Miller Excited About The Open At Shinnecock
If Gary McCord is persona non grata at the Masters golf tournament, what must the dusty old geezers at Augusta National be thinking of Johnny Miller?
“Yes, the Masters is fantastic,” Miller writes in this week’s issue of “Golf World” magazine, “but it has no business being mentioned in the same breath as the Open. The Open is it. It’s our big tournament.”
Miller will be the lead announcer this weekend when NBC does its first major golf championship, the U.S. Open from Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y. NBC swiped the tournament from ABC last year.
“Johnny is a big fan of the USGA and USGA events, especially the U.S. Open,” said NBC Sports executive producer Tommy Roy, who will co-produce the Open with Tom Randolph.
“It’s a tournament that’s made a huge impact on his life, and it’s also our national championship. We’re all kind of looking to elevate the way people view this event, and we’re lucky enough to have it on its centennial at a great golf course.”
According to Miller, viewers might think they’re watching the British Open when they get their first look at Shinnecock. That’s the kind of course it is, with its hills and “long tumbling grass.” For sure, they won’t think they’re watching the Masters.
“Shinnecock’s finishing holes make Augusta’s look like miniature golf,” Miller said.
NBC will be on the air from the Open from 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. PDT both Saturday and Sunday and also will have late-night highlight shows Thursday and Friday. ESPN will carry NBC’s live telecasts the first two days.
Dick Enberg will be the host along with Miller in the 18th tower. Dave Marr will report at holes 16 and 17 as well as No. 6. Course reporters include Roger Maltbie and Dan Pohl, while Jim Lampley will host the preview and late-night update shows.
Out takes
NBC has a couple of electronic gimmicks ready for U.S. Open viewers. One they’ll notice, the other they won’t.
NBC actually has been using radio frequency cameras at golf tournaments for a couple of years, but this is the first time studio-sized RF cameras will be used in a major. Viewers won’t notice, but spectators at the course will. The RF cameras are wireless and eliminate miles and miles of heavy cables connecting the cameras to the trucks.
The other innovation will be more noticeable at home. Because TV cameras are two-dimensional, subtle and even more pronounced undulations in greens are difficult to pick out. So, NBC will use computer-generated 3D animation to reproduce two particularly interesting greens at Nos. 7 and 11.
“It’s a very difficult process and very expensive,” Roy said, “so we picked just two holes.”
The animations will be similar to ones used in video games with the overlaying grid, “but it’ll be much better quality,” Roy said. “It’ll look almost like a real green.”
John McEnroe couldn’t get his rock ‘n’ roll band all the way to France with him, so at NBC’s wrap-party after the French Open, he joined with some French musicians and played a couple of tunes on his guitar. NBC plans to continue using McEnroe in its coverage of major tennis tournaments, anyway.
The French Open is a unique event for NBC, and not just for its red clay.
“The French Open is the only event we do where you have six types of runny cheese in the production truck,” said Jennifer Arnold of NBC Sports.
The hype has begun for ESPN2’s coverage June 24-July 1 of the first Extreme Games from Rhode Island. It’s sort of a celebration of suicidal lunatics in cross-trainers.
One promotional postcard showing a guy falling through the air with a board strapped to his feet reads: “The only reason they wear parachutes is so they can do it again.”
If you’ve seen NewSport, you’ve probably seen Chet Coppack, the seemingly ubiquitous host of the network’s call-in talk show, “NewSport Talk.” To his fans, he sends an autographed picture with a dime attached next to the words: “Your Dime, Your Dance Floor.”
Ahem, Chet. A call costs a quarter, and if you can still get a dance for a dime, I’ll send you a quarter, you tell me where.