Like any job, there’s a learning curve, even for guys like Joe Buck. Buck and his Fox Sports team called the US Open and the US Women’s Open from 2015 to 2020, until the broadcast partnership ended abruptly in June 2020.
Buck joined this week’s Subpar podcast to talk about his time as a golf driver on TV, what it’s like to work the Super Bowl, his Mount Rushmore of broadcasting and more. During the golf interview, he delved into the learning curve of calling golf on TV.
Although he said it was difficult to get used to things like the proper names for the broadcast you want – ie teeing ground, not tee box; or hole area, not pin, etc. – he said he learned his biggest lesson when he fell into the trap he had been warning young broadcasters about for a long time.
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“I found that I was trying to prove how much I knew about the players and their recent history and where they were in the Official World Golf Ranking – all the other things – and what was missing was, OK, we just saw Spieth putt, miss, putt, putt, now back to Spieth. Like putting together the narrative and what we’re watching and trying to build that versus trying to prove what I knew. I fell into the whole trap of telling young broadcasters not to get into the trap of marrying your notes and your research instead of just watching what’s going on and commenting on it.
“It’s been a steep learning curve, and I’m not saying I’ve learned it, but in the end I can say, Man, I’ve missed the mark here for a few years now. I have to go back to what I do, which is to see, react and try to build why someone is so hot, what kind of run and where the other competition is scattered. That’s what makes the viewer happy.”
Super host Colt Knost added that when he first started calling golf for CBS, veteran Frank Nobilo told him to “look at the screen” and “react” versus focusing on the notes. Buck agreed.
“All those things [in your notes] things that happened,” Buck said. “What’s happening on the screen has never happened before, and if you miss that because you’re going through your notes for something you wrote last week, you’re missing the boat. If a big wind comes and you throw every note out of the booth, you should still be able to do a game or a tournament. And I fell into the trap I always warned the boys about.”
You can listen to the full interview with Buck here, or watch it on YouTube below.
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