Peter Jacobsen isn’t prone to hyperbole. So when he says he doesn’t think he’s ever met anybody who love golf more than Tommy Roy, that is quite the statement.
“He loves golf and loves the complexities of the game as as much as a tour pro does,” Jacobsen said.
Roy, a 29-time Emmy Award winner, will be at the helm of NBC and Golf Channel’s coverage of the 121st U.S. Open. Or as Jacobsen put it, “He’s the Tom Brady in the truck directing traffic. When he speaks, everybody listens.”
Roy has done it all during an illustrious 40-year career at NBC, including the 2008 Olympics when Michael Phelps claimed eight gold medals. It was a one-week stint as a gopher at the 1978 Tucson Open that gave life to his interest in television.
One of his pet peeves as lead producer is to show all 156 players in the field during the first two rounds of the biggest events, even going so far as to have a staffer checking off names.
“Last probably half dozen years we’ve nailed every one of them,” he said. “At the 2019 British Open, there was one player that we missed from the morning wave. And Molly Solomon, who’s the executive producer of both channels (NBC and Golf Channel), went over to the world feed and they found a shot of this guy and they sent it over to us and we were able to get that on and say, yup, we got all 156 on.”
Roy’s soda-guzzling intense persona is legendary. Jacobsen said his Whoop stats would be through the roof. “He gets so jacked up. And so into it, that I think when he comes down, he probably has to go home and fall asleep,” Jacobsen said.
Ahead of a busy week that includes nearly 100 hours of live tournament and studio coverage from Torrey Pines will be available across NBC, Golf Channel, and Peacock, Roy made time to speak exclusively to Golfweek in this wide-ranging Q&A.