5 live Sport at the US Open: calm before the storm?
Simon Clancy
Assistant editor, 5 live Sport
Outside broadcasts in sport are always fascinating. The range of people you meet, from the bus driver to the former world number one is always eye opening.
Our first full day at Chambers Bay - home of this year's US Open golf - began with a 6am start on the media bus to the course and chatting with the European Tour press officer. We wound our way through the back streets of Tacoma to this incredible public course on the edge of Puget Sound and the media centre, our home till Sunday night.
There's the obligatory bag check, accreditation collection and then into the broadcasting booth, a selection of seats and a desk that overlook the print media, wedged between the local sports radio station KJR Seattle and Fox Radio.
Things are tight, there are wires everywhere and plug points are at a premium because everyone's charging mobile phones and tablets.
Correspondent Iain Carter and I walked the course just before 7am, a chilly morning in the Pacific Northwest, groups of golf fans navigating their way around this former quarry. It would be fair to say that this isn't a course for the spectator.
It's so undulating and you can't get close to the fairways on many of the holes. We joined Tiger Woods and defending Masters champion Jordan Speith for four or five holes. After watching tee and second shots into the par-4 sixth, by the time we saw the players again they were teeing off on the seventh such were the obstacles between us - huge mounds and hillocks.
But Tiger looked relaxed, walking with his security guard and trying to put Speith off during some practice putts on the seventh green. How will he fare with the scorecard in his pocket come Thursday?
From that point forwards day one became a roll call of press conferences and editing for the preview programme. McIlroy met the world's press, followed by Woods and then the defending champion Martin Kaymer.
Then it was down to the range and conversations with Jamie Donaldson, Luke Donald and arguably the most interesting story of the week, Jimmy Gunn who was on the range next to McIlroy having made his way to Chambers Bay via the family carpentry business.
Hear his journey in the podcast, which you can download here
By 1.30pm local time we were on air with our review show; those press conference and driving range interviews precisely edited by producer James, the engineer Ken arranging the chairs in our booth to accommodate the former PGA caddy Michael Collins - now working for ESPN - and the journalist Alex Miceli from Golf Week. The hour flew by.
We laughed at Collins and his MC Hammer stories, and we signed off a fun paced hour with some predictions (Rickie Fowler from Collins, Phil Mickleson from Miceli) before heading straight to see the pair in their individual press conferences.
A long day ends with the media bus back to the hotel alongside the newspaper columnists of The Guardian and The Daily Express, then dinner to discuss the state of play for tomorrow.
Summariser Jay Townsend arrives on Wednesday and Justin Rose - Iain Carter's tip for the week - meets the press.
If there's time, I'll even try and tell the story of the hire car. Brings a whole new meaning to 'Get Carter'.
5 live Sport will bring you comprehensive coverage of the US Open throughout the tournament, which tees-off on Thursday 18 June.
