Behind The Scenes

Tiger, Phil, Bubba: ESPN helps you keep tabs on trio of stars at U.S. Open

SAN FRANCISCO — Three of golf’s biggest stars will be in the same grouping for the first two rounds of the 112th U.S. Open, which starts Thursday at Olympic Club.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson are slated to tee off at 10:33 a.m. ET, 90 minutes prior to the Noon Eastern start of ESPN’s live U.S. Open coverage.

The storylines are intriguing. Will Tiger’s return to prominence be completed with a major win? Will Mickelson finally win his first U.S. Open? And will long-driving wild-child Watson parlay his Masters victory into a second major?

What’s a golf fan to do for the trio’s first hour and a half of play?

There are options.

SportsCenter, ESPN’s signature news and information program, will be doing live look-ins to the play at Olympic both mornings and will be following the progress of the Tiger-Phil-Bubba trio, in addition to updates on others on the course.

For those without a television readily available, SportsCenter can be seen via WatchESPN on computers, smartphones and tablets by those who receive their video service from affiliated providers Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV.

ESPN.com is also providing blanket coverage of the U.S. Open and all players can be followed with the ESPN Golf Cast application, which offers an easy-to-use interface with scoring, live-bloggin, video and social media elements.

Woods-Mickelson-Watson also will be the marquee featured group on USOpen.com.

ESPN’s telecast, which runs from noon-3 p.m., and then again from 5-10 p.m. after NBC airs coverage in the intervening two hours, should bring the majority of the group’s round to viewers. The telecast also will appear on ESPN3, ESPN Mobile TV and WatchESPN.

On Friday, the threesome will tee off at 4:18 p.m., during NBC’s two-hour telecast, but the majority of their round will be on ESPN after coverage resumes at 5 p.m.

Also on Thursday, ESPN3 will have a marquee group of Adam Scott, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson starting at 11:32 a.m. ET.

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