115th U.S. Open Championship Preview Press Call

Today, FOX Sports’ lead U.S. Open Championship broadcast team of Joe Buck and Greg Norman were joined by FOX Sports President, Production & Executive Producer John Entz, U.S. Open on FOX Coordinating Producer Mark Loomis and FOX Sports Executive Vice President of Programming, Research & Content Strategy Bill Wanger to preview FOX Sports’ coverage of the 115th U.S. Open Championship which begins Thursday, June 18 on FOX and FOX Sports 1, with more than 38 hours of live coverage planned through Sunday, June 21. Coverage originates from Chambers Bay Golf Course in University Place, Wash., live on local FOX stations and FOX Sports 1, America’s fastest growing sports network. All rounds are available on tablets and mobile devices via the FOX Sports GO app and online at www.FOXSportsGO.com.

A replay of today’s press call is available by dialing 719-457-0820 and entering passcode 6377888.

Highlights from the call appear below:

Norman on what viewers can expect from him as an analyst: “When you are in the seat of lead analyst, you have to give your opinion. It can’t be sugar-coated. It irks me when I watch TV and every player hits the perfect shot and every player is the greatest short game player in the world and every player is just so good. When you look at it in totality, these players are the best in the world, but when they do do something wrong, it’s got to be pointed out. This is going to be magnified dramatically at Chambers Bay because if a player is just a little bit off he’s going to be brutally penalized. I have to explain that. I’m going to be very forthright in my thoughts and what I see. I’m not going to go out there to be critical just to be critical; I’m going to be constructive so the viewing audience will be able to understand. It’s the education to the viewers that I’ve got to look forward to giving.”

Loomis on how much of the broadcast will be dedicated to showcasing the beauty and visual aesthetics of Chambers Bay: “We have had people up there shooting with drones, helicopters and on the ground. We will have every angle of that area and that golf course covered. But at the end of the day, we’re covering that championship, and a little bit of that will depend on what’s going on out on the golf course. If there are 10 guys within two shots of the lead, we’ll be hustling around to golf shots. If there are fewer players or two or three people near the lead, we’ll have more time to stop and look around, so it’s a little bit dictated by what the storyline is as well.”

Loomis on the importance of acquainting the viewers with Chambers Bay, a relatively unfamiliar course that has never hosted a major championship event: “That is a huge part of what we have to do. Comparing it to Augusta, pretty much any golf fan can take you through the back nine and tell you exactly which hole is which. But it is incumbent upon us over the next week to tell the person at home about this golf course and because of that, we have architects on our staff. Greg [Norman]’s an architect, Tom Weiskopf is an architect, Gil Hanse is an architect, and we put this team together a little bit around that fact, that we need to tell the story of this golf course and we will, and I think we have the right people to do it.”

Loomis on balancing FOX Sports’ coverage style and innovations with a golf audience that isn’t always receptive to change: “First and foremost, our goal was to cover the event. Anything we did along the way was figure out how to cover the event better. It’s not change for change’s sake by any means. And one of the things we can look at, for Chamber’s Bay specifically, is technology that will help us in Chambers Bay and that will carry over to any other events that we do.”

Buck added: “What a boring world it would be if changing things up was so frowned upon that they were scared to do it. In 1994, everyone freaked out about FOX putting the score in the corner of the screen. If we are going to go into this event worrying what the traditional golf fan thinks, we’re dead. Fresh eyes, a fresh perspective, a little energy and looking at the same format for a different angle are good things.”

Loomis on how he plans to use the technology to enhance the viewer’s experience: “We are going to try and do a lot of things there to make the viewer feel like they are playing the golf course right in front of them. We’re trying to get some dimensions to the greens, increase the audio from the course, and give you a better look of what the shot looks like to the golfer from the golfer’s view. The technology is part of the experience. It’s not the experience.”

Norman on the varied reactions from players about Chambers Bay: “The reaction is nothing different than any other major championship. When you go into it as a player, you either like the set-up or you don’t. The attitude that Phil Mickelson has is the right attitude to take. You have to go in with no white noise going through your head saying, ‘I don’t like this course because I don’t know how to play it.’ That white noise is going to be detraction to you, and you won’t perform well. So I know Phil has done his homework extremely well around there. Can they do 100 percent of their homework? No, they cannot because they don’t know the way the course is going to be set up by the USGA executive committee, which is part of the great theater that we’re going to have up there. Every day is going to be a different day. The USGA is getting exactly what they wanted, weather-wise, by choosing Chambers Bay. Phil Mickelson has a really good chance of hoisting a U.S. Open trophy because Chambers Bay will suit him.”