NBC’s U.S. Open Broadcast Was Refreshing and a Much-Needed Respite From Controversy

NBC had a great week in Los Angeles, says John Hawkins, and its on-course reporters shined the brightest.

If the primary goal of every U.S. Open is to crown a deserved champion—some years clarify that mission better than others—the 123rd version was saddled with an equally nebulous purpose: to shift the sport’s focus back to its competitive element. Everything that accompanied the PGA Tour–LIV Golf alliance earlier this month brought a bizarre twist to the most divisive period in modern history. When a game built on integrity and credibility succumbs to questionable motives and uncertainty, the best thing everyone can do is grab a pencil and head to the first tee.

Using that context as a compass, NBC’s presentation from The Los Angeles Country Club offered a refreshing respite from the recent turbulence, although an outrageously sexy leaderboard throughout the weekend made this an easy tournament not to screw up. A five-star marquee can be tough to find at our national championship, but Thursday’s benevolent conditions led to historically low scoring and an ample collection of top-tier players in the early mix.

From there, it turned back into a U.S. Open. And perhaps more importantly, given how shrinking audiences have turned this event into ratings loser over the last 10 years, NBC shed the Nothing but Commercials alter-acronym that characterized last year’s telecast to deliver Notably Balanced Coverage this time around.

The final 75 minutes of Wyndham Clark’s one-shot victory were shown without interruption, which would have been even nicer if somebody had holed a putt. A majority of revenue spots and network promos were frontloaded to the first half of the weekend windows, which made the most crucial golf a lot easier to watch as afternoon rolled into night on the East Coast.

That said, the early-round action on USA Network was a formidable test of endurance. A federal law should be passed on the number of American Ninja plugs allowed in a 24-hour period. That split-screen distraction known as “Playing Through” is just a meek compromise offering discount rates to interested corporate parties, but it’s the viewer who’s getting half a product for a couple of minutes. In this case, half a product is not better than no product at all.

So that aforementioned notable balance applies to the tone and editorial content of the coverage far more than it does any commercial adjustments. NBC excels at bringing us the U.S. Open because it is willing to address reality as we see it. At this particular tournament, reality comes in the form of more bogeys than any other week, strategical risks that don’t pan out—and the extended effects of how fatigue and major-championship pressure influence the final outcome.

All those factors would generally be perceived as negatives. Whereas CBS often fails to enlighten viewers with anything akin to critical analysis, NBC’s voices embrace the opportunity to mix opinion and prescient commentary into what is clearly a more complete package. Quality television from America’s national championship is what the audience expects and what NBC brings us. It’s also something you couldn’t say with a straight face five years ago.

Much like the contestants he was watching, lead analyst Paul Azinger took some risks during the final round, not all of them successful. He flubbed the call on Clark’s chip at the par-3 ninth, which nearly came to a stop on the back of the green—his par putt would have been twice as long as the spot from where he’d struck that chip. Azinger basically categorized the shot as a huge mistake, but Clark’s ball trickled down to seven feet, where he saved par from a distance Rickie Fowler, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler repeatedly failed to convert from during the last 18 holes.

Azinger saw something he didn’t like and told us about it. A bit prematurely? Yes, but when a man in the booth is willing to take chances, then admit he was wrong twice afterward, a telecast comes to life, especially from a tournament that needs all the life it can get. Better to have pulled the commentary trigger and missed than to offer no editorial observation whatsoever.

“This is almost identical to what he did at St. Andrews,” Azinger would say later of McIlroy’s inability to capitalize on numerous scoring opportunities, as was the case at last summer’s British Open. “He hit it unbelievably and didn’t win the tournament.” It was a superb observation with editorial heft, the kind of insight that gets people talking around the coffee machine Monday morning. Why can’t Rory make an eight-footer when he really needs it? For all his brilliance as a ballstriker, could he possibly get less out of a round than he has gotten on the year’s biggest Sundays?

Food for thought is nourishment for the viewer’s soul. NBC anchor Dan Hicks wasn’t his usual airtight self at LACC. He made a couple of factual errors that were quickly amended, the weirder occurring when he referred to Clark as an Oklahoma State alum—he left OSU after his sophomore season to attend Oregon, where he blossomed into one of the best collegiate players in the country.

As NBC headed into a commercial break Saturday evening, courtesy of Steely Dan’s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” Hicks errantly identified the band as another southern California gem. The group’s cofounders, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, were actually lifelong New Yorkers (Fagen was born in northern New Jersey) who met at Bard College, about 90 miles from Manhattan. From 1974 until Becker’s death in 2017, they were Steely Dan’s only official members.

Not for nothing, Fowler did lose that number, finishing the week T-5 at 5-under after reaching -11 in the second and third rounds. Maybe they should have played “Reelin’ in the Years.”

Having flown from Paris to Los Angeles, where he called the French Open and U.S. Open in consecutive weeks, it’s reasonable to think that Hicks, who just turned 61, was a bit fatigued by the time he reached the weekend at LACC. His ability to pilot a telecast seamlessly with three on-course reporters and three stationary analysts as wingmen is vital to the NBC formula, although an increased reliance on the three ground guys is what accounts for a more insightful product than any network lineup since the Pat Summerall–Ben Wright era at CBS in the mid-1980s.

Notah Begay, John Wood, Smylie Kaufman. All three could walk through an airport unrecognized, but when those airplanes land and they arrive separately at a big-tournament venue, all three are prepared and polished enough to carry NBC through its most important live hours. Begay’s performance at LACC was particularly notable. His hits came with the speed and confidence of a man who knows his territory inside and out, not the guy who hemmed and hawed his way through the early stages of his career at NBC.

Kaufman is the purest of naturals, while Wood’s value to the network cannot be overstated. Both are marvelous at thinking on the fly. Both serve up concise tactical options as if they were actually caddying for the player himself, which is why Azinger frequently passes the ball to Wood to validate some of his own related insight.

It all lent essential clarity to a U.S. Open with a leaderboard full of intrigue on a golf course more eccentric than the movie stars who once lived around it. NBC shined on a week when the game really needed it—a week when the marine layer became a major player. That big yellow ball in the sky should be ashamed of itself.