The US Masters

What a great tournament. It was good to see folks at Augusta go easy on the set-up - the roars were back today.

You've got to feel for Kenny Perry. He already bottled one major in 1996. Here was his chance at redemption and he bottled it again. Golf is such a cruel sport.

But Congrats to Fat Angel - not only did he win the Masters, but he won the pie-eating contest too!

And it was his marker's card I think.

Great drama, great golf, great tournament. Interesting that the septics have deferred to 3 Brits in the call team - all of whom are excellent btw.

Aye now they've just got to get rid of that piano music and the seppo saying "It's springtime at Augusta" after every ad break.

If they wanted to get into the deep south theme they could just have a Tiger effigy hanging from the magnolias.

Well done to the Argie. PMSL at the choking Yanks. Although if anyone deserved a Major for pure consistency, it's Kenny Perry.

yay for the fat guys.

Golf was invented so fat guys from the south could claim they were athletes.

I still piss myself laughing when Jack Nicklaus objected to a disabled golfer using a buggy.

In fairness, golf is one of the worst spectator sports, esp on TV.

Most obviously the drives and other distance shots. There is such a complete disjunction of vision between player and result - always some point at which the ball disappears from view altogether in the sky - that you could easily have someone throwing in a fake ball.

And even the putts - so much depends on the lie, with speed of surface, borrow and bobbles, etc., that it don't mean a thing unless you are there, playing it.

Of course, you DO get all the extreme vicarious tension, the expressions and "farqthisupanddownforagameofsoldiers" body language of the players, their various fetching costumes and eccentric putters, along with the on-site Einsteins who yell out "yeeeeee-HAAAAAAh!" and "GEDDuntheHOHHHHHHHHHHHHL!!!!!!" with depressingly Pavlovian regularity - but that ain't sport, it's more clownshow and behaviorism.

Even archery (or tiddlywinks) is actually better to watch.

I actually think golf translates well to TV. Nowadays anyway. Though you're right about the greens. Augusta greens have hardly a flat surface on them.

It would be nice if the TV networks made more use of blimp shots. The American networks seem to show us thousands of pretty pictures from "Snoopy 2" but seldom do they actually use it to track the flight of a shot.

When it is used it gives you a great view of what the ball is doing.

Golf is a television spectacle that can live and die on the skill of its director. Many a great tournament has been butchered by directors (and producers) who don't cut to the right shots at the right time. Conversely, plenty of average tournaments have been elevated by a very skilful mixing of shots.

Memo to TV networks - I want to see more shots of more golfers, not more pictures of Tiger eating a banana.

The television coverage of Australian golf tournaments is usually far superior to the American ones. And you also get to see about twice as many shots played!

WideWally wrote:The television coverage of Australian golf tournaments is usually far superior to the American ones. And you also get to see about twice as many shots played!

I concur.

Good to see an Argentine win.

Hass wrote:It would be nice if the TV networks made more use of blimp shots.

Let's ask Red what she's doing for the next major.

Oh, you said 'blimp' not hot-air balloon.

Talking of the television mashup. Did anyone see Perry's chip shot from the back of the 17th green? The one that finished at the front & led to his first bogey. I watched our live free to air coverage & cursed at them. Then I watched the Fox package last night & ditto.

WideWally wrote:The television coverage of Australian golf tournaments is usually far superior to the American ones. And you also get to see about twice as many shots played!

Aye, the first 3 hours of the coverage appeared to be matchplay between Tiger and Mickelson. They only showed the leaders ffs as an aside

Red wrote:

Good to see an Argentine win.

Why?
Why not a Lebanese, or Iraqi or American or Oirishman or Saffer or Fijian or Aussie or Pom or ....

What's so special about an Argie?

They hate the english

G.Wood wrote:They hate the english

Boom tish ....

Classic.

Hands off dog!

Mick Sawyer wrote:Talking of the television mashup. Did anyone see Perry's chip shot from the back of the 17th green? The one that finished at the front & led to his first bogey. I watched our live free to air coverage & cursed at them. Then I watched the Fox package last night & ditto.

I had the same experience.

Because Augusta National doesn't allow ads in the US I just assumed Channel 10 (or One HD) had gone to an ad at the most inopportune time.

I was blowing up, abusing Channel 10, dropping magic words and wanting to throw something at the TV.

That shot was THE turning point of the entire tournament and we didn't get to see it. I don't know who's to blame, but someone should be strung up by their goolies over it! We also missed several shots from Chad Campbell on the final few holes - it's not like he was in contention or anything!

It wouldn't be acceptable in any other sport so why do they get away with it in golf? Perhaps I'll be reincarnated as a TV director down the track and be given a chance to put a stop to these cock-ups once and for all.

Because Augusta National doesn't allow ads in the US

Perpetuating a myth there Hass.

Augusta does hold a large amount of sway over CBS and they're only allowed four minutes of ads an hour during the telecast.

CBS showed the Masters a couple of times around 2003 without any commercials, due to some sexism controversy.

But non-US broadcasters are allowed to squeeze in the ads any way they like. Given that Ten are abysmal at almost anything they do, the ad placement during the final round should have surprised nobody.

That shot was THE turning point of the entire tournament and we didn't get to see it. I don't know who's to blame, but someone should be strung up by their goolies over it! We also missed several shots from Chad Campbell on the final few holes - it's not like he was in contention or anything!

It wouldn't be acceptable in any other sport so why do they get away with it in golf? Perhaps I'll be reincarnated as a TV director down the track and be given a chance to put a stop to these cock-ups once and for all.

I guess in an era where delayed broadcasts are frequently presented as "live" no one should be surprised by the lowly standards of commercial television. With the likes of the Goanna no longer with us I really can't imagine anyone being held accountable. In fact I wonder how many meetings were held before they decided to extend the coverage into the playoff?

The camera work at this Masters was the worst ever. Very amateurish. The close-ups which usually show the position of the ball relative to the flag on the green were non-existent. Coverage of the flight path from the tee – which used to be exemplary – was left to the imagination of the viewer. I was very disappointed.

When shit starts moving uphill, luck has to go with Angel Cabrera. How else could you explain his second shot to the green in the playoff? Lucky? Guess you need a fair portion of that to win at Augusta. Anyway, it was a great tournament although I was backing Phil Mickelson after his run on the front nine.

Have to say I backed McIlroy ... precocious bugger and a definite future winner of several titles.

Agree - camera work was shoddy ... zoom-ins followed by rapid zoom-outs when focusing on a long putt was amateurish ... you lost the "feel" for the putt.

But yeah, a great tournament - Augusta is a beautiful though unforgiving course - and a worthy winner (even if he does happen to be an Argie ) when all's said and done.