No TV Coverage of the last 9 Holes of a 3rd Round in a Major- The Masters?

[JSlonis]

Does anyone else think that this is ridiculous?

I can't believe that there will be NO coverage of the end of the 3rd round.  There is no other major, regardless of the network or the governing body of golf that would allow that to happen.

This is unbelievable...nice toon-a-mint, it's too bad the viewing public won't get to see a large part of it!!

How can there be no contingency plans for TV coverage if there happens to be bad weather?

[Dave_Miller]

Does anyone else think that this is ridiculous?

I can't believe that there will be NO coverage of the end of the 3rd round.  There is no other major, regardless of the network or the governing body of golf that would allow that to happen.

This is unbelievable...nice toon-a-mint, it's too bad the viewing public won't get to see a large part of it!!

How can there be no contingency plans for TV coverage if there happens to be bad weather?

Jamie:
What time are they starting in the morning?  The Sunday plan is usually to show all 18 holes but I don't know what time coverage starts.

It would probably be tough for any network  to devote an entire day to any sporting event if they are starting at say 8:00 AM.

It would seem that they are going to have start earyl to get the entire tournament in.

Best
Dave

[Bill Gayne]

The Masters screams out for pay per-view NFL style. The NFL provides a limited # of games on over the air broadcasts for free. All games are available on the NFL Ticket.

Wouldn't it be great if the Masters provided the option of non-stop coverage beginning on Wednesday with the par three tournament and ending sunday night. Since most of the cameras are on platforms, it could be set-up so that I could choose which hole I wanted to watch.

For instance, I would tune to channel 200 on my digital cable system for Masters coverage. Then if I wanted to watch only the 12th hole for a couple of hours I could punch in 12. When I wanted to switch to 18 I would simply punch into my digital remote. With the back key on the remote I could rewind a couple of groups if I wanted to see some action that I missed. The viewer would be in complete control of the telecast. Every shot would be available on TV and if you wanted to focus on a specific hole or group you could.

In addition the weekend CBS coverage should be kept for those not electing the pay per-view option and they would be subject to the vagaries and whims of CBS.

[JSlonis]

Dave,

I know in some of the other majors over the last few years that another network has done early Sat. or Sun. coverage...USA, TNT, ESPN.  I would think there should be alternate some plan to show a very important part of a major championship.

[A.G._Crockett]

According to GolfWorld this week, Masters Sunday ratings have dropped for three consecutive years since the club reluctantly agreed to televise all 18 holes on Sunday, with a total drop of 9.8% since 1996.  The article quotes Jack Stephens in 1997 as saying "...we don't want to do it."

CBS had tried for years to get ANGC to agree to the full telecast; as slowly as things change at Augusta, and since the club calls the tune on the telecast anyway, I doubt that early telecast on Sunday in case of delays was ever on the table for discussion.  

[Sébastien Dhaussy]

Don't be too hard with your TV coverage.
In France, we don't see the end of the action on Saturday. We miss Tiger on 8 and 9 (2 birdies) and Di Marco - Bjorn on 7,8 and 9. French TV has scheduled a coverage until 01.00 am (in France) and they stop at 01.00, 45 minutes before the end of the action !

Fortunately, for the first time in France, we will see a full coverage of Sunday action. Years before, we have only the last 9 holes.

[CHrisB]

  Looks like we missed the most important 9 holes of this year's Masters. Tiger erasing a 4 shot deficit in about a half hour, gaining 7 shots over the 9 holes...

I hope there's some excitement left over for the final round, but I'm not counting on it...

[jim_lewis]

You can bet that when they come on the air at 2:30 Eastern, they will spend at least the first half hour showing multiple replays of every shot Tiger hit today. They may even throw in a few hit by some of the other players.  At least they may not have time to show us re-runs of Tiger's  performances at pevious  Masters. They probably wore those tapes out yesterday.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Jimmy - you're absolutely right.  They'll have 1/2 hour until Tiger/Chris tee off so they'll set the stage with 1/2 hour of reply of Tiger's charge.

[Sébastien Dhaussy]

Looks like we missed the most important 9 holes of this year's Masters. Tiger erasing a 4 shot deficit in about a half hour, gaining 7 shots over the 9 holes...

I hope there's some excitement left over for the final round, but I'm not counting on it...

Final scores after 3rd round were a big surprise when I came back home and watch them on Internet.
 
I've now the same feelings, Chris.

Fortunately, Thomas LEVET can make a top ten. It would be the best performance at the Masters for a frenchman.

I'm not a big fan of Tiger Woods but what he did saturday and sunday is really GREAT !

[ForkaB]

We got to watch the back nine on BBC (from 10:30am-12:30 US time, slight tape delay).

[Jonathan Cummings]

That's it, I'm moving to St Andrews!

[Patrick_Mucci]

JSlonis,

With weather problems on eight previous tournaments this year, you would have thought that contingency plans would have been at the ready, allowing USA, ESPN or some other network to cover the final stages of the third round.

When I heard about the incredible chain of events that the viewers missed this morning, I imagined that the network execs and those in charge at The Masters saw the error of their ways and will correct that oversight so that it doesn't happen again.  At least one hopes so.

[Jim Johnson]

Is it me, or does anyone else wonder if there are actually other golfers in the tournament, other than the top 3 or 4? For instance....

