ESPN PodcastsFront & Center

Front & Center: Wright Thompson

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Today’s start of the Open Championship on ESPN also marked the debut of another telecast “open” (the video that leads into coverage) written by ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine senior writer Wright Thompson.

Time and time again, Thompson has shown his chops as one of the nation’s best writers, regardless of genre, and also has an Emmy for the E:60 piece, “Catfish Hunters.”

What the brief intros Thompson wrote for the Open Championship lack in word count, they more than make up for in impact and poetic rhythm. Actor Ian McShane, one of the stars of the current hit movie Snow White and the Huntsman, again lends his voice to ESPN’s opening teases.

In the podcast above, Thompson covers a wind range of topics from the approach he takes to writing the opens; help he has received from ESPN’s “nicest guy in the world,” Tom Rinaldi; his current project for ESPN the Magazine’s college football preview (think: Head Buckeye); the greatest assignment of his life; the myth of writer’s block; and, for the first time ever, public discussion of his legendary Master’s Gumbo.

This opening sequence from the 2012 BCS title game was another of Thompson’s essays and one he discusses in the Front & Center podcast.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: With ESPN moving up the airtime for its live coverage of The Open Championship to 4:30 a.m. ET on Thursday and Friday so that viewers can see the full rounds of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, SportsCenter will lead into the coverage on both days with a half-hour live edition at 4 a.m. with previews from Royal Lytham & St Annes to help get viewers ready for the live golf play. In addition, SportsCenter will have live updates on the hour at 6, 7 and 8 a.m.

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