Early Fox Sports golf involvement Fox Sports partnered with
Greg Norman in the early 1990s to create the World Golf Tour, which would have consisted of six events televised on Fox. However, the proposed events were met with legal issues (including a threat by
PGA Tour commissioner
Tim Finchem to suspend any golfer who participates). In 1996, Fox acquired a minority stake in
Golf Channel. Fox Sports bid for a portion of the PGA Tour's television rights starting in
1999. Although it did not gain the broadcast package (which was divided among the
Big Three networks), Golf Channel would
simulcast its early-round coverage on Fox's
regional sports networks group
Fox Sports Networks, as they had wider carriage. These simulcasts ended after 2002, when the PGA Tour's cable rights were acquired by
ESPN and
USA Network. Fox had also sold its minority stakes in Golf Channel and
Outdoor Life Network to
Comcast, as part of a transaction that saw Fox acquire Comcast's stakes in
Speedvision. 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." As a prelude to the new package, Fox televised the 2014
Franklin Templeton Shootout, debuting its lead commentary team of
Joe Buck and
Greg Norman. Fox's
first U.S. Open had a total of 38.5 hours of coverage, with 22 on Thursday and Friday, and 16.5 hours 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's coverage received mixed reviews by critics and viewers, noting technical issues with on-air graphics during early coverage of the first round, on-air personnel (including the chemistry between Buck and Norman, and use of NFL reporters such as
Curt Menefee), and missed shots due to poor camera angles or other on-air segments, although Buck did receive positive reviews by some, as well as Fox's technical innovations. In the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. Open, Norman was dismissed by Fox, and replaced by
Paul Azinger.
End of coverage On June 29, 2020, it was announced that Fox Sports had opted out of the remaining seven years of its contract to cover USGA events, and had sold the remainder of the contract to
NBC Sports. The rescheduling of the
2020 U.S. Open to September due to the
COVID-19 pandemic had caused conflicts with Fox's football coverage, and the USGA forbade Fox from carrying the event exclusively on cable. While Fox discussed the possibility of partnering with NBC on the 2020 tournament, this eventually "led to a broader conversation and eventual agreement for NBCUniversal to take over the USGA media rights".
LIV Golf coverage Due to being the only one of the four major networks that does not have any ties to the PGA Tour's media rights, Fox was anticipated as a potential US broadcaster for
LIV Golf—a Saudi-backed golf competition also led by Norman; in September 2022,
Golfweek reported that LIV was reaching a
time-buy agreement to carry its events on Fox Sports 1. However, LIV denied the reports, and ultimately signed with
Nexstar Media Group and
The CW in 2023. The agreement would run through the
2024 LIV Golf League. In January 2025, Fox announced an exclusive rights agreement with LIV Golf. Half of the events will air on Fox or Fox Sports 1, with the remainder on
Fox Sports 2,
Fox Business Network or the
Fox Sports app. Fox utilizes the world feed produced by LIV Golf, featuring its in-house commentary team of
Arlo White, former CBS and NBC analyst
David Feherty, and former Golf Channel analyst
Jerry Foltz. ==Theme music==