After Tiger and Chris D. made the turn at approximately 3:00 CST, we saw, via CBS...
Every shot (37) of Tiger's "live" on the back 9.
Every shot (34) of Chris D.'s "live" on the back 9.
16 shots of Mickelson on the back 9.
6 shots of Mike Weir.
6 shots of Trevor Immelman, including his hole-in-one on #16..
5 shots of Luke Donald.
2 shots of Retief Goosen, including a "just miss" on #16.
and 1 each of Ryan Moore (holing out on 18),Vijay (holing out on 18), Rod Pampling (holing out on 18), and Mark Hensby (just missing another ace on #16).
That's it. NOBODY else.
110 shots total, in about 2 1/4 hours of telecast. Sounds like a lot of shots, but really...only 1 shot every minute and a quarter.
Given the low number of commercials during Masters telecasts, it's just disappointing to me the number of shots "missed", by "others".
Assuming it took roughly 2 hours to complete the 9 holes,, where the heck were all the "others"?? Thomas Bjorn, in second last group...vanished. 1 shot of Vijay?? 1 shot of Hensby?? 1 shot of Pampling?? These guys finished tied for FIFTH!!!!
Don't get me wrong....there was some great action, particularly between Tiger and Chris D. But hey, this is Augusta National, fer cryin' out loud. It would have been great to actually see some shot-making at the 13th...or the 15th....or what about #12. Very, very, few shots were telecast of these holes.
Sorry for the rant, but this seems to happen during every "Major" telecast....the network only shows shots of the leaders (say, four or five guys), and not much else.

JJ

[jeffwarne]

It wasn't a match play final?

I wish Martha Burke would get involved again -those commercials were killing me.

[Mike Hendren]

The Powers-That-Be rightfully assumed that all good Southerners would be in Sunday School anyway and considered it a nice opportunitiy to agitate Northern Americans.  

[Tony_Chapman]

Is it me, or does anyone else wonder if there are actually other golfers in the tournament, other than the top 3 or 4? For instance....

After Tiger and Chris D. made the turn at approximately 3:00 CST, we saw, via CBS...
Every shot (37) of Tiger's "live" on the back 9.
Every shot (34) of Chris D.'s "live" on the back 9.
16 shots of Mickelson on the back 9.
6 shots of Mike Weir.
6 shots of Trevor Immelman, including his hole-in-one on #16..
5 shots of Luke Donald.
2 shots of Retief Goosen, including a "just miss" on #16.
and 1 each of Ryan Moore (holing out on 18),Vijay (holing out on 18), Rod Pampling (holing out on 18), and Mark Hensby (just missing another ace on #16).
That's it. NOBODY else.
110 shots total, in about 2 1/4 hours of telecast. Sounds like a lot of shots, but really...only 1 shot every minute and a quarter.
Given the low number of commercials during Masters telecasts, it's just disappointing to me the number of shots "missed", by "others".
Assuming it took roughly 2 hours to complete the 9 holes,, where the heck were all the "others"?? Thomas Bjorn, in second last group...vanished. 1 shot of Vijay?? 1 shot of Hensby?? 1 shot of Pampling?? These guys finished tied for FIFTH!!!!
Don't get me wrong....there was some great action, particularly between Tiger and Chris D. But hey, this is Augusta National, fer cryin' out loud. It would have been great to actually see some shot-making at the 13th...or the 15th....or what about #12. Very, very, few shots were telecast of these holes.
Sorry for the rant, but this seems to happen during every "Major" telecast....the network only shows shots of the leaders (say, four or five guys), and not much else.

JJ

JJ - I could see your point on any other year, but these guys were seven clear of the field. I'm sure as heck glad we didn't get any of the leaders shots on delay.

[Jim Johnson]

JJ - I could see your point on any other year, but these guys were seven clear of the field. I'm sure as heck glad we didn't get any of the leaders shots on delay.

Tony,
I know these 2 were way ahead of the field; unfortunately, CBS seemed to show a lot of "non-shot" activity (ie. Tiger and/or Chris D. walking down the fairway, Stevie drinking bottled water on a teebox, Tiger and/or Chris D. standing in the fairway, waiting 5 minutes for the group ahead to clear). My point is that there are a bunch of others in the tournament, but you'd never know it from the telecast. Every Major, same thing....the leaders, the runners-up, and that's about it.

JJ

[Ted Kramer]

No matter what they were showing yesterday, Lanny Wadkins was KILLING me. I don't usually get into the whole, "who likes which announcer" debates . . .but Wadkins was awful.

And back on topic, it was a 2 man show yesterday.
I have no problem with the "over-coverage" of the final group.
I complain when you see nothing but Tiger when he isn't making something happen . . .

-Ted

[Sean Leary]

I still don't know what happened with Tiger's bogeys on 14 and 15 yesterday during the third round.  If they showed it I must have missed it.  I wonder if Tiger started thinking about 62 (or lower) in a major and got ahead of himself and made bogeys.

[TEPaul]

Jamie:

The Masters is a very civilized affair and one should never ask those New York people from CBS to get up and work too early in the morning on a weekend.

[PThomas]

I seem to recall when Tiger won at PB there were fog delays and NBC added coverage Saturday morning.....