Fox Sports "isn’t shying away from undoing some television traditions" with its U.S. Open coverage from Chambers Bay next month, according to a front-page piece by Geoff Baker of the SEATTLE TIMES. Fox "sees golf as an undervalued sports property and pledged a 'fresh' approach" to camera angles, graphics and its voices. Fox Sports Coordinating Producer Mark Loomis said of how the network will approach golf differently than NBC Sports, “80 percent of what we do is going to be very similar to what they did because a golf shot is still a golf shot. The remaining 20 percent is, how do you cover those golf shots? What kind of experience can you bring? What can we put on television from a technology standpoint, from an audio standpoint, that puts you on the fairway with that golfer?" Baker notes some of that experimentation "was evident" during December's Franklin Templeton Shootout, Fox' debut golf broadcast. Fox used color pigments to "illustrate the contours surrounding the greens and give the shot a more 3-dimensional look." Aerial drones and tiny "spider" cameras placed in front of tees "were also tried and should figure prominently at Chambers Bay." USGA Broadcast & Digital Media Managing Dir Henry Smokler said that a different approach "is exactly" what the USGA "was looking for." He said that the USGA "liked Fox’s history of technological innovation, including superimposing a first-down line for football and a tracer for pucks in hockey."
NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE: Fox' Joe Buck said of covering golf as opposed to other sports, "It’s a completely different vibe. So, you go with what feels right. Whatever tone feels right." Baker writes finding that tone, "will be Buck’s toughest challenge in transforming from calling the big-time NFL and World Series games he’s known for." But with Buck, Fox "hopes the intensity and excitement he brings to other sports can generate new viewers." The move was "done with an eye on turning the younger generation of existing Fox viewers on to a sport they rarely watch, while converting older golf fans to the hipper, edgier network" and FS1. Much of that "depends on Buck finding a 'voice' that strikes a balance between age sets." At last year’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Buck and analyst Greg Norman "did a weeklong mock broadcast recorded in a trailer." Buck said that he is "still getting used to following the majority of action on a television monitor rather than live" (SEATTLE TIMES, 5/19).
