The Open on ESPN: 65 Hours of TV from Golf’s Oldest Major

Golf

The Open on ESPN: 65 Hours of TV from Golf’s Oldest Major

  • All Four Rounds Live on ESPN
  • Telecast of Champion Golfers’ Challenge Added
  • SportsCenter Reports from St Andrews Begin Monday
  • Robust Second-Screen Experience Options on ESPN3
  • ESPN Radio with Live Four-Round Broadcasts

The 144th renewal of golf’s oldest major, The Open, will air live on ESPN for all four rounds as it is played July 16-19 at St Andrews Royal & Ancient Golf Club (Old Course) in Fife, Scotland. The historic seaside links course knows as the “Home of Golf” will be hosting the championship for the 29th time.

In addition to more than 65 total hours on television, which includes live play and encore presentations, ESPN will surround the telecasts with a robust menu of second-screen options on ESPN3, live broadcasts on ESPN Radio and extensive other digital offerings on computers, tablets and mobile devices.

ESPN and WatchESPN will have 11 scheduled hours of live play from each of the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday, July 16-17 from 4 a.m. – 3 p.m. ET. The third round on Saturday, July 18, will air live from 7 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. with the final round on Sunday, July 19, airing live from 6 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.

New this year will be a three-hour telecast of the Champion Golfers’ Challenge at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 15, on ESPN2 and WatchESPN. The event will include former winners of The Open in groups of three or four playing the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course for charity. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Watson, Gary Player and Nick Faldo are among the expected participants. Watson has announced that this will be his last year playing in The Open.

ESPN’s flagship news and information program, SportsCenter, will originate from the site of the championship with a one-hour special SportsCenter at The Open program on Wednesday, July 15, at 2 p.m. on ESPN2 and WatchESPN as well as with extensive reports throughout each day beginning Monday, July 13.

Hosting The Open for the 19th consecutive year, Mike Tirico will be lead announcer for ESPN’s telecasts of live play. Joining him in the 18th Hole Tower as lead analyst will be Paul Azinger, the 1993 PGA Championship winner.

ESPN’s expert analysts and reporters for television coverage of the event represent seven major golf championships and in addition to Azinger include Andy North and World Golf Hall of Famer Curtis Strange, both two-time U.S. Open champions; World Golf Hall of Famer Judy Rankin and two-time women’s major champion Dottie Pepper.

Scott Van Pelt and Sean McDonough also will be in the host role during the four days of the event in addition to working as hole announcers along with Strange and Pepper. On-course reporters will be North, Rankin, Pepper and Bill Kratzert while Tom Rinaldi will conduct player interviews. The BBC’s legendary golf announcer Peter Alliss will join ESPN for several hours on both Thursday and Friday.

As has become tradition with ESPN’s telecasts of The Open, scene-setting interstitial videos penned by ESPN.com and ESPN the Magazine senior writer Wright Thompson and voiced by Golden Globe winning actor Ian McShane will help bring the culture and color of St Andrews and Scotland to viewers

As part of ESPN’s wall-to-wall coverage, The Best of The Open, an edited encore presentation, will air in prime time Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 7-11 p.m. on ESPN and Sunday night from 10 p.m. – 1 a.m. on ESPN2 for golf fans unable to watch the live play earlier in the day. Highlights of each day’s play also will air in The Open Today from 3-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday on ESPN and Saturday and Sunday on ABC. The Open has appeared on ABC every year since 1962.

SportsCenter at The Open  

A special one-hour SportsCenter at The Open will have an extensive preview of the event on Wednesday, July 15, at 2 p.m. on ESPN2 and WatchESPN, with the program originating from St Andrews. Scott Van Pelt will host with analysts Andy North and Curtis Strange, and reporters Sean McDonough, Tom Rinaldi and Bill Kratzert. ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski also will contribute to the special.

Regular editions of SportsCenter will have reports from The Open beginning in the 9 a.m. ET edition on Monday, July 13, including highlights from player news conferences, player interviews, breaking news, features and more. Mike Tirico, John Anderson and Van Pelt will host the reports with analysis by North, Strange, Paul Azinger and Dottie Pepper. Rinaldi will conduct interviews and file reports while Wojciechowski will add reactions, reports and features.

