I have been spending a lot of hours this weekend watching these. What a delight, and huge thank-yous to whomever at ANGC had the idea to put these online. I started with 1968 and have been working my way forward, up to 1977 so far. Some thoughts:
The '68 ending was fascinating. Pat Summerall got the word of a possible problem well after both De Vincenzo (obviously) and Goalby had finished, and by that time the Butler Cabin ceremony was almost ready to start. As @jeffwarne noted, Goalby looked very upset while Roberto was remarkably composed. Clifford Roberts and John Winters (filling in for Bob Jones) handled the very awkward situation as well as one could expect I suppose, with Roberts actually showing some compassion for De Vincenzo at the end by grasping his arm during their handshake and suggesting that somehow two winners could be acknowledged (though I'm not sure what, if anything, was ever done). Meanwhile, poor Vinny Giles as low amateur was thrust into the middle of all that during the ceremony. Just a remarkable piece of history I had never seen before.
Of course by going back so far into the archive, we get to see players who we have only heard of and never got to see play, which was fun. I was struck by how well they struck the ball given the equipment and conditions of the era, and the scores they were able to post. It was also interesting to see a much less well-manicured ANGC compared to today. In 1970 there was an area in play on the right fringe of 16 green that was completely dead grass, and in one of the 1970s broadcasts you could see that the grassy areas around the back bunkers on 13 were very spotty in terms of condition.
The Butler Cabin ceremonies were particularly interesting. My memory of those as a teenager watching on TV was they were very stilted and that that Clifford Roberts was a very old, stern, humorless man, which matches the image he always had and which may well be totally accurate. But there were flashes of dry wit and courtliness that he showed during those ceremonies and it really wasn't until the end in 1976 when perhaps due to both age and illness he began to look out of place. One of the funnier ones was in '72 when the interview portion seemed to go on for a long time and finally he interrupted and said it was time to stop because people were waiting outside, which seemed to cause people to jump. I had also forgotten that he had Frank Broyles, the Arkansas football coach and ANGC member, doing the player interviews during the early-mid '70s, who did a reasonably decent job of it.
I found watching the CBS broadcasts evolve to be fascinating. The broadcasts shown through 1971 are kinescopes which detracts from them, but even at that these ones appear to be not changed much from what had always been done, a rather short broadcast of just the last few holes with limited camera coverage. Some years have pieces missing, about the entire first hour of 1972, virtually all of 1973 except for the missed putt on 18 by JC Snead that would have meant a playoff, and about 30 minutes of 1977 in the middle of the back 9. Announcers included the superb Henry Longhurst on 16 (who disappeared after 1976 like Roberts), largely forgotten contributors like Jim Thacker and Frank Glieber, and Doc Middlecoff and Byron Nelson on the '60s broadcasts. Pat Summerall anchored on 18 a few times with Ray Scott (more famous as the voice of Green Bay Packers football, whose ponderous style did not translate well here IMO) preceding Vin Scully who began in '75 and then did '77 through the early '80s (not sure what happened to Vin in '76). Vinny did OK but IMO he should have stuck to baseball as the Summerall years on 18 were far superior. Jack Whitaker, banished from 18 after 1966, came back in '74 to fill in for an ailing Longhurst and stuck around for a while after that on a hole tower. For those that care about such things, these broadcasts will help resolve what announcers worked what Masters for CBS.
The '72 telecast is of remarkable picture quality given the age, and '77 looks even better. 1977 is the first "modern" production, with many significant changes happening that year. There were a bunch of new camera positions that are still used today, added coverage of #11 (with second shots available on 9 and 10), and even mobile cameras that got behind the player in the fairway. I don't know if that was all a result of Bill Lane taking over from Cliff Roberts but it really made a difference.
I am really enjoying these and they are a treasure to have available.