Prime-time U.S. Open TV should be Father's Day treat
Golf in prime time worked for the Skins Game, more or less, but will it work for the U.S. Open?
This, after all, is the major championship that didn't even allow play on Sunday not that far back, as the HBO special "Back Nine at Cherry Hills" recalled only this week. The Skins Game is a made-for-TV exhibition; the U.S. Open is, by tradition, the toughest of the majors -- with appropriately enough the toughest announcer, ever since Johnny Miller has come to the fore at NBC.
"There are going to be plenty of chances to have the U.S. Open gag-o-rama, take my word for it," Miller said, as if to prove my point, in addressing the host course Torrey Pines on a media conference call this week.
The San Diego setting, of course, is what allows NBC to extend the third and fourth rounds into prime time, at least in the rest of the country. The West Coast time zone will find play ending at 7 p.m. locally Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday.
For the record, the Open airs from 2-4 p.m. today on Channel 5, then from 3-9 p.m. Saturday and 2-8 p.m. Sunday.
On Sunday, it will be preceded at 1 by the "U.S. Open Challenge," in which Matt Lauer, Justin Timberlake, Tony Romo and regular-schlub contest winner John Atkinson play Torrey under Open conditions in an attempt to break 100 in a media event taped last Friday.
Now that's a ratings stunt on the order of the Skins Game. (Don't forget, too, that ESPN has "U.S. Open Extra" at 9 a.m. today and live coverage at 11, with another segment from 4-9.)
Yet for the actual Open proper, NBC figures to be all business. It will have 48 cameras on the course, instead of the usual 30 for a PGA Tour event, including one at lake level on the 18th.
"If the ball just barely trickles off the green, it's going down to the water, so we'll have good coverage of that," explained producer Tommy Roy. "If NASCAR has a 'gopher cam,' I guess that's our 'frog cam.' "
Me, I think it's interesting how the various network approaches parallel the majors. CBS and Jim Nantz make the most of the Masters' tradition (too much, actually). NBC's precision matched with Miller's caustic criticism are perfect for the exacting U.S. Open. ABC's ever-so-slightly more freewheeling and whimsical approach (after all, they're the ones who invented "Up Close and Personal") suits the British Open. Then it's back to staid old CBS to close the season with the PGA.
Yet, hey, if long shadows at the end of Sunday are fine for the Masters in April, there's no reason long shadows can't be just as dramatic at the end of longer days at the U.S. Open in June -- especially when the Pacific time zone pushes the conclusion into prime time everywhere else.
"It could be really fun going into prime time on Father's Day," said host Dan Hicks. "It's really a day to spend with your family, but I think this is a unique opportunity to do that. After you have given your dad that eighth straight striped tie, I think you should hand over the remote after dinner and just let him settle in and watch the U.S. Open going into prime time."
With all that going on, NBC doesn't need to pull any tricks, but it sure didn't complain when the powers that be decided to group the top players by rankings, putting Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson together with Adam Scott for the first two rounds.
"I did talk to Phil about it, and I can't say that he acted like he was too thrilled about it," Miller said, "but he knows how to play with Tiger and he wants this championship more than any other he has ever played in. The fact that he grew up in this area, I would say Phil would trade any of his championships for the United States Open, and I really believe that."
"This is one of those Opens that could be on the all-time special list," Hicks added. "Stories are out there swirling with Mickelson growing up just a few minutes away. I don't think there's any other major championship, at least a U.S. Open, he wants to win more than this one. And the fact that he's paired with Tiger, who grew up 90 miles down the road, and both have just had incredible success at Torrey Pines, I think it would be a pretty unbelievable scenario if on Father's Day those guys, in the late afternoon sun at Torrey Pines, were battling it out."
Talk about prime time.
In the air
Remotely interesting: Jim McKay was a pro's pro of a sort sadly lacking in today's wide world of TV sports. HBO will remember him by rerunning the 2003 documentary "Jim McKay: My World in Words" at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and again at 10:55 p.m. Monday on HBO2.
WGN Channel 9 has decided to make the trip to Cooperstown to air the final Hall of Fame exhibition game, between the Cubs and Padres at 1 p.m. Monday. Len Kasper and Bob Brenly will be on the call.
End of the dial: Not to extend the conspiracy theory, but the ESPN Radio honchos were sure doing all they could to discredit Tim Donaghy on Mike Tirico's syndicated midday-afternoon show Wednesday on WMVP 1000-AM -- on the day after the refs suddenly waved the Lakers to the foul line against the Celtics as if they were school kids crossing a dangerous intersection. ESPN Radio, of course, carries the NBA Finals, and ABC/ESPN is the TV carrier. So where's Jake O'Donnell when you need him?
As news, the conflict between Jay Mariotti and Rick Telander borders on "dog bites man." Yet it's noteworthy that the Sun-Times reportedly held a Telander column lashing back at one of Mariotti's biased, ax-grinding attacks on Ozzie Guillen. The Sun-Times boasts the motto, "Let's get into it," but its editors seem to follow the policy, "Let's just spike it."
-- Ted Cox