ESPN Radio’s Four-Round The Open Coverage

ESPN Radio’s coverage of The Open tees off Thursday, July 16, with a six-hour live broadcast at 7 a.m. ET from St Andrews. Daily coverage will continue Friday (7 a.m. – 1 p.m.), Saturday (9 a.m. – 3 p.m.) and Sunday (8 a.m. – 2 p.m.). The broadcasts also will be available on ESPNRadio.com, the ESPN Radio app and TheOpen.com.

Commentators contributing to ESPN Radio’s live coverage will include Doug Bell, Dennis Paulson, Bill Rosinski, and Bob Wischusen.

In addition to the broadcasts of competition, ESPN Radio’s Russillo Show (1-4 p.m. ET) will have live hits each day from The Open with Scott Van Pelt starting July 13. Other ESPN Radio programming also will have reports/guests from the event during the week.

The Open on ESPN Digital Platforms

WatchESPN and ESPN3

ESPN3, ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network, will offer golf fans four options for a second-screen experience during The Open.

A daily “Featured Players” feed will follow selected players in both the morning and afternoon each day, with players to be determined closer to the beginning of play. Trey Wingo and Allen Bestwick will share the host role, with analysts Tom Weiskopf and Carl Paulson.

Another ESPN3 feed will highlight the famous “Road Hole” at St Andrews, the par-4 17th that is widely regarded as one of the toughest in golf. Jim Kelly and Dougie Donnelly will be hosts with Warren Humphreys and Kim Thomas as analysts.

Also included will be player interviews from the practice range, highlights and features. Mark Donaldson will report from the course.

ESPN3’s The Open options also will include a Spanish-language feed with ESPN Deportes golf announcers Francisco Aleman and former LPGA pro Silvia Bertolaccini and the International View from the BBC coverage. The programming for the four feeds begins at 4 a.m. ET on the first two days of the event, 7 a.m. on Saturday and 6 a.m. on Sunday.

All The Open programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 also will be available via WatchESPN. Launched in October 2010, WatchESPN delivers live access on computers, smartphones, tablets, Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.  It is currently accessible in more than 93 million households nationwide to fans who receive ESPN’s networks as part of their video subscription.

ESPN3 is currently available to more than 99 million homes at no additional cost to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection or video subscription from an affiliated service provider. The network is also available at no cost to approximately 21 million U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel via computers, smartphones and tablets connected to on-campus educational and on-base military broadband and Wi-Fi networks.

ESPN.com

Coverage of The Open will be extensive and will include:

  • Wall-to-wall coverage of Jordan Spieth’s attempt to win his third straight major title to keep his Grand Slam hopes alive.
  • News, reactions and columns from senior golf writers Bob Harig and Jason Sobel, and com senior writer Ian O’Connor.
  • “Quiet Please,” ESPN.com’s weekly golf preview program, hosted by Scott Van Pelt and Andy North, on Tuesday of The Open week and shot on site at St Andrews.
  • “Digital Drive,” an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by Van Pelt and North, will be produced each night Wednesday-Sunday of The Open week.
  • Senior golf analyst Michael Collins will hand out nightly grades for the top players in the world plus other notable names.
  • Collins will also do his “Caddie Confidential” where the former PGA Tour caddie will talk to loopers in the field at St Andrews and get their anonymous viewpoints about the top stories of the week.
  • “Championship Central” on the ESPN.com/Golf index page focusing on the majors and the Presidents Cup.
  • Video clips from ESPN golf analysts
  • Photo gallery wrapping up the year’s third major
  • ESPN GolfCast chat with an easy to use interface with scoring, video and social media elements hosted by Sobel, Collins and ESPN UK’s Alex Perry.

ESPN Mobile

News, highlights and a The Open leaderboard will appear on the ESPN mobile Web and the ESPN app. There will also be news and columns and scoring alerts for top players.

