For the 17th consecutive year, Mike Tirico is hosting ESPN’s live four-day coverage of golf’s oldest major, The Open Championship, which starts Thursday (4 a.m. ET), at Scotland’s Muirfield Golf Links. Tirico will call much of the live play and contribute to SportsCenter reports.
One of the industry’s top play-by-play voices, Tirico spoke with Front Row about The Open Championship and having the opportunity to call this prestigious event:
What is it about The Open Championship that you like the most?
It brings us back to the birthplace of golf, and there are so few sports that truly touch roots and origin the way golf does. So to come back whether it’s England, or especially like this year, Scotland, after two years in a row in England, it just really brings up the history in the game. For all of us who love the game, to be here with this major championship is a lot of fun for all of us to cover and see. Plus, this is the one major not in the U.S. We’re spoiled. We have three majors, three of the best golf championships in our own backyard, so this is the one that involves the rest of the world.
Many people don’t realize how long the days are for the TV crew – how do you keep the energy going?
There are small breaks in there, but by-and-large I know I’ll be working 11-hour shifts. I think it’s just reminding yourself that there’s a new audience coming in and really at the end of the day we’re sitting back and talking sports. It’s just being mentally sharp, and it’s never a problem when the golf is good, and so often it is, and that keeps your attention and your energy going. They are long days, but we’re not exactly constructing a building, we’re just talking sports, like someone’s probably doing at home. We’re just sitting and watching it.
Although ESPN’s championship golf schedule is limited, everything seems to flow smoothly when it’s time to do golf.
I am so proud of what our management and [Vice President, Event Production] Mike McQuade’s leadership of the team that we’ve put together. It’s as good a team as any covering golf in the U.S. And that’s not disrespectful, because I think the guys at NBC and CBS do a really good job, I love watching them and many of them are friends. When you add the group, together, even though we don’t do 20 events a year, we have something special in this group of people and that makes it fun for us to put the band back together.
