ST ANDREWS, SCOTLAND — More than 200 people are hard at work behind the scenes for ESPN’s coverage of The Open, golf’s oldest major, at the famed St Andrews links course.
The Open is ESPN’s only full golf production of the year, so a team of personnel from many different areas of the company is assembled for the task by ESPN Vice President, Production, Mike McQuade.
Three members of the team:
Jon Punko, Features Manager
Punko has fond memories of St Andrews, where he spent his honeymoon in 2010, the last time the course hosted The Open. It was something he’ll never forget about an event he dearly loves.
As features manager, Punko is overseeing a team of six producers and four editors. Before the beginning of play on Thursday, his job involved prep work, including looking over features, teases and interviews, and assigning elements to his team. Once play began, his role shifted.
“We need more elements then, so basically I need to watch the golf,” he said. “I look for trends. Maybe the Road Hole bunker (the 17th hole at St Andrews) is killing everybody today, so I suggest ‘why don’t we do a music element on the Road Hole bunker?’
“A lot of other events you get a day or a couple of days before the next one,” he said. “But in golf it’s the next day. If the golf ends at 9 o’clock at night, and we have to prep for elements for 9 o’clock in the morning. That’s what makes it challenging and fun.”
His normal ESPN job is feature producer and currently he’s serving as manager of the SportsCenter Enhancement Unit (SCEU). He joined ESPN in 2000 and has worked on golf since 2002.
Courtni Regan, Production Assistant, Highlights and Features
In her fourth year at ESPN, Regan edits features and highlights for ABC Saturday Night Football from August-January and then does the same for golf most of the rest of the year, with occasional contributions to other programming.
Working The Open for the second time, she spent the early part of the week prepping edits of features and voiceovers. She then moved to the ISO (isolated cameras) room on Thursday and is working on enhancing highlights packages that are used on the telecast and on SportsCenter.
That job includes searching through highlights captured by the BBC, which televises The Open locally and in some other parts of Europe. “We have a really good ISO team, but if they happen to miss a shot, we have to go back on the BBC and find that shot,” she said.
“I love The Open,” she said. “I feel like this event is so special because we as a group work so hard in prep work, and once we’re here it’s a family that comes together. And it’s a huge production – I don’t think some realize how big it is. I know everyone here wants to be here, wants to work really hard and has a good attitude about it, so I love the atmosphere.”
Randy Ginther, Associate Producer, ITV
The “Featured Group” telecast that appears on ESPN3 is produced separately from the main telecast, and Ginther plays an important role in the production truck.
“I’m the eyes and ears in the back of the truck for the producer and director,” said Ginther, working on The Open for the third time. “I’m aware of a lot of the video content that’s being produced specifically for The Open that might help enhance our coverage.”
Jordan Spieth is in a quest to win a third golf major this season and he’s in the featured group for at least the first two days of competition.
“If I notice there was a really cool soundbite from Jordan at his press conference or if there was a piece that ESPN put together that’s about him, then we might get some play out of that during his round. Sometimes there’s like a five minute lull while they’re walking so it’s to help keep the viewer engaged.”
The rest of the year, he oversees a group of people who do the media packaging for ESPN Video on Demand.
He respects the magnitude of The Open.
“I don’t think it’s something we completely grasp in America all the time,” he said. “To see how people revere the courses, and even the golfers do it, and I think it extends somewhat to the production personnel as well. You get this feel that you’re on hallowed ground.”
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