In its final year sharing the Open Championship with TNT, ESPN on ABC will air the final two rounds of the 3rd major golf tournament of the year this weekend. Take a look at the release.
ABC & ESPN to Present The Open ChampionshipCommentating Team: 14 Major Championships,Including Open Champions Tom Watson and Tom WeiskopfESPN’s production of The Open Championship from Turnberry in Ayrshire, Scotland, will be on ABC, including live third and final round coverage Saturday, July 18 (9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. ET), and Sunday, July 19 (8 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. ET). Additionally, on ABC, SportsCenter at the Open Championship late-night highlight shows will air following the Thursday and Friday rounds from 1:05-1:35 a.m. (both ET and PT) and Saturday and Sunday from 5-6 p.m. (2-3 p.m. PT).ABC will tee off its coverage with a SportsCenter at the Open Championship preview special Sunday, July 12, at 3:30 pm. Overall, ABC will present 11 hours of live Open Championship coverage.
ABC’s commentating team includes some of the most notable names in golf history. Tom Watson, who won the Open Championship at Turnberry in 1977 in a classic duel against Jack Nicklaus, will work with Tom Weiskopf, winner of the 1973 Open Championship. Watson (eight major championships, including five Open Championships), and Weiskopf join Curtis Strange (winner of two U.S. Opens), Andy North (winner of two U.S. Opens) and Paul Azinger (winner of one PGA Championship) on the ABC telecasts. Together, they have won 14 major championships. Judy Rankin, a World Golf Hall of Famer, will also be part of the broadcast team.
Mike Tirico will anchor the telecasts alongside Azinger, Watson and Weiskopf. Peter Alliss and Terry Gannon will serve as hole announcers with on-course reporters North, Rankin and Bill Kratzert. Tom Rinaldi will provide essays and interviews and Rick Reilly will contribute commentary.
Production highlights for the 2009 Open Championship include a feature on Watson’s classic duel with Nicklaus in the 1977 Open Championship at Turnberry. The two were paired together for the final two rounds. Nicklaus played the third and fourth rounds in 65-66. But Watson played them in 65-65 to win by a stroke. Other features will focus on Turnberry’s history as a former airfield in World War I and II as well as a look back at Greg Norman’s near-historic run at Royal Birkdale last year.
Technology
- X-Mo: a super-slow motion camera that provides great detail of the swing and impact on the ball.
- Golf Trak: an application that utilizes real-life aerial footage in a 3D environment to enhance the telecast.
- An aerial camera, mounted on an airplane, will show Turnberry from a bird’s-eye perspective.
Digital MediaHighlights and coverage of the Open Championship will be made available on ESPN Mobile TV via ESPNEWS. Coverage on ESPN.com will be highlighted by:
- Daily real-time leaderboard updates, recaps, video highlights, chats, photo galleries, podcasts and analysis.
- Daily on-site contributions from Jason Sobel, Gene Wojciechowski, and Bob Harig.
- Sobel’s popular live blog each day of the Championship
- Ten years after his dramatic collapse at Carnoustie, Jean Van de Velde looks back at his brush with history at golf’s oldest major
- Archival video from of some of the best moments in Open Championship history
- A look at two-time defending Open champion Padraig Harrington’s chances for a fourth major championship at Turnberry
- News, analysis and features from Golf World and Golf Digest, in collaboration with ESPN.com
- Post-event wrap-up and breakdown of the Championship
ESPN InternationalESPN International will broadcast over 24 live hours of coverage in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Israel, and live coverage in Asia (via ESS) and Canada (via TSN), of The Open Championship, in addition to on site reports for our various SportsCenter shows around the world. Other ESPN International media coverage includes exclusive ESPNdeportes.com reports, radio reports for ESPN Radio Rivadavia (Argentina) and ESPN Radio Formula (Mexico), and live streaming of all four rounds on ESPN360 broadband platforms in Mexic
o and Chile.
Date
Day
Time (ET)
Program
7/12
Sun.
3:30 – 4:30 p.m.
SportsCenter at the Open Championship
7/17
Fri.
1:05 -1:35 a.m. (ET/PT)
SportsCenter at the Open Championship Highlights
7/18
Sat.
1:05 -1:35 a.m. (ET/PT)
SportsCenter at the Open Championship Highlights
9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Open Championship Third Round
5 – 6 p.m.
SportsCenter at the Open Championship Highlights
7/19
Sun.
8 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Open Championship Fourth Round
5 – 6 p.m.
SportsCenter at the Open Championship Highlights
Beginning in 2010, ESPN and its family of networks and digital platforms will present all four rounds of The Open Championship including expanded coverage on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, ABC, ESPN360.com, ESPN Mobile TV and interactive television.
We’ll be watching TNT on Sunday for its sendoff to the Open. It has provided a lot of great coverage.
