DirecTV offers bonus U.S. Open golf coverage

Golf fans who have DirecTV are in for a treat. The satellite company is offering free bonus coverage Thursday-Sunday.

There will be three additional channels (702-705) in addition to the national feeds on ESPN and NBC.

DirecTV offered this type of bonus coverage from the Masters and will also offer it during the British Open and the PGA Championship, covering all of golf's four major championships.

This weekend, a "Mix Channel" will show the network feed and all three bonus channels on one screen. The first bonus channel will follow a group of golfers around the course (Hello Tiger!). Another channel will focus on a particular area of the course. A third will provide live updates, highlights and interviews.

Each of the extra channels will be offered in both standard- and high-definition and are fully produced with their own production crew and announcers. Customers with interactive receivers can view all four channels in the Mix and use their remote to listen to any channel’s audio or tune directly to the full-screen channel. The Mix also features a real-time leader board to keep tabs on all the action.

The interactive services, available by pressing the red button on the remote, include a look at the top five leaders; the full leader board, with the ability to select any golfer for in-depth, hole-by-hole stats; a five-question, daily trivia contest on the history of the event; and a “Tune To” menu item that allows the viewer to tune directly to the Mix Channel (701) and any one of the four channels (702-705), including the main network feed.