The Masters
This is what TV sports is supposed to be. Fifty-six minutes of broadcast time every hour, enough cameras on the golf course to see large, expansive shots from the 11th green to the crest of the hole’s fairway as well as worm cams for the putting surfaces - it’s all on display at Augusta National.
How does this tournament get it so right when virtually everyone else doesn’t? I believe it’s the absolute control the Augusta National group maintains over its property. They tell CBS what CBS will do rather than the other way around. And somehow the arbiters of taste at the National protect their high-minded sense of decorum and translate it into what will always be compelling competition.
I could go to the “toon-ah-mint” anytime. Someone’s always offering tickets. “No, thanks,” I say. I’ll be on the front row at home for virtually every minute of all four days.
It’s more than USA’s cable and CBS’s broadcasts, however. Augusta National’s web site is very good, featuring interviews (many of the them live), live coverage from “Amen Corner,” and for an hour before the broadcast begins each day, its own “live” web broadcast.
Even the U.S. Open, The Open Championship and PGA Championship don’t hold a candle to The Masters on TV. As I’ve said before, I’d pay to watch.
Photo below from The New York Times.
I agree with everything you say…except personally I love The British Open at 8:00 in the morning almost as much
was it me or did they slip another few minutes of ads in on Sunday? Matters not it’s still a lot more golf than the usual one putt between Avodarts we’re used to.
Posted by Rick on 04.10.07.