U.S. Open brings golf to prime time

Most marquee sporting events are played in prime time, and one of golf's biggest events will join that group.

The U.S. Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego this weekend is the first of the sport's four major tournaments to be scheduled well into prime time in the East and Midwest. ESPN's late coverage of the second round will run 4-9 p.m. today, and NBC will go 3-9 p.m. Saturday and 2-8 p.m. Sunday.

The hope is that the extended daylight on the West Coast -- this marks the Open's first appearance in southern California in 60 years -- will result in lucrative nighttime ratings in several markets.

The Associated Press reports the best rating for a final round of a U.S. Open came in 2002, when the tournament ended after 8:30 p.m. Eastern time because of weather delay. Of course, that 9.3 rating also was aided by the fact that Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson battled it out.

Tommy Roy, who produces golf for NBC, is aware that being in prime time could bring new viewers, but he won't make any significant changes.

"The way we handle it really doesn't change at all because we always try to do our very best," Roy said. "I think the later we go into the evening, the more diverse audience that we have.

"Maybe people who don't always watch golf on Sunday afternoons. We need to keep that in mind, that we're speaking to an audience that may need a few more things explained to them. But beyond that, this is no different than the way we handle the other U.S. Opens."

ESPN actually will show two hours of the Open beginning at noon today. NBC will then take over from 2 to 4 p.m. and ESPN returns for the final five hours. NBC takes over exclusive coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

Following this weekend's event, NBC will move its golf operation to Interlachen Country Club in Edina to prepare for the U.S. Women's Open, which begins June 26. NBC and ESPN also will combine to show that event.

The Wild is expected to announce today that it has reached multi-year contract agreements with television announcers Dan Terhaar and Mike Greenlay, and radio voices Bob Kurtz and Tom Reid.

The Timberwolves also plan to make it official today that its television team of Tom Hanneman and Jim Petersen will return. The Wolves' radio situation is different after analyst Billy McKinney resigned this week to become director of scouting for the Bucks.

McKinney agreed to a three-year contract to stay with the Wolves in late May -- around the time the team announced its games would be returning to KFAN (1130 AM) -- but the Bucks' offer gives him a chance to once again work in an NBA front office.

Ted Johnson, the Wolves' senior vice president of marketing and communication, said the team "would explore all options," but "certainly is inclined to replace" McKinney.

"We're going to begin an aggressive search," Johnson said. "We'll look locally but we'll also be looking nationally."

McKinney will be reunited with a close friend in Milwaukee. Bucks General Manager John Hammond and McKinney grew up together in Zion, Ill., and played on the same high school team. Hammond was the first scout McKinney hired after being named Wolves director of player personnel in 1988.

• The Twin Cities, which has been near the bottom of the 56 metered U.S. markets in recent years when it comes to NBA ratings, was ranked 38th among markets with an 8.0 rating through three games of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Lakers. Nationally, ABC's ratings were up 44 percent (8.8 compared to 6.1) over a year ago.

• Although things have been quiet recently, it's expected that Comcast and the Big Ten Network will announce a carriage agreement before the college football season starts. The same doesn't seem to be true for Charter and Mediacom cable systems.

Judd Zulgad • jzulgad@startribune.com