Fox ending USGA contract, US Open will be on NBC

Supposedly, this will be announced tomorrow. AP sources: NBC gets US Open as Fox gets out of contract

Praise be

Unfortunate, sure Fox had it's issues but they had improved the broadcast every year and showed a lot of golf. NBC commentary team is the most vanilla out there unless Miller returns for the major broadcasts but I don't see that happening given their promotion of Azinger.

Big mistake with Tiger's return to Torrey on the horizon. That's going to be the most viewed golf tournament ever, even if TW misses the cut.

did NBC cover the Junior Am and the Mid-Am when they had the deal? I don't remember either

Just saw this. For me I never thought I'd say this. Hoping Johnny comes out of retirement. I didn't hate him just didn't think I'd miss him going the US Open.

who can we write in to replace azinger? ... i'm sure he's a very nice person, but his tv analysis and comments grate on a lot of people's nerves ... and i usually don't care what the announcers are saying, but he has a way of over-dramatizing some minute aspect of a shot or situation ...

Fox was terrible at the beginning, but I thought they got a lot better and were just as good, if not better, than CBS and NBC.

NBC gets the contract for half price. Sounds like a steal.

Geoff Shackelford summarizing Doug Ferguson’s article: “One person said NBC would pay for just under half of the rights fee through the rest of the contract. Two other people said the deal began to take shape this month, especially with the U.S. Open being moved to September during the opening month of the NFL. One person said Fox was contemplating moving the U.S. Open to FS1, an idea that was rebuffed by Mike Davis, the CEO of the USGA. That led to deeper conversations about the contract and how it could be resolved.”

As Tron Carter tweeted, time for CBS to hire Faxon in the 18th tower and drop Faldo.

Perhaps with Comcast/NBC agreeing to take over the rest of this deal they negotiated better terms with the USGA to take the deal from Fox. Comcast/NBC would have been negotiating from a position of strength with the USGA.

The article says NBC is reportedly paying just under half what Fox was paying.

FOX and the USGA have not had a smooth relationship. FOX wanting to move the US Open to FS1 this year was probably the last straw. The network has no other golf outside the USGA events, so it looks like Fox decided to cut its losses and ask out of the contract. I just hope Shane Bacon can find a home at another network.

For those wondering, Notre Dame is currently scheduled to host Western Michigan that weekend creating a Saturday conflict for NBC. I imagine they will just play the third round early off two sets of tees.

The USGA got what they deserved. They risked going to Fox, and maybe it would have worked out had the pandemic not occurred.

The article posted by the OP has been updated with more information than what was originally posted.

Would love to see Johnny broadcast the US Open each year. Doubt it happens though.

Agree with you on JM for the US Open. Would love for CBS to somehow get JM to do a weekend at The Masters.

That said no way in Hades that Brad Faxon should be in the 18th hole tower as the main analyst at a major. For a run of the mill B level event on tour sure.

My impression of the Fox deal with the USGA was that it was a surprise; an uncharacteristic effort by a small group surrounding then-USGA President Glenn Nager, a politically-minded Federalist Society Member (and presumably a Fox News Channel fan) and partner at Jones Day.

I appreciated a few of the fresh ideas that Fox brought to the telecasts. Technical stuff mostly. And I liked the Fox commitment to do all the championships. But the telecasts always bothered me. Never seemed quite right.

Thank god. I can’t stand joe buck for more than the World Series.

Notre Dame & Western Michigan? Sounds like a pretty crummy game. They should push that to NBC Sports channel. Wouldn't be the first time a Notre Dame game ended up there. Meanwhile, NBC now has 4 of the 6 biggest golf events in their back pocket. The two oldest majors, the Ryder Cup, and Players Championship. Pretty nice little collection for them.

Looks like the USGA will have to tighten it's ever expanding belt a bit, as their major revenue stream has just been cut in half.

I wonder how they will handle the west coast tournaments. The USGA liked prime time telecasts, but NBC has SNF.

FOX might have improved its coverage but at least with this move we won't have to hear Joe Buck. Not good for the USGA taking a revenue hit, though.

I also have to say that I like the move back to NBC because it was always weird to see FOX host this thing when they don't cover any other golf tournaments.

I will miss Joe Buck. Hope Bacon can find a new home, too.

Please, dear God, let Johnny Miller stay retired. I don't need to hear him compare every single round to his 63 at Oakmont ever again.

Why are you assuming the USGA is losing revenue? More likely Fox is stuck paying out what NBC didn't pick up.

I'm not happy about this. I liked having another network involved with golf, and Fox did some really good things with the broadcasts in recent years.

HAHA, the key letters in that statement... NFL.

No way FOX was going to broadcast the U.S. Open over the NFL. I was curious how they would pull that off and if the USGA was going to be OK with being stuck in FS1.

The Masters on CBS however, different story. The NFL made sure that week that CBS had 0 games in the 1:00 window.

I liked how they did the predicted line the putT would take and have it super imposed while the ball was rolling.

It’s also funny that everyone craps all over every golf telecast like ones better then the other. They all have Hacky comedic bits that don’t work and too many commercials.

Supposedly Fox is paying half even though they aren’t broadcasting it. I guess the USGA isn’t losing any money.

Zinger still better than Joe Buck imo

US open is back home where it should be. I always felt it was weird having the telecast on Fox. Earlier mistakes aside, it never felt like Fox really wanted to broadcast the event, they just needed the content for FS1 (which was the last straw). Call me traditional but Masters and PGA on CBS and US open on NBC just feels right.

NBC always did a great job with the US Open Can’t wait to watch Dan Hicks and crew from Winged Foot this September

NBC better network for golf. NFL is king on Fox , can’t blame them for wanting to put it on FS1. Probably was a way to get rid of golf on Fox by saying that to the USGA.