Golf on Fox | |
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Created by | Fox Sports |
Starring | Joe Buck Paul Azinger |
Opening theme | "USGA" by Brian Tyler |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 3 |
Production | |
Running time | 6 hours or until tournament ends |
Production company | Fox Sports |
Original release | |
Network | Fox Fox Sports 1 |
Release |
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Golf coverage on Fox Sports properties have occurred occasionally since 1999. From 1999 through 2002, its regional sports network group Fox Sports Networks (FSN) sub-licensed early-round coverage of PGA Tour events from Golf Channel (a network in which Fox was an early investor).
From 2015 to June 2020, Fox served as the broadcaster of the national open tournaments and amateur championships of the United States Golf Association (USGA), including the U.S. Open — one of the four Men's major golf championships, under a 12-year deal. Coverage aired on the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports 2, and Fox Deportes. In late-June 2020, however, Fox announced that it would opt out of the contract, and sell the remainder to former USGA broadcast television rightsholder NBC Sports.
Fox Sports partnered with Greg Norman in the early 1990s to create the World Golf Tour, which would have consisted of six events televised on Fox. However, the proposed events were met with legal issues (including a threat by PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem to suspend any golfer who participates). [1] In 1996, Fox acquired a minority stake in Golf Channel. [2] [3]
Fox Sports bid for a portion of the PGA Tour's television rights starting in 1999. [4] Although it did not gain the broadcast package (which was divided among the Big Three networks), Golf Channel would simulcast its early-round coverage on Fox's regional sports networks group Fox Sports Networks, as they had wider carriage. These simulcasts ended after 2002, when the PGA Tour's cable rights were acquired by ESPN and USA Network. [5] [6] Fox had also sold its minority stakes in Golf Channel and Outdoor Life Network to Comcast, as part of a transaction that saw Fox acquire Comcast's stakes in Speedvision. [2] [3]
In 2011, Fox Sports gained the rights to the CVS Caremark Charity Classic, which is an unofficial money event on the PGA Tour, and had been previously televised by Golf Channel. The coverage aired on Fox Sports Net, with Kraig Kann hosting. Fox did not renew its rights for 2012.
On August 6, 2013, Fox Sports announced a 12-year, $1.1 billion deal to broadcast the open tournaments and amateur championships of the USGA, including the U.S. Open, U.S. Senior Open, and U.S. Women's Open, beginning in 2015. Fox would replace NBC and ESPN as the rightsholders of the events. [7] [8] NBC's lead analyst Johnny Miller expressed disappointment at the loss, saying that he "had a feeling" NBC would not retain rights, and that Fox would not be able to "fall out of a tree and do the U.S. Open." [9]
As a prelude to the new package, Fox televised the 2014 Franklin Templeton Shootout, debuting its lead commentary team of Joe Buck and Greg Norman. [10] Fox's first U.S. Open had a total of 38.5 hours of coverage, [11] [12] [13] with 22 on Thursday and Friday, and 16.5 hours on Saturday and Sunday; [14] the Fox Sports 1 cable network had a total of 16 hours of coverage on Thursday and Friday. The Fox broadcast network had a total of 22.5 hours of coverage Thursday through Sunday, with six hours Thursday and Friday, and 16.5 hours Saturday and Sunday. Fox utilized a number of new technologies [15] during its production, including drone flyovers, a camera-equipped RC car for ground perspectives, and new graphics—including a live shot tracer, an augmented reality display of green contours, and a persistent top-5 leaderboard displayed in the bottom-right of the screen. [16] [17]
Fox's coverage received mixed reviews by critics and viewers, noting technical issues with on-air graphics during early coverage of the first round, on-air personnel (including the chemistry between Buck and Norman, and use of NFL reporters such as Curt Menefee), and missed shots due to poor camera angles or other on-air segments, although Buck did receive positive reviews by some, as well as Fox's technical innovations. [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
In the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. Open, Norman was dismissed by Fox, [24] and replaced by Paul Azinger. [25]
On June 29, 2020, it was announced that Fox Sports had opted out of the remaining seven years of its contract to cover USGA events, and had sold the remainder of the contract to NBC Sports. The re-scheduling of the 2020 U.S. Open to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic had caused conflicts with Fox's football coverage, and the USGA forbade Fox from carrying the event exclusively on cable. While the network discussed the possibility of partnering with NBC on the 2020 tournament, this eventually "led to a broader conversation and eventual agreement for NBCUniversal to take over the USGA media rights". [26] [27]
Due to being the only one of the four major networks that does not have any ties to the PGA Tour's media rights, Fox was anticipated as a potential US broadcaster for LIV Golf—a Saudi-backed golf competition also led by Norman; in September 2022, Golfweek reported that LIV was reaching a time-buy agreement to carry its events on Fox Sports 1. [28] [29] However, LIV denied the reports, [30] and ultimately signed with Nexstar Media Group and The CW in 2023. [31] [32]
Fox did not carry over "In Celebration of Man", the Yanni-composed music that had been used by NBC for its U.S. Open coverage, choosing to commission film composer Brian Tyler to compose new music (after acquiring rights to The Open Championship beginning in 2016, NBC instated an updated version of "In Celebration of Man" as its theme music for the tournament). [33] [34] Tyler explained that his composition was intended to "capture the epic struggle, the challenge, the history, the heartbreak, and the elation of competitive golf," and acknowledged that "Sports and music have always had an important connection for me. I love the way iconic sports themes evoke the spirit of sporting events and can provide dramatic impact and nostalgic memory." [35]
On April 23, 2014, Fox Sports announced that Greg Norman would join Joe Buck [36] [37] as its lead golf commentary team. [38] 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, Fox announced the full layout of its golf team. [40]
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. [42] The network's 2016 U.S. Open team: [43]
In 2017, Fox made several changes to the commentator team:
For the 2018 U.S. Open, Fox announced that they would be splitting their lead commentary booths into two teams. [46] 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.
