Famed sportscaster Joe Buck has called six Super Bowls and 23 World Series, but he considers professional golf the most demanding assignment of his career. He cited the difficulty of covering a sport sporadically and the unique challenge of commentating on action he could not see with his own eyes.
During his time covering the U.S. Open for FOX, Buck learned that dropping in for a single championship each year was a significant hurdle. He admitted that criticism from veteran golf analyst Johnny Miller, which initially upset him, was ultimately correct. “It’s hard to pick up the PGA Tour and do our national championship having not done anything else to that point and trying to act like you’ve been there every other week,” Buck stated.
The primary difficulty was the physical detachment from the event. Unlike a football or baseball game unfolding directly in front of him, golf required him to rely entirely on monitors and information fed to him by his production team. It was a fundamental shift from his usual process.
“Then you add to that the layer of, I’m not looking at any of this with my own eyes,” Buck explained. “I’m sitting with my back to the course. I love that game. That doesn’t mean anything. That doesn’t make me any more qualified to do it than anyone else, and I’m not watching it with my own eyes.”
This method of calling a sport through screens and voices in his earpiece created a complex web of information that was difficult to manage. “You’re trying to put all that together, maintain the scoreboard, trying to create a narrative of why certain players are ascending, why guys are falling apart, remembering the previous shot that happened. It was way more than I ever thought it would be.”
By the time Buck felt he and his team had mastered the intricate rhythm of a golf broadcast, FOX sold the U.S. Open rights back to NBC, ending his run. His experience underscores the distinct and often underestimated complexity of broadcasting professional golf.
