Viewing Notes: 2015 U.S. Open Championship

All eyes are on Fox Sports this week as they unveil their golf broadcast vision on one of the game's biggest stages. Lead announcer Joe Buck spent a considerable portion of the Fox conference call talking about how little he'll be talking.

More importantly I have great news from Chambers Bay: volunteers and media on site (before I arrived) say Buck got in his last practice round at Chambers Bay as players were studying the course Sunday. Buck even managed to pound some range balls next to Adam Scott, hold up Rory McIlroy and make those workers out doing final prep run for cover.

Next thing you know Buck will toss footballs with Russell Wilson before the NFC Championship game and take BP with the Dodgers before the NLCS!

Richard Deitsch of SI focuses his always excellent media column on Fox's big debut this week. His biggest reveal: feature groups on the Fox digital coverage will feature the players people want to see, something that did not happen at this year's Masters.

• Fox Sports said Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson and Rickie Fowler will be featured on Fox Sports Go for Thursday's opening round. Mickelson, Watson and Angel Cabrera are grouped together and begin their round at 10:33 a.m. ET. (The beginning holes will be featured on USOpen.com. Fox Sports Go coverage of their round will begin at 1 p.m. ET). Fowler, Woods and Louis Oosthuizen are grouped together and will begin at 5:28 p.m. ET. Their round is scheduled to be shown in its entirety on Fox Sports Go.

As for Buck's plan to go minimalist on the telecast, Tom Hoffarth reports:

“Believe me, with play-by-play here, I’m going with a less-is-more approach,” said Buck, who can draw upon experience in calling Major League Baseball here rather than the NFL.

“I think there will be times when we have Henry Longhurst moments,” said Norman, referring to the late BBC golf commentator who was once added to some of CBS’ Masters coverage. “We’ll give that pregnant pause and let the situations play out. There will be many times when silence is golden.”

He's also bullish on Fox's innovative streak:

Buck added: “What a boring world it would be if changing things up was so frowned upon that they were scared to do it. In 1994, everyone freaked out about FOX putting the score in the corner of the screen. If we are going to go into this event worrying what the traditional golf fan thinks, we’re dead. Fresh eyes, a fresh perspective, a little energy and looking at the same format for a different angle are good things.”

The New York Post's Phil Mushnick is not very excited about all of Fox's new gadgets and toys.

“Fox Sports Loads Golf Bag With High-Tech Arsenal For Network’s First U.S. Open Championship.” That’s followed by “Virtual Reality, Aerial Drones, Radio-Controlled Cars & More Offer Unique Views & Sounds from Chamber Bay.”

Yikes! Run for your lives!

The same missive includes all-upper case word that there will be “VIRTUAL IMMERSIVE GRAPHICS,” “118 cameras,” “29 replay servers” “5 production control rooms” “16 transmission paths,” “11 audio mixers,” “156 channels recording simultaneously” and “47 miles of fiber optics,” which, I suspect, is at least one more fiber optic mile than NBC unspooled.

If this were a manned flight to Venus, I suppose, this would be good, reassuring news.

Fox has unveiled a classic theme composed by Brian Tyler (who talks about his work here). The piece was performed by a 90-piece orchestra. It's John Williams meets John Williams in the vein of John Williams, which is a victory if you're not a Yanni guy.

Tyler has an impressive resume of film scoring and says this about his work (which you can hear in sample form here):

“Sports and music have always had an important connection for me. I love the way iconic sports themes evoke the spirit of sporting events and can provide dramatic impact and nostalgic memory,” Tyler said. “I wanted the music I composed for the ‘U.S. Open on FOX’ theme to capture the epic struggle, the challenge, the history, the heartbreak, and the elation of competitive golf. Great sporting events like the U.S. Open are powerful stories that are unwritten until the last shot goes in and the trophy is hoisted. With this music I have endeavored to convey that essence and emotion.”

The real star of the week--star meaning source of most social media vitriol--will be the USGA's six new (pricey) public service announcements that will run repeatedly, especially if rumors are true of lackluster commerical sales.

Excuse me, it's the "new tentpole campaign."

Karl Greenburg with details on the latest effort to overpay an ad agency to help show how cool and lovable they are. If you watched the first two USGA telecasts of the year on Fox, you've already seen the elaborately staged PSA's.

One of the ads, which shows pinging balls across a warehouse and a guy putting on fake grass in his office, has a voiceover by an African American narrator, who mulls whether golf is really a game. “Yeah, it has game-like qualities; but the word ‘game’ doesn't seem to have enough ‘mmmph’ to describe it.” As we see shots of ethnically and economically diverse people playing, the voiceover continues with the message that you don't have to be superhuman to play, as “this game is for everyone.”

Oozing authenticity!

Big download reminder: USGA and Fox Sports Go should be downloaded and updated on your various devices if you want to watch the streaming coverage.

Like many apps, the Fox Sports Go required a download, then an update. But then it should work fine.

And the USGA has updated its U.S. Open app . Here it is for iTunes users.

Your broadcast cheat sheet, starting with Fox and finishing with Golf Channel where yours truly will be appearing with John Feinstein, Jaime Diaz and host Steve Sands this Wednesday at 4 pm ET for an hour show devoted to architecture, course setup, the USGA approach and Chambers Bay.

Fox times starting with their alternate coverage, followed by the primary coverage: