Fox USGA

Early involvement

Fox Sports partnered with Greg Norman in the early 1990s to create a world golf tour, which would have consisted of six events televised on Fox. However, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem threatened to suspend any player participating in the events, and as a result created the World Golf Championships events, which were televised by CBS and ABC.

Fox Sports bid for a portion of the television rights starting in 1999, but the PGA Tour declined the offer.

Fox Sports Net served as a simulcast outlet for The Golf Channel's early round telecasts from 1999–2002. The Golf Channel had limited carriage, and FSN expanded the viewing audience, however the telecasts were complete Golf Channel telecasts and made no reference to Fox.

Recent involvement and USGA rights

In 2011, Fox Sports gained the rights to the CVS Caremark Charity Classic, which is an unofficial money event on the PGA Tour, and had been previously televised by Golf Channel. The coverage aired on Fox Sports Net, with Kraig Kann hosting. Fox did not renew its rights for 2012.

On August 6, 2013, Fox Sports announced a 12-year deal to broadcast the three open championships of the USGA: the U.S. Open, Women's Open, and Senior Open, beginning in 2015. Fox succeeds the USGA's long-term relationships with NBC Sports and ESPN. Fox, which has televised just one PGA Tour sanctioned event in its history (the unofficial CVS Charity Classic in 2011), paid $1 billion for rights for full rights to all USGA championships.

The Fox network airs the final two days of the U.S. Open, Women's Open, Senior Open, and Amateur, as well as late coverage of the first two days of the U.S. Open. The rest of the coverage airs on Fox Sports 1. Also, the final two days of the U.S. Open air on Spanish-language channel Fox Deportes.

NBC's lead analyst Johnny Miller expressed disappointment at the loss, saying that he "had a feeling" NBC would not retain rights, and that Fox would not be able to "fall out of a tree and do the U.S. Open." NBC held the USGA rights for the previous two decades, from 1995 through 2014.

Lead-up to Fox's first U.S. Open

Fox used several telecasts to prepare for airing its first U.S. Open in 2015. These broadcasts familiarized Fox's talent and production staff with broadcasting golf.

First, Fox was given credentials for studio wraparound programming live from the 2014 U.S. Open. This was allowed to compete with ESPN and NBC's studio programming. Newly named Fox golf hosts Joe Buck and Greg Norman hosted the programming.

Fox worked an unofficial PGA Tour event in the fall of 2014 at the Franklin Templeton Shootout in Florida, with Buck and Norman hosting. This was the first time that the full Fox golf team did a telecast together.

The final preparation for the Fox team came in May 2015 at the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball at Olympic Club in San Francisco. Buck and Norman again hosted alongside the full Fox golf team.

U.S. Open coverage

In June 2015, the Fox family covered the U.S. Open for the first time, from Chambers Bay in University Place, Washington, southwest of Tacoma. Fox Sports 1 aired preview programming hosted by Holly Sonders on the Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the championship.

The 2015 edition of the U.S. Open had a total of 38.5 hours of coverage in the United States, with 22 hours being on Thursday and Friday, and 16.5 hours being on Saturday and Sunday; the Fox Sports 1 cable network had a total of 16 hours of coverage on Thursday and Friday. The Fox broadcast network had a total of 22.5 hours of coverage Thursday through Sunday, with six hours Thursday and Friday, and 16.5 hours Saturday and Sunday. Fox utilized a number of new technologies during its production, including drone flyovers, a camera-equipped RC car for ground perspectives, and new graphics—including a live shot tracer, an augmented reality display of green contours, and a persistent top-5 leaderboard displayed in the bottom-right of the screen.

Fox again covered the Franklin Templeton Shootout in 2015. Norman's performance continued to come under criticism, and he was fired afterward. Paul Azinger, out of a job after 11 years working with Mike Tirico at ESPN/ABC, replaced Norman in 2016.

Theme music

Fox did not carry over "In Celebration of Man", the Yanni-composed music that had been used by NBC for its U.S. Open coverage, choosing to commission film composer Brian Tyler to compose new music (NBC later announced that a new version of the distinctive theme music would be used for its coverage of The Open Championship beginning in 2016) Tyler explained that his composition was intended to "capture the epic struggle, the challenge, the history, the heartbreak, and the elation of competitive golf," and acknowledged that "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."

Commentators

On April 23, 2014, Fox Sports announced that Greg Norman would join Joe Buck as its lead golf commentary team. Buck and Norman worked together for the first time at the 2014 U.S. Open, where Fox produced studio programming that aired against ESPN and NBC's studio shows.

On November 18, 2014, in advance of its coverage of the Franklin Templeton Shootout, Fox announced the full layout of its golf team.

In January 2016, Greg Norman was let go by Fox in response to poor reception towards his performance during the U.S. Open, and was replaced by former ESPN analyst Paul Azinger. The network's 2016 U.S. Open team: