The British Open at Royal St. George’s presents far and away more challenges to both the production and broadcast teams than any other tournament on tour.
Lead broadcaster Mike Tirico and executive producer Mike McQuade discussed in a conference call how ESPN will approach coverage of this weekend’s event.
Tirico » I can tell you over the last 15 years, especially the last three or four with Mike running our operation heading over there, it’s become a lot easier. I used a line back in ’98 or ’99. Since that was the only major that we were involved with at ABC, it felt like we played our major with rented clubs.
We went over and used the BBC as everything and sprinkled in a little bit of our own equipment, and that’s changed significantly here in the last three years with ESPN broadcasting the Open Championship, and Mike’s been a key driver in that. It was his idea to get that plane going and the aerial coverage to make it look more like the golf that everyone sees the rest of the year at home. So that’s helped for what we do.
McQuade » I would say the challenges are especially wind and cameras on cranes and airplanes and cloudy skies. The biggest complaint we always hear is following the ball. I think we’ve addressed that. I think the other part of it is with the added cameras, you actually get to see the player. You get to see their face. You get to see their expressions. You’re seeing them much closer than you’ve ever seen them before. As far as the rain and the wind, I do believe that if you don’t expect that to happen when you’re going to the event, that you probably went to the wrong event.
Examiner columnist Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
