While watching the second round of the British Open, people’s ears likely perked up as the USA Network broadcast showed Jon Rahm line up a birdie putt on the 14th hole.
“I can understand why this is one of the more difficult holes today,” on-course reporter Smylie Kaufman said. “This hole location …”
Then suddenly came a long pause.
“What the f---,” Kaufman could be heard saying.
Warning, the clip below has the incriminating word:
Uh-oh, Smylie Kaufman. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/9DHc2JJ71c
— Riley Gates (@Riley_Gates) July 18, 2025
A few minutes later, Mike Tirico explained and apologized on air for what occurred.
“Earlier, we had some technical issues with our microphones,” Tirico said. “When you come over here, our on-course reporter, sometimes the headsets don’t work the same way they do back home. Because of that, it led to some language getting through on the air that shouldn’t have gotten through. So we just want to take the time to apologize for that comment getting through back home.”
After the second round concluded, Kaufman took to social media to apologize.
“Well, I guess there's a first for everything,” the 33-year-old said. “First off, I want to apologize for the audio blunder that happened today, to me on the [14th] hole. Heard a pop in my ear, went radio-silent, which signals typically for me that my mic is down, and clearly it wasn’t. So I want to apologize for what happened to the team, those listening, and of course, gonna move past this one, and definitely will not happen again and look forward to a great weekend.”
For anyone with on-air aspirations, remember, the mic is always hot.
Hey yall! I made a double bogey at 15 today with a bizarre audio situation. Sorry about that as I clearly didn’t know I was on air 😳! Apologies and a lesson learned! pic.twitter.com/psCDnZfR2m
— Smylie Kaufman (@SmylieKaufman10) July 18, 2025
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Smylie Kaufman Apologizes for Dropping F-Bomb on British Open Broadcast .
