[JLM]

Hated Fox coverage (Greg Norman, Tom Weiskopf, and Corey Pavin couldn't make up for so many announcer/camera miscues).  An d they'll be covering the Sr. Open and The Open in the next few weeks.   

Hated the course (long, boring, design would almost randomly punish/reward a given shot, greens leveled the playing field for great/good putters, terrible for on-site spectators).

Liked young Hammer.

Liked the late tee times, but missed most of Sunday's coverage.   

[ted_b]

Fox does not have The Open (aka British Open).  ESPN (Strange, Azinger, etc) has it...thank goodness.   Fox had some nice ideas but their camera work was pitiful, lost balls, lost holes, lost coverage of important players...shaky directorial work, too many shots of the wrong people (like Jordan's Dad during the ceremony!!).  Their wide screen panoramas were ok, but they stayed with them too long.  Hell, I watched part of it on my 120 inch projector setup and still felt too far from the action!!  But I understand the $110 ticketed patrons felt the same way.

I was actually more impressed with Greg Norman than I thought I would be.  But overall a pitiful coverage team.

[SoCalWJS]

Fox' coverage made me long for NBC and Johnny Miller   . (I wish CBS had all Golf coverage - much better Team)

Not quite sure I have a definitive opinion of the Course. The Players all said that this was going to be a very big mental test, yet many of them failed to survive the Exam.

[ACHiPo]

I thought Norman did a good job.  I really missed Feherty and McCord.  And the camera work sucked, although I suspect some of that was a result of the very low contrast between the sandy fairways and greens and the white balls.

All in all a fun event, although I would like to understand why they thought it was a good idea to plant four types of grass on the greens?

[jhm731]

Thankfully, the right guy won.

Two down, two to go.

[JLM]

And why did Fox decide to make their first golf coverage a major?  Or did I purposely avoid them earlier?  Don't like Fox anyway (won't get political by explaining why).

Glad the USGA (finally) picked the Northwest and a "real" public course, but wasn't there a better example available?  Leave the links style (and "real" links courses as Weisskopf explained) major to the The (British) Open.  Part of either Open in my mind is to showcase the nation's best courses and represent the native styles of golf being played. 

Watching the TV coverage felt more like a duty than entertainment.  Tiger's play was tragic on several levels, I kept turning away when they covered him.  I'm a Tiger fan, the greatest tournament ever played was his 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines when he played 5+ rounds to win, finishing with a broken leg.  His head is so messed up don't know if he'll ever be competitive again, but I don't want to see this Tiger. 

[mcgsxr]

I watch a fair amount of golf, and as much coverage of all the majors that I can fit in.

I did not mind the "different" feeling of this broadcast through the week, but lots of folks were put off by it.

Agree that it lacked the polish of a GC/NBC production, but did not mind the different perspectives.

I thought Greg was good, and Holly was not.  Perhaps if she asked actual questions vs what seemed like a series of canned ones.

I was excited to see if Jason Day could fight through it for something epic.  I think he did amazing given what he was battling.

I was hopeful that DJ could get it done.  Right from the first hole, it seemed he was constantly putting for birdie.  He missed so many by so little, it will be a tough AM for him.  I can see him doing well at The Open after this experience.

Happy to see that Jordan got it done.  What an amazing feat for someone so young.  I was very happy for him to grab 2 Majors so quick!

I liked the course.  It was punishing, and watching the best in the world work HARD for scores was refreshing.  I recognize it was not the kind of course that is more frequently used for a US Open, but thought it brought a huge challenge to all.  It made those shots by the leaders extra amazing in my books.

Congrats to JS for a tremendous win.  Looking forward to seeing how he does at The Open later this year.

[Letitroll98]

The U.S. Open will be at Oakmont next year, the last time I saw a major in person was the 2007 Open at Oakmont when Tiger was still on top, although he lost by a stroke to Cabrerra.  Very painful to watch him now, as it's painful to watch the Fox coverage.  I'll watch no matter who covers it, but may turn the sound off, I may attend, but it won't be the same without the incredible buzz and hoopla that followed Tiger back then.  The passing of an era, and it was Tiger's era, can be sad, but it's the natural flow of things, some fade away, some fall off of a cliff.

[golfugh]

Worst Open and coverage ever....greens were a joke, congrats  Jordan, but the winner was determined by luck

[mav52]

I'm just glad the FOX golf coverage is only for the USGA events.    I thought for $1billion dollars for 12 years of USGA coverage the converge would be better than what I saw each and every day.  Joe Buck, I just couldn't take the man.  Horrid voice for golf.   Norman, well I give him a 6-10.  He is no Miller or Faldo that's for sure.  FOX brought techy stuff, whoopie do, drones, RC cars with cameras and then pumped up Holly Sonders with player interviews.   What got me was the praise for Chambers Bay from the FOX golf team, and I say why would you spit on the money trial and so it continued.   

[oskar]

Fantastic Open. The most exciting golf I've seen for some time.
I thought the course was really interesting though it was hard to get the lay of the land.
I liked the coverage; it was sort of informal and not high polish. Lots of stretches of just visuals with no voice-over.
It was hard to track the ball, they might have polarized the lenses.
My heart goes out to DJ. He'll get it done soon I believe.