The United States Open Championship, commonly known as the U.S. Open, is the annual open national championship of golf in the United States. It is the third of the four men's major golf championships, and is on the official schedule of both the PGA Tour and the European Tour. Since 1898 the competition has been 72 holes of stroke play, with the winner being the player with the lowest total number of strokes. It is staged by the United States Golf Association (USGA) in mid-June, scheduled so that, if there are no weather delays, the final round is played on the third Sunday. The U.S. Open is staged at a variety of courses, set up in such a way that scoring is very difficult, with a premium placed on accurate driving. As of 2023, the U.S. Open awards a $20 million purse, the largest of all four major championships.
Joseph Francis Buck is an American sportscaster for ESPN.
Paul William Azinger is an American professional golfer and TV golf analyst. He won 12 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 World Golf Ranking between 1988 and 1994.
Golf Channel is an American sports television network owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Founded in Birmingham, Alabama, it is currently based out of NBC Sports' headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its dedicated national sports cable channels. Formerly operating as "a service of NBC News", it broadcasts a diverse array of sports events, including Major League Baseball, the French Open, the Premier League, the IndyCar Series, NASCAR, the National Football League (NFL), Notre Dame Fighting Irish college football, the Olympic Games, professional golf, the Tour de France and Thoroughbred racing, among others. Other programming from outside producers – such as coverage of the Ironman Triathlon – is also presented on the network through NBC Sports. With Comcast's acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2011, its own cable sports networks were aligned with NBC Sports into a part of the division known as the NBC Sports Group.
Fox Sports, also referred to as Fox Sports Media Group and stylized in all caps, is the sports programming division of the Fox Corporation that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by the Fox broadcast network, Fox Sports 1 (FS1), Fox Sports 2 (FS2), and the Fox Sports Radio network.
The NFL on Fox is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games produced by Fox Sports and televised on the Fox broadcast network. Game coverage is usually preceded by Fox NFL Kickoff and Fox NFL Sunday and is followed on weeks when the network airs a Doubleheader by The OT. The latter two shows feature the same studio hosts and analysts for both programs, who also contribute to the former. In weeks when Fox airs a doubleheader, the late broadcast airs under the brand America's Game of the Week.
Bradford John Faxon Jr. is an American professional golfer. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour.
Kelly Tilghman is a former broadcaster for Golf Channel, and NBC Sports, and is the PGA Tour's first female lead golf announcer. On July 29, 2020, it was announced that Tilghman was hired by CBS Sports to host The Clubhouse Report on CBS Sports Network.
Golf telecasts have aired on NBC since 1954, with some of its earliest telecasts having included the 1954 U.S. Open, and the first televised coverage of the Ryder Cup in 1959.
PGA Tour on CBS is the branding used for broadcasts of the PGA Tour that are produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States.
PGA Tour on ABC was the de facto branding used for telecasts of the main professional golf tournaments of the PGA Tour on ABC Sports in the United States until 2006. ABC broadcast at least one PGA Tour event from 1962 to 2009, focusing before 1995 on the majors, with the network serving as the primary television partner of the PGA Tour from 1999 until 2006.
Golf coverage on ESPN has been a regular feature of the cable sports channels' programming since soon after ESPN's launch in the United States in 1979.
The PGA Tour's broadcast television rights are held by CBS Sports and NBC Sports, under contracts most recently renewed in 2021 to last through 2030. While it considered invoking an option to opt out of its broadcast television contracts in 2017, the PGA Tour ultimately decided against doing so. Golf Channel has served as the pay television rightsholder of the PGA Tour since 2007, and its current contract will also expire in 2021. Under the contracts, CBS broadcasts weekend coverage for an average of 20 events per-season, and NBC broadcasts weekend coverage for an average of 10 events per-season. Golf Channel broadcasts early-round and weekend morning coverage of all events, as well as weekend coverage of events not broadcast on terrestrial television, and primetime encores of all events. Tournaments typically featured in NBC's package include marquee events such as The Players Championship, the final three tournaments of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, and the biennial Presidents Cup event. The 2011 contract granted more extensive digital rights, as well as the ability for NBC to broadcast supplemental coverage of events on Golf Channel during its broadcast windows.
The 2022 LIV Golf Invitational Series was the inaugural season of LIV Golf. The season consisted of seven 54-hole tournaments, featuring 48 players and no cut, with a team championship event at the season end.
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