Additional coverage of The Open on ESPN platforms:

ESPN International

The Open will reach 53 countries and more than 60 million international households on ESPN platforms, with coverage in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French language. Latin America and the Caribbean will feature live television coverage and exclusive digital feeds (Feature Players, Road Hole, BBC International, and a Spanish language feed) via its broadband players – ESPN Play in Spanish and English speaking territories and WatchESPN in Brazil. In Canada, TSN and RDS – in French language – will carry all four rounds of the championship live, along with streaming coverage via the TSN GO and RDS GO platforms. In addition to live coverage of The Open, ESPN International will also provide live coverage of the Champion Golfers’ Challenge, a four-hole charity tournament taking place on Wednesday, July 15, and featuring former The Open champions such as Tiger Woods, Tom Watson and Phil Mickelson – among others.

ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic will feature a tribute to The Open on Monday and Tuesday, July 13-14, with a continuous and chronological presentation of highlights of past events. The tribute begins Monday at 4 a.m. ET with an airing of highlights from the 1971 Open and continues until its conclusion with highlights from the 2012 Open on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

ESPN The Magazine

The Body Issue of ESPN the Magazine, on newsstands now, includes a photo feature on Opal Fields in Australia, a golf course which sits on a barren desert mining settlement. It’s the only course to which St Andrews, home of this year’s The Open, has granted reciprocal playing rights in its 600-year history.

ESPN on Demand

Available in approximately 45 million television households, ESPN On Demand will offer exclusive The Open content, including official films from Tiger Woods’ historic 19-under victory in 2000 at St Andrews and his 2006 win at Royal Liverpool, the 2002 event at Muirfield (won by Ernie Els); Phil Mickelson’s 2013 win at Muirfield; and John Daly’s second and last major win in 1995. Also available are “The Open: Best Shots” and “The 17th Hole.”

Interactive Television

The four-screen The Open Experience will air on DirecTV (channels 701-705) for all four days of the championship. One of the channels will be “Featured Players” and will follow selected players during their rounds, while another channel will be dedicated the famous “Road Hole” at St Andrews plus player interviews from the practice range, highlights and features. The other two channels will carry the live ESPN telecast and the International View with the BBC coverage.

Three Weeks in the U.K.

ESPN’s The Open telecasts are the start of three weeks of live championship golf from the United Kingdom on ESPN Networks. ESPN2 will televise two hours of live play each day in the Senior Open presented by Rolex from Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England, with coverage airing noon – 2 p.m. ET Thursday, July 23, through Sunday, July 26. ESPN2 also is televising four days of play in the Ricoh Women’s British Open from Turnberry in Ayrshire, Scotland, July 30 – Aug. 2, with the telecast airing 9 a.m. – noon ET on Thursday, July 30, and Friday, July 31, and 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. for the two weekend days.

The Open – St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

(all times U.S. Eastern)

Day/Date Program Start Network
Wed., July 15 Champion Golfers’ Challenge 11 a.m. ESPN2, WatchESPN
SportsCenter at The Open 2 p.m. ESPN2, WatchESPN
Thu., July 16 First Round 4 a.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
First Round 7 a.m. ESPN Radio
The Open Today 3 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Best of The Open 7 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Fri., July 17 Second Round 4 a.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Second Round 7 a.m. ESPN Radio
The Open Today 3 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Best of The Open 7 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Sat., July 18 Third Round 7 a.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Third Round 9 a.m. ESPN Radio
The Open Today 3 p.m. ABC
Best of The Open 7 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Sun., July 20 Final Round 6 a.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Final Round 8 a.m. ESPN Radio
The Open Today  3 p.m. ABC
Best of The Open 10 p.m. ESPN2, WatchESPN

 

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Media Contact: Andy Hall, [email protected]

Andy Hall

I’m part of a team that handles PR/Communications for SportsCenter, including the SC Featured brand, the E60 program, and ESPN’s news platforms. In addition, I’m the PR contact for ESPN’s Formula 1 coverage and golf majors (the Masters and PGA Championship). I’m based in Daytona Beach, Fla., and have been with ESPN since 2006.
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