The Masters: Quality Family Television
Today marked the closing round of the
70th Masters,
televised on CBS
Sports. One of the joys of watching
the Masters (and golf is much better on TV than in person), is the fact
that there are only 4 minutes of commercials for each hour of broadcast
time. As there are only three sponsors, the ads are pretty much family
safe. But what is even better, and not mentioned by anybody, is that you
are not constantly being barraged by the "Tonite
on CBS" promotion reads.
These have become more and more family unfriendly (i.e. not always appropriate
for children, and unpredictable when they will air). But they do not exist
on Masters broadcasts. So you could safely watch Phil
Mickelson outduel Fred
Couples today with your children.
If nothing else (and lets leave politics out of this, Augusta National
is a PRIVATE club), the organizers of the Masters runs a class act.
Comment posted by Richard Schwartz04/10/2006 08:33:21 AM
Homepage: http://www.rhs.com/poweroftheschwartz
Somehow, though, I found this year's tournament a bit of a let-down. There were many very good shots, and a few great ones, and it was nice seeing Freddie give it a run and Jose Maria Olazabal had a brilliant day, but the missed putts and the bad breaks somehow seemed to dominate. No question that the breaks even out and good steady golf won the day -- I'm not taking anything away from Phil on that. It just didn't excite me, and nothing seemed to excite the announcers much either; not the positive or the negative (like Rocco Mediate's unfortunate back-nine collapse).
Do you think they've made the course too hard? Around the greens, especially, I think they might have. Not that I liked seeing the players rip it up, but I'm thinking that good shot-making isn't rewarded enough right now.
04/10/2006 11:48:16 AM
Comment posted by Stan Rogers04/10/2006 11:45:04 AM
Homepage: http://stanrogers.blogspot.com
Augusta's always been that way, but the lengthening (Tigerization) has rather exacerbated the problem. I don't know if you really could call it a problem in the old days -- it was sort of expected that the approach shot would be something lofty, and a good pitch would get you to the right place and stick. Now they're coming in from a couple of hundred yards with something flatter and have to roll to the target, so the multi-level greens with their precipitous transitional slopes don't play risk-and-reward quite the same way.
Back to persimmon, I say!
04/10/2006 03:27:16 PM
Comment posted by Gregg Eldred04/10/2006 03:20:39 PM
Homepage: http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf
I was fortunate to be at the practice round on Wednesday. I can say that TV doesn't do that course justice. The greens are tiered and very difficult, outside of 8 feet of the cup. The changes in elevation on the fairways aren't always shown on TV. And while the 18th looked tight, in person, it isn't *that* tight. Overall, that was a personal highlight. Oh, and $12 to feed four people (sandwich, chips, and drink)? Try that at any other sporting event. 
04/10/2006 08:44:16 PM
Comment posted by Richard Schwartz04/10/2006 08:37:31 PM
Homepage: http://www.rhs.com/poweroftheschwartz
@Gregg: That's amazing. At every tournament I've been to (ok... it's only two... the Deutsche Bank two years ago, and the PGA last year), the food and drinks have been priced even higher than the captive-audience-extortion levels that one finds at other sporting venues.
04/11/2006 12:46:17 PM
Comment posted by Gregg Eldred04/11/2006 12:40:10 PM
Homepage: http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf
@Rich-but then there is the souvenier shop. I don't think that I really got anything, a towel, a couple of sleeves of balls (to pass out back in Cleveland), a hat, and a few knick-knacks. $100. But the food is quite a deal. Even beer was something like $2.