HOYLAKE, ENGLAND – ESPN has what Vice President, Event Production and SportsCenter, Mike McQuade calls an “all-star production team” assembled for The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool, airing through Sunday on ESPN. With golf’s oldest major being the only golf event that ESPN produces itself, McQuade annually brings together people from many different areas of ESPN to form a smooth-running team for a week.
Three members of the team:
Maddy Foust
Content Integration Producer & Relief Assistant Director
In her sixth year at ESPN, Foust works as associate director on Wednesday Night Baseball and on college football telecasts. She’s also worked on ESPN golf events for the past five years and is working her fourth Open. Foust has specific roles on the Open production, but touches so many areas that McQuade said she is the “glue” on the production “with all of the little things.”
During the long Open live telecasts, she spends part of the day in the Associate Director slot in the control room. Leading up to the live coverage, she’s working on content in the edit area.
“It’s definitely one of my favorites because everyone is just grinding away for a week and it’s very hard. But everyone just loves doing it because it’s so exciting,” Foust said.
Ben Hogg
Graphics Manager
At the Longhorn Network, Hogg produces 70 games a year in a variety of sports. He’s working his eighth Open after originally starting with ABC at the 2006 event. At the Open, he’s in a totally different role, in charge of the graphics cabin and operating the font machine that generates the big-picture and custom graphics that viewers see on the screen.
“The Open Championship is one of my favorite things,” he said. “It’s actually amazing what we’re able to do. If you look at [other networks], these are crews that go out and do tons of tournaments. We literally have one shot, and I think it’s one of the best golf productions on TV.”
Molly Fallica
Senior Production Coordinator
A senior production coordinator for college football and golf, Fallica compared her role to that of an air traffic controller.
She makes sure “all the announcers get where they need to go, everything’s on schedule, everyone knows what they need to know, make sure all the meeting schedules are met, and that everyone has what they need.”
Fallica, who has been with ESPN since 1998, has worked on golf since 2008 and ranks The Open as one of her favorite events. She and McQuade work year-round on planning.
“One of the things that makes this fun for me is how passionate he is about all of this,” she said. “I know a lot of people want this opportunity simply because of him and getting the chance to work with him. I have learned so much from him that it has made me better and is why I like working on golf.”
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