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Ryder Cup a ‘crowning moment’ for Golf Channel-NBC coverage

When Golf Channel goes live with its coverage of the Ryder Cup in the wee morning hours Friday, it will very simply be “the biggest day in Golf Channel history,” said Molly Solomon, the network’s executive producer.

In the past, ESPN has carried the first day of Ryder Cup play on Friday, with NBC picking up the weekend coverage. But Golf Channel won the Friday live rights a year ago and for the first time will carry live Friday coverage on its network, which is owned by NBCUniversal.

“This is the crowning moment of Golf Channel and NBC working together,” Solomon said.

Golf Channel’s Molly Solomon and NBC’s Tommy Roy have collaborated with their teams for the past year to prepare coverage.
Photo by: MARC BRYAN-BROWN
For the past year, Solomon and NBC’s veteran golf producer, Tommy Roy, have collaborated with their teams to coordinate Ryder Cup coverage, plan complementary programming and schedule the Golf Channel and NBC talent, all of whom will work back and forth on both channels.

“This is truly one team,” Roy said.

Golf Channel will carry its “Live From” coverage each night of the week leading up to an all-nighter on Thursday night/Friday morning. A four-hour pregame show, live from Gleneagles in Scotland, will lead into Friday morning’s live coverage, which will begin at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time.

NBC will pick up the live event coverage on Saturday and Sunday, likewise in the early morning hours.

Roy and Solomon shared their thoughts on what they consider a landmark moment for both channels and

Photo by: TOMAS OVALLE / NBC
their parent company, during a 30-minute conversation in the TV compound at East Lake, where they were broadcasting The Tour Championship.

How will it be different working with Golf Channel as opposed to ESPN?

ROY: Because it’s Golf Channel and NBC, it makes it much easier now in our prep. In the past, having to have all of ESPN’s graphics and their announcers and all the prep for them in addition to us, it was like double the work. NBC was producing for ESPN and ESPN essentially plugged in their announcers and their graphic look. … This allows us to be one entity. We’ll have one graphic look, one piece of music, on both networks. And we’ll have all of our own announcers like we do week in and week out.

How will talent be shared on both networks?

SOLOMON: It’s like the synergy of both networks really coming together now. You’ll see a lot of the same announcers Monday through Sunday, so it makes a lot of sense for us, as a company. It also frees us up for complementary coverage, which we’ve never done before.

ROY: The talent will be a combination of Golf Channel and NBC, melded together.

SOLOMON: Nick Faldo, for example, will be in “Live From” programming all week, then you’ll see him Friday morning on Golf Channel on the event, and then he’ll come back Saturday and Sunday on “Live From.” Each day when we conclude, Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller will do a segment or two for “Live From.” They’re always going back and forth, but we’ll have to be careful about wearing people out.

NBC will be focused on live coverage through the weekend, so what kind of complementary coverage will Golf Channel provide as part of its 80-plus hours of coverage?

SOLOMON: We’ll have former players and captains who have insight into what’s going on and they’ll have a conversation about the competition as it’s happening. So while NBC will have its traditional golf coverage, over on Golf Channel you’re going to have this L frame with real-time scoring and stats, but also Lanny Wadkins, David Feherty, David Duval and a bunch of others talking about the coverage, based in Orlando. It was really inspired by the “Film Room” concept ESPN used during the BCS championship game.

ROY: It’s an alternative viewing experience. And the world feed, which Golf Channel will carry, will give the viewers the European perspective. It’s another side of the story to tell.

How does the planning and coverage differ from a PGA Tour event?

ROY: We did our initial planning over a year ago. We go over to Gleneagles, survey it, play it, determine how many cameras we’ll need, and where they’ll go. … We typically are dealing with swing analysis and all that at a tournament, but all of that goes out the window at a Ryder Cup. It’s all about the emotions. The extra cameras we’ll put into place are there to capture the emotion as opposed to specific shots. We beef up the coverage — we have slow-motion devices to capture the emotion as opposed to their swings.

Besides the golf itself, what is your favorite aspect of the Ryder Cup?

ROY: The European fans are the key to the whole thing. They’re so incredibly passionate and they have their songs and chants and that irritates the American fans and gets them going. And like at Valhalla in 2008, the American fans have to find a way to respond, so they started chanting, “Soccer sucks, soccer sucks.” … It’s hard for golf to compete with football and basketball, but the Ryder Cup is the one event where it has that kind of energy. That’s what makes it so terrific.

SOLOMON: You feel the pressure coming through the screen. It’s very much akin to the Olympics. You’re competing for yourself, you’re competing for your country and everything is magnified. There’s nothing like it.

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