ABC's link is major accomplishment

By Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff  |  July 20, 2007

A conglomeration of reporters will be calling the British Open from Carnoustie, Scotland, this weekend. Channel 5 will broadcast live tomorrow from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Mike Tirico, the voice of ESPN's "Monday Night Football," will host ABC's broadcast, his 11th year covering the Open Championship. The main analysts are American Paul Azinger and England's Nick Faldo, who will captain their respective Ryder Cup teams in 2008, and course reporters include Terry Gannon, Peter Alliss, Andy North, Judy Rankin, and Bill Kratzert.

Faldo, who works for CBS, was given permission to change networks for the British Open.

ABC will use 52 cameras (with help from the BBC), and Tom Rinaldi will conduct interviews from the 18th green, where Jean Van de Velde blew a three-stroke lead in 1999.

Producer Chris Ohlmeyer remembers when the tournament rated a few highlights on "Wide World of Sports."

"Now it's in our 46th year, and we're thrilled," he said. "It's a massive undertaking of Olympic proportion. We have a compound that is a mini-city."

ESPN produces the broadcasts, which started on TNT yesterday and continue today from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. TNT opens the weekend coverage tomorrow from 7-9 a.m., and Sunday from 6-8 a.m.

The Golf Channel has exclusive rights to cover the first two rounds of PGA Tour events, and NBC and CBS pick up the weekend coverage.

"But that doesn't mean we're rusty," said Bob Toms, ESPN's coordinating producer for golf. "We don't have a PGA contract, but there is a tremendous amount of golf on the air."

Leah LaPlaca, vice president of programming, agreed.

"We no longer have a regular-season PGA Tour schedule, but we retained the British Open, the US Open, and will have the Ryder Cup," she said. "We're focusing more on the championship strategy."

The network also telecasts some LPGA tournaments, including the US Women's Open and British Open, and the first major on the LPGA Tour schedule, the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

"So we are not out of the golf business," she said.

The ratings for the British Open have hovered between 3.6 and 3.9 for the past five years, and peaked in 2005 with a 4.2 (Tiger Woods won). Last year's telecast had a 3.9 rating (Woods also won).

"Things have really been more or less consistent, and we're expecting the same this weekend," LaPlaca said.

CBS Sports will televise the Women's Match Play World Championship from New Rochester, N.Y. Bill Macatee and Beth Daniel will provide commentary from the 18th hole. Channel 4 will air the tournament from 3-5 p.m. tomorrow and 4-6 p.m. Sunday.

Can there be enough talk about college football? Apparently not, according to ESPN. The network will debut a weekday half-hour show Monday, "College Football Live," at 3:30 p.m. that will air until the end of the season. During the NFL season, the show will air at 2 p.m. "I personally feel that college football, over the past five or 10 years, has continuously gained in popularity," said Kirk Herbstreit, one of the show's analysts. "And I think the fans want to hear more about college football . . . whether it's recruiting or coaching news, whether it's players, whatever it happens to be. I think this show will give people another outlet to keep up with the sport." Rece Davis will be the primary host . . . HBO's "CostasNOW" is coming out with a baseball special Tuesday at 10 p.m. The show is scheduled to have commissioner Bud Selig. Bob Costas also will talk to Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. Joining Costas in a roundtable segment will be Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, Mets manager Willie Randolph, and comedian Chris Rock . . . The Globe's Bud Collins, who was let go from NBC recently after 35 years, doesn't have television plans on the horizon. Collins broadcast from the US Open for CBS from 1968- 72. "We love Bud!" said CBS spokeswoman Leslie Anne Wade. But the network has cut back on its coverage of the US Open this year. "I don't have any plans," Collins said yesterday. "My agent is talking to people and I'm hoping somebody will hire me. But I'm still with the Boston Globe."

Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com.