Week in review

The Open Championship is well underway from Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire, England. To promote the tournament, ESPN and creative event company Improv Everywhere transformed a mini-golf course at New York’s Pier 25 into an authentic Open Championship experience for unsuspecting guests. Check out the video below:

Follow the action at the actual Open Championship today and Sunday on multiple ESPN platforms, including ESPN.com.

Let’s see what else has been happening on Front Row this week:

ESPN announced that Samantha Steele, most recently a reporter for the Longhorn Network, will join the first hour of College GameDay Built by The Home Depot on ESPNU each Saturday from 9-10 a.m. ET this college football season. In addition, she will provide features and updates for the 10 a.m.-noon hours of GameDay on ESPN. We have a Podcast with Steel here.

Front Row’s special correspondent, Stacy Greenberg, the wife of ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, supplied her multimedia talents to help illustrate what life with the two Mikes can be like. Stacy joined Mike and Mike as they ventured to Manhattan for the duo’s ninth appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

As noted earlier, ESPN has been televising the 152nd renewal of The Open Championship from Royal Lytham & St Annes in Lancashire, England. ESPN vice president of remote production Mike McQuade said ESPN has been gradually weaning ESPN’s reliance on the BBC when televising The Open Championship, including the introduction of high definition in 2010. More on the progress here.

ESPN announced its first late-night entertainment show, UNITE, will debut on ESPNU Monday, Aug. 27 at midnight ET. Airing live from ESPN’s Bristol, Conn. studios Monday through Friday, the show will tackle sports and pop culture news with an often irreverent take on social media-driven sports happenings.