The voices of next month’s U.S. Open are set.
NBC announced that Brandel Chamblee, a polemic voice in the golf space, will join its four-man booth as one of its two lead analysts for the major golf tournament.
“There was an unbelievable amount of preparation that he put into this,” NBC lead golf producer Tommy Roy told Sports Business Journal. “Watching old Johnny Miller tapes to learn how he did it and then putting his own twist on it. … He’s earned the right.”
The 61-year-old Chamblee — known for his biting unfiltered opinions — is replacing Paul Azinger, whose contract the network did not renew last fall.
NBC has recently utilized a rotating cast to fill in for Azinger, and it’s Chamblee who got the nod for the U.S Open.
Chamblee will be paired with play-by-play man Dan Hicks, while analyst Brad Faxon will be paired with play-by-play man Mike Tirico.
The two teams will switch off during the tournament’s “prime hours” — Chamblee and Hicks will call the even holes, while Faxon and Tirico will call the odd holes.
“This year we began utilizing an odd/even system of hole assignments for our commentator pairings,” Sam Flood, executive producer and president, production, at NBC Sports, said in a statement. “Our new approach lets our play-by-play announcers give more context for what’s happening, while creating more opportunities for our analysts and on-course reporters to engage with each other and break down the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ before and after each moment.”
Chamblee has long served as an analyst for Golf Channel and is well-known for his role on the network’s “Live From” show.
He told Golfweek that he’s willing to do both duties for both networks.