Assuming you’re not making the trip to Shinnecock Hills, here’s how to watch the action from the 2018 U.S. Open. And what new broadcast technologies to keep an eye out for.
FOX Sports will have the linear TV broadcast every day of the tournament. On Thursday the coverage will be live on FS1 from 9:30 a.m. through 4 p.m., and then 4 to 7:30 p.m. on FOX. Friday will be 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on FS1 and 4 to 7:30 p.m. on FOX. Saturday will be 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. And Sunday will be 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on FOX.
The FOX coverage will also be simulcast online through FOXSports.com or the network’s FOX Sports GO app, and the USGA will be providing its own live streams direct from Shinnecock Hills at USOpen.com. On Thursday, some lucky golf fans who can’t travel all the way to Long Island but still want the experience of watching alongside fellow spectators will be watching from one of 38 Topgolf locations around the country.
For the first time ever, the FOX Sports will stream live 4K video straight from the course. So even if you’re not on Long Island, you might feel like you are. Two FOX cameras will be positioned on the difficult par-3 seventh hole, distributing footage using 5G technology and with the help of Ericsson, Intel, and AT&T. That will mean a crisp, clear picture of the same hole that became a nightmare for golfers the last time Shinnecock hosted the tournament back in 2004.
FOX will also be using ball-tracing technology on fairway shots. The network featured Trackman on nine holes of the U.S. Open in 2017. This year, FOX will use it on all eighteen. Ten of those holes will also use Fox FlightTrack, tracing each shot’s path over a 3D view of the hole. The other eight will simply trace the path over the live video.
On the green, FOX will debut a graphic called Green Reader, which aims to show the predicted path of a putt, indicating how much, and in what direction, a ball will break on its way towards the hole.
TECH: @FOXSports continues to build on tech approach to covering the @usopengolf w/ #GreenReader, #4K Featured Groups, #FOXFlightTrack for fairway shots and more in play next week at Shinnecock Hills https://t.co/hagPMEMbaO #SportsTech
— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 7, 2018