Fox Sports 2015 U.S. Open Thread (Joe Buck, Greg Norman)

[The Recreational Golfer]

One more note on Holly. If she is trying to assume a role as a journalist, she can't come out to interview people wearing a Hot Chick golf outfit. That's what she wears doing an instruction show with Martin Hall. In a tournament role, has to be dressed like a journalist. She can't have it both ways and expect to have any credibility.

[jamo]

A bit of a cheap shot but I'm curious why Paula Creamer wasn't pushing the LPGA to play CB as she did Augusta National.

It's a muni course. She could hop on a jet and play it twice this afternoon.

[phan52]

Did anyone else absolutely love the protracer from the tee shots and fairways? I sure did. It wasn't once every 2 hours, it was almost every tee shot.

Why was it such a light color? It was hard to follow on the burned out golf course. I do like what they did on 12 with the side graphic of the entire hole and where the ball was headed.

Overall I have to give Fox a bit of a pass because they had a couple of things working against them. Number one was the lack of experience covering golf and I hope they gleaned the necessary experience to make their presentation better. They also had a tough track to work with. Balls were hard to follow compared to other US Open venues because of the starkness of the terrain.

Not enough replays of critical shots. I am used to seeing an immediate replay from differing views from NBC and CBS, and Fox really dropped the ball on that. I was out of the room when Rory made that 70 foot putt (gotta pee sometime) and I never actually saw it until the post coverage. They even missed a number of critical shots live. They showed where Spieth ended up for his birdie putt on 12 before they showed the actual eagle putt. The constant little leaderboard was annoying, particularly when they always had it up there even hours before those people were teeing off.

Buck was OK. He is not there for his opinions, he is there to help the viewer follow the action. The guy is a pro and will only get better at it.  Norman is Captain Obvious. offering little but standard fare, plus he needs to speak louder. Weiskopf is a train wreck. The on course people were OK, but the lack of familiarity with them is something they need to overcome. And I am left speechless about Holly Sonders. Always glad to see her in her skimpy outfits but that wasn't the proper setting.

[Golfingdad]

Balls were hard to follow compared to other US Open venues because of the starkness of the terrain.

Yeah, if it wasn't for this then I'd have very little problem, overall, with Fox.  And you're the second person I've heard mention that this was likely not even Fox's fault - @mchepp said he remembers the same thing happening during the US Am, which was several years ago so it would have been NBC, leading me to agree that it's likely the course and not Fox.

I think with cutting their teeth on the rest of the USGA tourneys between now and next June, I will expect them to be a lot more polished.

[shootaglock]

Norman muttered. Hard to follow. Buck wasn't bad. Will be hard to get better if they aren't going to do multiple tournaments.

[turtleback]

The post round interviews Holly is doing are horrible.  I don't know why they are holding microphones rather than using a boom mic or wireless lapel mics, she and the guys she's interviewing look awkward holding them.  She's also standing sideways to the camera throughout most of the interviews which gives her no eye contact with the viewing audience.

She wasn't hired to make eye contact.  Standing sideways shows the audience why she was hired.

I can get past the lack of quality audio ... I'm only getting frustrated at the frequency with which they lose a ball with the camera ....

And then make little to no effort to fix it by having somebody on the ground tell us where it ended up.

At least a few times yesterday a ball went in the air, they switched to the camera that the ball was heading towards, the ball was nowhere to be found, and then just silence until "now let's go to DJ on 18"

Well thanks. Next time during a baseball game a guy hits a fair ball just point the camera at the sky, don't say anything, then just wait until the next pitch and pretend like nothing happened. Let's see how that goes over.

Yeah, it was pretty horrendous.  We never DID find out why Snedeker's putt looked like it rolled over a stick and jumped an inch in the air  And the take on Fox, about the course's deficiencies, was very different than the one on the Golf Channel, where they didn't have to suck up to the USGA as much.  The USGA is inching close to jumping the shark (no pun on Norman intended) in its attempts to be innovative in course set-up, IMO.

It wasn't just that they had technical difficulties it was that they dd nothing to ameliorate them or explain what happened.  They just ignored it as if it didn't happen.

As I agree with another criticism someone voiced about not showing replays of critical shots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucki1968

All I can say is.... wow... what terrible coverage. Not impressed with any of the commentary. I guess (call me crazy) I like to actually see the golf shot. On the plus side, I guess they can't get any worse. It sucks because I want to watch the Senior Open next week and I have to watch it on this god awful network. Stick to football and NASCAR. Hopefully they can hire some of NBC talent over to Fox.

Your ass is still red from the Stanley cup, I can tell.

Damn, where is that thumbs down icon.

Since nobody has said it, I will.  I hate Fox's coverage by going commercial free in the later stages of this tournament.

I didn't mind them going commercial free, I minded that it didn't result in much of an increase in the amount of golf they showed.

My overwhelming impression of the whole broadcast effort was that it was completely unfocused, as if Fox had ADD and just could not keep focused on golf.  It would be very interesting for some OCD person to count the number of shot they showed in a given long lime slot say 4 hours, compared to how many shots are shown on a similar time period by the other networks on golf broadcasts.  It seemed as if just the process of putting on a golf broadcast overwhelmed them and they didn't really do anything to counter the special problems presented by CB.

