Fox Sports Shanks US Open Coverage
/When Fox Sports bought the rights away from NBC to cover the U.S. Open, many were worried how bad Fox's coverage would be?
It was much worse than anyone even expected.
The network went out and had some coffee mugs made with the Fox and USGA logo on them (see above). Maybe they should have spent less time on the mugs and more time preparing for the coverage.
With technical errors, camera operators that did not know how to shoot golf and Joe Buck in the booth it was painful to watch.
On Saturday, Fox came on the air at 2PM and despite the fact that World Number 1 Rory McIlroy and Phil Mickelson were on the course, the network showed almost no golf. What viewers got was Joe Buck and Greg Norman sitting in the booth blabbing like a pregame show for football.
Problem was, it would be like doing a pregame show after the kickoff already happened.
Fox could have replaced Buck and Norman with Captain Obvious, as the two continued to state things that viewers could clearly see. This wasn't radio.
Norman tried to explain Tour Player Jason Day's battle with vertigo and would have been better to log onto WebMD to get his facts right.
Seriously, if you didn't think it was that bad, watch this:
Fox employed former golfers Cory Pavin and Brad Faxon. They should have just hired a bottle of Unisom, these two were that boring.
Fox Sports had over a year to prepare for this moment and they completely shanked their coverage.
It made one of the most anticipated weekends of the year for golfers, nothing more than a bitter disappointment.