[Speedskater]

My thoughts:
a] What was the big fire Saturday?  It looked like a warehouse or boat storage building.
b] A huge course, but it played like a miniature golf course (without the windmill).
c] An abandoned sand & gravel quarry is not an ideal place for a major event.
d] It looked like a combination of a moon-scape and an ocean-side course in Great Britain.
e] From the aerial view, you could see nearby lawns with normal grass.
f] Even after maybe 40 hours of air time, FOX still lacked skill in on-screen information display.
g] The course was so big that it was often difficult to see the tiny ball on the burnt-out grass.
h] While it was an interesting challenge to watch, it did not test the skills that the golfers used to qualify for the event.

So after years of TV golf coverage by GC, NBC & CBS, FOX decides to start with a big one.
The FOX commentators spent much of the last days in trying to make a flop into a great event.

[BobM]

I didn't mind the coverage so much. FOX just doesn't have the experience yet, so they made some mistakes. It will be better next time. Norman was holding his own.

I loved the graphics showing where they were aiming and how far the carry was to the fairway. The shot graphics on almost every tee were a nice touch. It made up for not necessarily following the ball in the air. In fact, I think I prefer it because I kept saying "That's where he is aiming! Holy Crap, these guys really are that good."

As for the course ... on almost all golf broadcasts I keep saying to myself, "I would love to play that course". Not this one. It looks unfair and grueling. I would be in more trouble on every hole and absolutely have a miserable round.

And the greens - pick one type of grass and fix them. Putting was inconsistent and that was the biggest issue for these guys.

Then again, many players under par and a winner at -5? At a US Open? Usually the winner of the US Open is the ONLY player under par at all. So I think in general many players managed this course just fine indeed.

[mav52]

My thoughts:



So after years of TV golf coverage by GC, NBC & CBS, FOX decides to start with a big one.
The FOX commentators spent much of the last days in trying to make a flop into a great event.

Don't worry FOX is only going to cover USGA events, like the US Senior Open starting June 25  and a few more USGA events. http://www.foxsports.com/golf/story/fox-sports-2015-usga-championship-tv-schedule-020415  for 12 years. 

I sure hope that take some lessons from this event and learn about how to cover golf.

The one thing I did like was it showed a lot of golf coverage, a lesson the other networks can take a lesson from.  The Masters is always done "professionally, limited commercials showcasing a great golf course and the professionals..   

I always felt the Golf Channel should show more freaking PGA tournament golf, but all we get 90% talk no real action except for the Euro tour, some Champions tour and LPGA .  Sure the tips during the non tournament golf are helpful but it's the golf channel not a talk show.

[SoCalWJS]

Don't like Fox anyway (won't get political by explaining why).

Same way I feel about NBC/MSNBC......

[brother love]

Fox coverage for the US Open was absolutely horrible.  I grade them an “F” from top to bottom.  Worst offenders:

-pathetic camera work (not following ball flight, not zooming in enough to follow balls on the green, ad nauseam)

-lack of basic leaderboard (99% of time listed only top 4 players) & player shot status (virtually unknown the 1st 2 days)

-shmaltzy over-emphasis & canned dialogue on the Jason Day vertigo problems, Father’s Day, etc.

-too much talking & not enough golf:  1st 20 min. of coverage showed 2 actual shots of golf. Weiskopf kept repeating the same old tired lines every day (golfers say it’s the courses fault, it could never be my fault; par is always a good score at a US Open)

-way too much Joe Buck air time. Curt Menefee was a joke & shouldn’t have even been there (referred to a bunker shot as a chip shot; stuttered/ stammered. I like him on Fox football coverage though)

- reporters talking during actual golf shots & hard to know who it was (I finally started picking up Pavin a little better)

I could go on & on.  I understand that this is a new sport for Fox to cover & growing pains is to be expected; but they really laid an egg on this one. Nowhere to go but up from here.

[twitch54]

I would have liked to see more trains go by alongside the 16th and 17th …………….

[PeteG]

I would have liked to see more trains go by alongside the 16th and 17th …………….

That was so weird to see, I would think that might shake the ground. I've never heard so many players criticize a course, Gary Player even went off.

[brother love]

Stenson said the greens were like broccoli.  McIlroy said they weren't green enough, more like cauliflower. 

US Opens are always set-up ridiculously to keep players over par.  But my biggest complaint on this is why choose a links-type course for the flippin' US Open?  It was more like a British Open than a US Open ...

The trains were surreal.  I wonder how the players felt about that? Mondo Bizarro stuff ...

[rodge827]

They thought the course and the greens were a mess?  

Come play my muni! 

It is what it is...tee it up on Thursday and the guy with the best score on Sunday takes all the cheese!

As for DJ?  That's golf!

Oh and Fox should sub-out the coverage to McCord and Feherty with no restrictions. 

Congrats to Jordan Spieth 2015 US Open Champ! Half way to the GRAND SLAM!