NBC SPORTS PRESENTS 153RD OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP AT ROYAL PORTRUSH THIS WEEK ACROSS NBC, PEACOCK AND USA NETWORK
Coverage Begins at 5 a.m. ET on Saturday and 4 a.m. ET Sunday on USA Network; NBC/Peacock Coverage Begins at 7 a.m. ET on Saturday & Sunday
Peacock's Coverage Includes Open All Access, Featured Groups and the Par-3 Channel Focusing on 6th and 16th Holes, and Multiview
'If he does win, he will have completed one of the most historically and emotionally consequential seasons in the history of the game.' – Rich Lerner on Rory McIlroy
'It's a very difficult tournament to try to pull a winner on. Luck plays more of a factor in the Open Championship than it does any other.' – Paul McGinley
Transcript – Paul McGinley, Brandel Chamblee, and Rich Lerner Preview the 153rd Open Championship
STAMFORD, Conn. – July 14, 2025 – NBC Sports presents comprehensive coverage of the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland, with comprehensive live coverage across NBC, Peacock and USA Network, beginning this Thursday, July 17.
In total, NBC Sports will present nearly 50 hours of traditional live championship coverage Thursday-Sunday – and more than 200 hours of live coverage surrounding the Open Championship in total including featured groups and streaming coverage on Peacock, as well as GOLF Channel's live studio coverage, headlined by Golf Central Live from The Open.
NBC/USA Network/Peacock Broadcast Team
Host: Mike Tirico
Play-by-play: Dan Hicks / Terry Gannon / Mike Tirico / Steve Sands / Tom Abbott
Analyst: Kevin Kisner / Brad Faxon / Paul McGinley / Smylie Kaufman / Curt Byrum / John Cook / Arron Oberholser
On-Course Reporter: Jim 'Bones' Mackay / Smylie Kaufman / John Wood / Johnson Wagner / Karen Stupples
Interviews: Cara Banks
How To Watch – Thursday, July 17 – Sunday, July 20 (all times ET)
TV – NBC, USA Network
Streaming – Peacock, NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app
*coverage will begin shortly before the first scheduled tee time at 1:30 a.m. ET
NBC Sports will also complement its comprehensive Open Championship coverage with live featured groups Thursday-Sunday on Peacock, showcasing two morning groups and two afternoon groups each day of the Championship. Peacock will also showcase a Par-3 channel showcasing the 6th and 16th holes. Trey Wingo and Jay Croucher will host Peacock's Open All Access whiparound show on Thursday and Friday beginning at 8 a.m. ET. Peacock's coverage will also utilize its popular Multiview function highlighting the featured groups and featured holes streams.
NBC Sports will utilize a number of its commentators throughout featured groups and featured holes coverage, supplemented by Sky Sports and world feed commentators, including:
Play-by-play: Damon Hack / Tom Abbott
Analyst/on-course reporters: Johnson Wagner / John Cook / Karen Stupples
GOLF CHANNEL'S COMPREHENSIVE STUDIO COVERAGE INCLUDES GOLF CENTRAL LIVE FROM THE OPEN, LIVE AT THE RANGE, AND 5 CLUBS WITH GARY WILLIAMS BEGINNING MONDAY, JULY 14
GOLF Channel surrounds the championship with on-site studio coverage, headlined by Golf Central Live From The Open. Rich Lerner anchors post-round and primetime editions of Live From alongside Brandel Chamblee and Paul McGinley, with Johnson Wagner reprising his on-course role throughout the week with live interviews and shot re-enactments.
Broadcast Team
Hosts: Rich Lerner / Damon Hack
· Analysts: Brandel Chamblee / Paul McGinley / Arron Oberholser
Reporters/Contributors: Todd Lewis / Eamon Lynch / Rex Hoggard / Ryan Lavner
On-course: Johnson Wagner
*all times ET, post-round coverage begins following conclusion of play
TRANSCRIPT – MCGINLEY, CHAMBLEE, AND LERNER PREVIEW THE 153RD OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
Last week, the primetime Golf Central Live From team of host Rich Lerner and analysts Paul McGinley and Brandel Chamblee previewed the 153rd Open Championship on a media conference call. Following are excerpts from the call.
Lerner on the significance of the Open: 'In a world that's spinning faster than I can comprehend, time seems to stand still in an Open. We're in old towns, old golf courses, old pubs, and the oldest trophy in the game. AI will not determine the outcome, thankfully, of an Open Championship.'
McGinley on the Open: 'I think it's a very difficult tournament to try to pull a winner on. The point that was made earlier by Brandel about luck plays more of a factor in the Open Championship than it does any other. Generally, the others are played in pretty generic conditions... Real quality players in America and come over here and don't really raise a gallop on these style of golf courses. Scottie Scheffler is still to win on links golf courses. He's still finding his way around. He's not the outright favorite, in my mind, the way he would be on an American golf course because of obviously the different style of golf that links is.'
Chamblee on the Open: 'This is a major championship where inclement weather, rain, spin, luck of the draw, or a bounce affect the outcome more than any other major championship. It's the major with the slowest greens. So you combine all those, and it gives us the oldest and most unlikely prize. It's a young man's game; it's a power game, but not at The Open Championship. It changes so much there because of the inclement weather, because the luck plays a bigger factor than any other major championship at The Open. Because of the slow greens, you get bizarre things like a ten-shot comeback from Paul Lawrie in 1999.'
McGinley on Irish golf: 'going to be biased saying this, but I think it's the people. I think it's the crowd, it's the atmosphere. I think the golf is very similar. The golf courses that we have -- Portmarnock, Ballybunion, County Sligo, Royal Portrush, Royal County Down -- you have equivalent and golf courses just as good in the mainland in the U.K. I think what we saw in 2019 is the Irish ingredient of fun and craic, we call it over here, and flavor added with the top players coming over. That's what makes it different and makes it unique.'
Lerner on Rory McIlroy: 'Big, big story line, again, it's obvious, it's Rory coming back home, trying to make good on what happened in 2019. I do think, if he does win, he will have completed one of the most historically, and I would say emotionally consequential seasons in the history of the game. We know what happened at the Masters and the grand slam, career slam, but to come back home and put a button on it winning at home would be profound.'
Chamblee on McIlroy: 'There's 174 players that are ranked in terms of finding the rough, how often you find the rough after a tee shot. Rory is 172nd out of 174. He may drive the ball beautifully by today's standards with strokes gained data, but by Portrush data, he's got to find a way to find more fairways than he's finding to make this dream that Rich alluded to at the top has any chance of materializing. As windy and as difficult as it's going to be to play in the conditions next week, he's got to find the fairway.'
UNDERDOGS – THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE 138TH OPEN – PREMIERES WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, AT 6:30 P.M. ET ON GOLF CHANNEL
GOLF Channel will present Underdogs – The Untold Story of the 138th Open – Wednesday, July 16, at 6:30 p.m. ET. The hour-long documentary details the story of a 59-year-old Tom Watson looking to pull off one of the most improbably wins in history, only to fall short to Stewart Cink in a playoff at Turnberry in 2009.
Needing a par putt to secure the Championship, Watson was painfully close to an astonishing underdog triumph, his errant effort and subsequent unravelling in a four-hole play-off allowing Cink to prevail. Underdogs features in-depth interviews with both players and eyewitness accounts from those fortunate enough to be inside the ropes, serving as a fascinating retelling of one the most dramatic duels in The Open's long and storied history.
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