For Rich Lerner, the longest day of golf(™) started at 8 a.m., and the Golf Channel’s main studio host wouldn’t get home until after midnight, when Lerner still planned to eat a “full dinner,” he said. Hollywood Reporter. Lerner, like his teammates and viewers, has an equal desire to qualify for golf, and today the “open” spirit of the US Open delivers.
The morning began with Lerner’s “Feet up, BS-ing” with fellow on-air talent and producers, as he says — “the coffee’s flowing.” But soon it was time to begin 10 hours of exclusive live coverage of the US Open Final Qualifiers from 10 separate locations, from Purchase, New York to York, Ontario. (Yes, you can qualify for the US Open in Canada.)
From his climate-controlled perch in a Stamford, Conn., studio, Lerner will play center field, passing it off to 11 separate reporters on the field. If this sounds like a forced analogy between different sports, blame Lerner. Today is golf’s NFL Draft, he said, both in terms of watching amateurs turn pro and behind the scenes being jostled by dozens of Lerner’s teammates in the headquarters war room. (Coordinating producer for the Versant-owned channel Matt Hegarty is the lead instructor here.)
“This is what we really look forward to, because it’s part of our DNA,” Lerner says during a writing break. “This indicates that we care about golf and nothing else in a way that no other day does.”
He adds that “The Longest Day of Golf” is “one of the unique Golf Channel days of the year.” It is undoubtedly, as its name suggests, the tallest. But it’s not the hardest – that would be the Masters, or the US Open itself, or even the national finals of the Drive, Chip and Putt tournament.
“Oddly enough, it doesn’t seem stressful, for whatever reason,” Lerner said midway through his speech Monday. “It’s just a ton of fun.”
As I write this, about 650 golfers — some you’ve heard of and some you’ll never hear of — are vying for one of the few remaining spots in the U.S. Open, the annual major championship tournament that fittingly concludes on Father’s Day Sunday. But today, weeks before the real tournament, PGA Tour pros and former major winners (including former US Open winners) are trying to fend off UPS drivers at the June 18 tee time at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton New York. (Good, one UPS Driver: Nick Barrett, currently competing in Rockville, Maryland.)
Lerner says the democratic nature of the Open is as “pure” as the sport. “Your station in life, your bank account – none of that matters. And I think that’s the beautiful thing about the game and this particular tournament.”
“It’s not about valuation today,” Lerner says. It’s about a different kind of sporting event.
Typically, sports fans go “to see the big star,” Lerner says. Not today. “On this day, I think most golf fans are heading out to see someone they’ve never heard of. Hopefully, by 10 o’clock at night, you’ll be so immersed in that person’s story that you can’t look away. This is real drama.”
