Architecture and Television

[Jason Thurman]

I've long wondered what role the architecture of Augusta National plays in the perception of The Masters as one of the world's great golf tournaments. Obviously it's a great golf course, and that results in a huge amount of respect paid to the tournament by players and broadcasters which boosts the tournament and course's public perception, but that's not really what I'm talking about.

I'm talking more about how the architecture of the course comes through on TV to create a great viewing experience. The slopes at Augusta are famous, both in the playing corridors and on the greens, for being both dramatic and also hard to discern on television. But I still think they have a HUGE effect on how the tournament functions as a viewing event.

Augusta National provides a rare golf telecast where ball flight can actually be seen on tv. This is directly the result of the slopes of the course and trees in the background providing a green and brown backdrop against which a flying ball can be seen easily. At most Tour events, we see a swing followed by a cutaway to a ball landing. At Augusta National, we watch the ball fly against the background, notably on shots like the tee shot at 13 or the second shot at 8.

We also watch the ball feed down slopes, and we've watched long enough to anticipate what it will do when it lands. We know that a shot into the second green could feed across any number of ridges. We know that a deep ball on 16 will come back down near the flag on Sunday if struck solidly with backspin. And we know that an approach into 7 can feed toward right hole locations.

I would guess that we can follow a ball in motion further as viewers of Augusta National than at any other course as a function of the architecture, and that simple fact is one of the reasons that The Masters works so well on tv. Are there other reasons that the architecture of the course makes this event so beloved by the masses?

[Grant Saunders]

Bump

Im not smart enough to answer your question Jason but I feel there are many on here that could evolve a great discussion on the topic.

To me its a shame this thread disappeared off the front page so quick due to a lot of off topic B.S

[Phil McDade]

Jason:

And it's polar opposite is The Old Course at St. Andrews, which is essentially flat (although heavily contoured).

[Ally Mcintosh]

Out of Tom Doak's many good observations, one that was dead on the money and one that I've stolen on numerous occasions (with due credit of course) is that Augusta makes for great viewing because the flow of the routing encourages an ever changing leaderboard...

4,5,6 plays hard.... 7,8,9 easier..... 10,11,12 are bogey holes.... 13,14,15,16 you can make your score etc...

Therefore those up ahead can surge up the leaderboard at a time when the leaders behind them are falling back... and vice versa...

[Chris_Hufnagel]

Out of Tom Doak's many good observations, one that was dead on the money and one that I've stolen on numerous occasions (with due credit of course) is that Augusta makes for great viewing because the flow of the routing encourages an ever changing leaderboard...

4,5,6 plays hard.... 7,8,9 easier..... 10,11,12 are bogey holes.... 13,14,15,16 you can make your score etc...

Therefore those up ahead can surge up the leaderboard at a time when the leaders behind them are falling back... and vice versa...

That is pretty interesting and something I had never really thought of before...

Although, given the changes to #7 over the last few years – it perhaps should be modified to 4, 5, 6, and 7 play hard.  It was the fourth toughest this year with a scoring average of 4.24...

[Scott Sander]

Jason-

The elevation-change-as-ideal-movie-screen phenomenon is the (only?) reason I REALLY enjoy watching television coverage of Sergio Garcia.  He flights the ball much lower than most and always puts a bend in it.  The director can (and should) hold down-the-line shots of Garcia a touch longer than the rest of the players.   I'd watch a lot more golf if there were more guys with low ballflights.

The other thing, and I'm sure others have mentioned it here in other threads, is that Augusta's greens play more than a bit like links fairways in that you don't know the result of the shot until after it's sparred, often slowly, with the various nobs and trills and hollows and such.  Most tournament venues are quite the opposite.

[Dan Herrmann]

Scott - I completely agree.  AGNC plays a lot more like a links course than most anything else we see on TV, save for the Open Rota of course.