAULTSORT:U.S. Open (golf) broadcasters * Lists of golf commentators ESPN announcers ESPN2 Golf on NBC Fox Sports announcers Fox Sports 1 ABC Sports Wide World of Sports (American TV series)