The 125th U.S. Open: The Tourney Returns to a Totally Revamped Course as USGA Focuses on World Feed The 1080p HDR production will offer drone tracing for the first time By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Thursday, June 12, 2025 - 2:54 pm
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Today's start of the U.S. Open marks the 10th time the Oakmont Country Club has hosted the event, three times more than any other course. This year's edition is particularly special: the course has been completely remodeled since it last hosted the event in 2016. And, for the second year, a 1080p HDR production will make sure viewers at home experience it in all its splendor.
It will play as hard as ever, says Kevin Landy, senior director, broadcasting and production, USGA, noting that the U.S. Open will challenge players in new ways. The new layout, for example, makes it harder to determine the distance to the green. Bunkers were rebuilt, fairways were shifted, and greens were expanded by 24,000 sq. ft. - all in keeping with the course's original design, as determined from 1903 aerial photos.
Oakmont Country Club restored its golf course to its original design, with the addition of a spacious TV compound on flat ground.
They restored it to the founder's design, he says. One of the undermining principles was, they liked that infinity view, which means, when you're looking at a green, it doesn't rise [which can make it easier to determine the distance]. A course is really challenging when you're guessing, and that's what they've done here.
Tech Deployment Is Honed at Women's U.S Open The Men's U.S. Open comes on the heels of the Women's U.S. Open, which was held at Erin Hills in Wisconsin and concluded on June 1. That event gave the USGA and NBC Sports teams an opportunity to get newer technology, such as drone tracing, into U.S. Open form.
We had more cameras than we've ever had at a Women's U.S. Open, Landy notes, and we had eight hours of coverage on the Thursday and Friday, seven hours on Saturday, and five hours on Sunday - all on NBC.
Erin Hills is not easy to cover, he continues, so we had a few more camera towers for the blind shots. We're going to have the same situation at Oakmont. Having the two similar courses helps with the preparation for everyone: our team and the NBC team. And both NBC Golf producer Tommy Roy and director Joe Martin were at the Women's U.S. Open.
Among the technical highlights at Oakmont will be the use of three camera cranes: a full-size crane on the third hole, a Scorpion on 17, and a Scorpion Techno crane on 16. Also on the agenda: four wireless bunker cameras (plus a wireless ditch camera); two live drones (including live drone tracing); airplane coverage; Trackman Tracer on every tee and fairway shot; walk-and-talk interviews; Pinpoint wind on all holes; Pinpoint Putt Predictor on Holes 2, 3, 7, 10, 13, and 18; and on-course robos (including a reverse ball-follow trace robo) on the bridge, in the scoring cabin, and on the first tee.
A Brand-New, Roomy Compound The USGA will call NEP Supershooter 8 and ST8 home, and NBC Sports will operate out of NEP ND2 A, B, C, and D and XL1 and Fiber 1 for golf coverage and Supershooter 4 A, B, and C and CT1 for Featured Group coverage. NEP's U.S. headquarters is located about 12 minutes from Oakmont so, in case of any technical emergencies, the cavalry is not far away.
For the U.S. Open 2025, the official compound at Oakmont houses a bevy of NEP mobile units housing the USGA and the NBC Sports production operations.
When it comes to golf, it's NEP, says Landy. And there are efficiencies that we benefit from with NBC also using NEP. It gives both teams a shorthand that creates a more confident team, and we can work faster. And, with NEP being so close, we'll be able to see some of their executives this week.
One of the big improvements for the TV-production side is that the official TV compound features plenty of room, as well as flat ground, for all those mobile units and production trailers. The old compound was down a winding road that was difficult to get to, and it even flooded in 2016 with heavy rains, Landy points out. Now that Oakmont is one of our anchor sites, we could get some funding to grow the infrastructure, and that included a new TV compound on the south side of the course.
Drone Tracing Helps in Understanding the Action The Women's Open also provided a chance to fire up an ARL tracing drone for the first time at a women's event (this weekend, it makes its U.S. Open debut). The technology recently earned a Sports Emmy for PGA TOUR.
Landy expects it to make a difference for the casual golf fans who tune into the golf majors: The drone tracing makes it easier to understand what is happening, especially on a course like Erin Hills or Oakmont, where there aren't many trees and it can be hard to define the fairway for viewers. Being able to see how the players shape shots is pretty cool.
Sky Realty Productions owner Ben McClung heads up the drone effort, and Landy notes that, because McClung was a very good golfer in his youth, he has a sense for the game that translates to improved drone coverage. The operators are positioning the drones in the right spots. At Erin Hills, they were able to catch some great stuff. I think drone coverage is getting better, and the drones are getting smaller and more reliable. That type of coverage will continue to evolve.
Also evolving are the digital offering and the on-course videoboards, both of which are designed to inform spectators on the course about what is happening around the course.
On Thursday and Friday, says Landy, we'll have three Featured Groups on digital in the morning and three more in the afternoon. Those digital services allo
