The 125th U.S. Open: NBC Sports' Tommy Roy Talks Oakmont Eccentricities, Drone Tracing, and Covering All 156 Players The Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer is producing his 26th U.S. Open By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. Thursday, June 12, 2025 - 3:43 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
This week, Sports Broadcasting Hall of Famer Tommy Roy is producing his record 26th U.S. Open Championship for NBC Sports Group. And, according to the front-bench legend, each and every Open is unique. Oakmont Country Club is hosting the tourney for a record 10th time, and, although it was most recently here in 2017 (when FOX Sports broadcast the tournament), this is Roy's first U.S. Open at Oakmont since 2007.
The course has undergone a massive overhaul, and Roy and director Joe Martin will be tasked with bringing this wholly revamped landscape to life. SVG caught up with Roy in advance of the opening round to discuss how the renovations will impact NBC's coverage, the camera positions he's most excited about, the growing role of moving drone tracing in live golf, NBC's recent large-scale production of the U.S. Women's Open, his goal of including at least one shot of every single player in the field of 156, and what - exactly -' makes producing a U.S. Open Championship so special.
NBC Sports Lead Golf Producer Tommy Roy: Every single U.S. Open I have ever been a part of is different. It's always new and always feels unique, which is probably my favorite part of doing them.
How have the course renovations impacted your coverage plans? What are some of the new course features that are exciting and challenging from a production perspective?
We did the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, and the U.S. Women's Open here when it still had all the trees; you couldn't see from fairway to fairway, and it was very tight. They removed a of the trees prior to their latest U.S. Open [which aired on FOX], but this is the first time [NBC is] doing an event here with all the trees gone. That makes for some incredible vistas and a really beautiful look overall. I am so grateful to see this place without the trees and to have those vistas open up because it's really going to benefit our coverage.
What specific cameras and positions at your disposal are you most excited about?
We have a crane to the right of the No. 3 fairway that can see eight holes because of those vistas. We have a crane near 17, which is a short drivable par 4, and its primary responsibility is to handle the tee shots at 17, but it can see five different holes as well.
We have three drones here: One is the tracing drone, another will be following the leaders around, and the third one will hang out up by the clubhouse area or down by the grassy area near the merchandise tent, where a lot of fans hang out. Between those cranes and drones, you can see a lot of holes from just a handful of cameras. Plus, we have another 80-plus cameras that are positioned everywhere on the golf course, such as the bunker cams or the unmanned cameras behind the tee boxes.
How has the addition of moving-drone tracing tech affected your coverage, and how will it be used this week at Oakmont?
We had drone tracing at the U.S. Women's Open two weeks ago, and it worked very well. Erin Hills is a very similar golf course [to Oakmont], where, with hardly any trees, you have these huge vistas. I think, in particular, drone tracing works well on that type of a golf course because we're not trying to fly between rows of trees. We're very excited to have it here.
It's a gorgeous and unique look that adds to [the broadcast]. It's one thing to trace from the ground - and that's very helpful - but, when you can follow the ball and see where it lands from up in the air, it just gives you a much better sense of where the ball is going and what the player faces on their next shot. It's very nice to have that technology.
You mentioned the U.S. Women's Open production, which was one of the biggest and most advanced ever for a women's tournament. How did you think it went?
It was an amazing event, and, as I mentioned, it was also very good preparation for this event because of the style of that golf course, which is basically a links course except that it's not on the coastline. It's the same here [at Oakmont] with the big rolling greens and the vistas. It turned out to be quite a dramatic event and fun to cover. We were very pleased with the telecast.
What are some the key storylines that you'll be looking to integrate into this week's coverage?
Being that this is the 125th U.S. Open, we're definitely going to emphasize the history and legacy of this event. Also, Oakmont is a unique place, so we will have a LiveU camera roaming around the area to offer looks that people don't see very often. We'll also send it down to Pittsburgh to some interesting areas and over to Latrobe, where Arnold Palmer is from. That's going to be mostly over the first three days, but the coverage of the golf will remain primary, especially on Sunday.
From a production perspective, how do you balance covering the big stars along with the dozens of qualifiers who played their way into the Open?
My feeling is, if you've earned the right to play in this championship, then you've earned the right to be shown on TV hitting at least one meaningful golf shot. So we will make sure we get all 156 players on the air at some point.
At the same time, you have the stars that are expected to contend like [Scottie] Scheffler, and we're certainly hoping that Rory [McIlroy] comes back after not playing very well the last couple of weeks. The top players are going to get a lot of attention, but all qualifier guys are always very interesting. Over the first couple of days, we
