Major additions: FOX adding pair of U.S. Open winners to broadcast team
The FOX Sports golf broadcast team is set to add a lot more star power, as a pair of U.S. Open winners will be among four people officially introduced by the company on Wednesday.
Corey Pavin, the 1995 Open winner, and seven-time major champion Juli Inkster will join the team led by Hall of Fame golfer Greg Norman and lead FOX Sports play-by-play man Joe Buck. Steve Flesch, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour, and golf journalist Shane O'Donoghue will also join the crew.
The United States Golf Association and FOX signed a comprehensive, 12-year multimedia agreement last August that makes FOX Sports and FOX Sports 1 the principal domestic media partner of the USGA and the U.S. Open, U.S. Women's Open and U.S. Senior Open Championships, as well as the USGA's national amateur championships and other live content, beginning in 2015.
Pavin won 15 titles on the PGA Tour, his most noteworthy being his two-stroke victory at the 1995 U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York. The runner-up? Greg Norman. More recently, Pavin, 55, has played on the Champions Tour, winning one event and finishing in the top 20 on the money list every season from 2010 to 2013.
Inkster is an LPGA legend, a winner of seven majors. The 54-year-old is still active on the LPGA Tour, playing in 13 tournaments in 2014, including last weekend's Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Among her 31 career victories are a pair of U.S. Opens, in 1999 and 2002. She has nearly $14 million in career earnings.
"I feel really good about this crew," Mark Loomis, coordinating golf producer for FOX Sports, told Golf.com. "One of the reasons we have been taking our time is that we're putting a team, not just a bunch of individuals, together. We went about it slowly and deliberately, and I think this group we're adding today all complement the team really well."
Flesch, 47, has four career victories on the PGA Tour, the last two coming little more than a month apart in 2007. O'Donoghue currently hosts a golf show in CNN, and has also done work on BBC TV.