As to announcers:

Norman:  better than I thought he would be

Buck:  the next time he says something which is not just a rewording of what someone else said, will be his first.

Weiskopf:  I hadn't realized that he had passed away. My fondest memory of him, when he was alive was in 1986 when in that broadcast, when asked what Nicklaus was thinking on the 16th tee in the final round he said, "If I knew how that man thought I would have won many more majors than I did." or something to that effect.  RIP  IS it just me or does Dustin Johnson seem to be assuming the Tom Weiskopf role as a golfer?  Fantastic talent, expected to be a dominant player,  BUT, substance problems and mental weakness kept that talent from coming out t the crucial moments.

And whoever kept calling Norman Shark? Really?  Do they call Nicklaus Bear, as a name?  Do they call Arnie King, as a name?  Could they possibly have sucked up to Norman more?  It sounder like a 9th grader sucking up to a senior in HS.

I will also be interested to hear if we get any explanation of the difficulties they had with the audio and video technical problems.  I'd especially be interested to know if the nature of the course caused them to have camera placements that were further away from the action than normal, as some of the problems seemed to me to be caused by that.

All in all, not ready for prime time.

[jamo]

The USGA is inching close to jumping the shark (no pun on Norman intended) in its attempts to be innovative in course set-up, IMO.

Next year at Oakmont should be pretty standard though. Tall rough, lightning quick greens, lots of length. Standard U.S. Open fare.

[ChrisP]

Next year at Oakmont should be pretty standard though. Tall rough, lightning quick greens, lots of length. Standard U.S. Open fare.

Well, that was the setup with David Fay. Might not necessarily be the way with Mike Davis. Davis hasn't been as penal with the rough the last two years. I don't think they're going to have it play as difficult as 2007. That was brutal. I believe +5 was the winning score and not one player was under par through 36 holes.

[turtleback]

Quote:

Originally Posted by turtleback

The USGA is inching close to jumping the shark (no pun on Norman intended) in its attempts to be innovative in course set-up, IMO.

Next year at Oakmont should be pretty standard though. Tall rough, lightning quick greens, lots of length. Standard U.S. Open fare.

I hope you are right.  I really liked what Davis did when he started being "the guy".  I just hope he doesn't go off the tracks.

[Missouri Swede]

I did like the graphics showing distances:

[MrFlipper]

I'd give them a "not so bad". I thought Pavin and Faxon did very well, Norman and Weiskopf were ok. The many protracers were nice.

Buck just seems like another voice guy who loves the sound of his voice and considers himself dramatic. So many sentences that drone on and on. Here we are... fox island... nice weather... here in the northwest... 2015... US Open...seahawks fans...

Could have been a drinking game . Take a shot every time you think the sentence is over, but then it keeps going again...

Buck (like Scot Van Pelt, CHRIS BERMAN ughhhh) just seem like self-absorbed idiots that think their voice sounds so good, and what they say is so witty and important, and that they sound so pleasing, and paint a verbal picture, blah blah blah. Go away.

[Dloy]

By virtue of what they are being paid, and all the smoke no doubt being blown up the ass, it isn't too surprising the guys you mention think they are relevant. I like Nance, but he can't NOT give every Green Jacket a BJ. B.Chamblee is a horrid ego. I like Norman but he is no Miller.

[jcp1st]

Totally agree about Buck.  From the beginning I didn't care for his glib, cutesy, wiseacre remarks and they seemed to increase in frequency daily.  Might work for MLB and NFL broadcasts, but not the U.S. Open.  Augusta National would've McCorded him.

Most of the rest were just o.k. and, as much as I enjoy the view, can't say that Holly added much insight.  Oddly, since his forte is the NFL, I thought one of the best moments in the entire broadcast was Curt Menefee's piece about how sad it is to watch Tiger's struggles.

[Kingkat1954]

I'd give them a "not so bad". I thought Pavin and Faxon did very well, Norman and Weiskopf were ok. The many protracers were nice.

Buck just seems like another voice guy who loves the sound of his voice and considers himself dramatic. So many sentences that drone on and on. Here we are... fox island... nice weather... here in the northwest... 2015... US Open...seahawks fans...

Could have been a drinking game. Take a shot every time you think the sentence is over, but then it keeps going again...

Buck (like Scot Van Pelt, CHRIS BERMAN ughhhh) just seem like self-absorbed idiots that think their voice sounds so good, and what they say is so witty and important, and that they sound so pleasing, and paint a verbal picture, blah blah blah. Go away.

As far as the "drinking game".........................I'd have been in the bag by the FOURTH HOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phan52]

To my previous post I would like to add that it was unnecessary to say "World #1 Rory McIlroy" every time he appeared on screen. People want to see Rory, he doesn't need a caveat.

[pumaAttack]

Was FOX adding a subtle shading effect to the greens to highlight the slope of the greens?  They mentioned that several times but I thought it was just the natural shading of the grass...

[RickK]

Was FOX adding a subtle shading effect to the greens to highlight the slope of the greens?  They mentioned that several times but I thought it was just the natural shading of the grass...

Not 100% of the time but yes they did on occasion.  I saw it multiple times during the 4 days.

[RickK]

I did like the graphics showing distances:

One of my favorite parts of their telecast.