Let’s get the basics out of the way first. You want to know when to watch the Masters, right? It’s easy. TV coverage Thursday and Friday is on ESPN, 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern time, both days. On the weekend it’s CBS, 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday.
Online: You can’t go wrong. We have already said we think the Masters coverage is not just the best in golf, but the best online coverage of any event, anywhere. We have CBS and IBM and AT&T to thank, but mostly it’s because the Masters calls its own shots. So they’re not concerned whether or not online will take away from TV ratings. Like the Honey Badger, the Masters doesn’t give a you know what.
CBSSports and the Masters sites will both show live video, and you can even watch the ESPN coverage simulcast on WatchESPN. Here are some handy links:
HERE IS THE MAIN MASTERS COVERAGE LINK.
HERE IS THE MAIN CBS MASTERS PAGE.
HERE IS THE CBSSPORTS LIVE ONLINE COVERAGE PAGE.
If all else fails, go to the Masters.com page, find the mobile device apps for iPad, iPhone or Android and download. You know the drill. Be thankful that the Masters is the best, bar none, sports event for sports fan viewing. We are talking minimum commercials, multiple alternate views online, experienced crews who aren’t doing this for the first time… there is the occasional weirdness like the Butler Cabin stuff but unless this is your first time watching you have already embraced all that as part of the Masters lore and lure. So on to the actual tournament preview:
It’s Tiger’s to lose.
If you look at it from a purely unemotional standpoint — so far this season Woods has been destroying the fields on courses he knows well. Torrey Pines. Bay Hill. Augusta is another one of those multiple-win places, where he announced his plans to not just win but to posterize the rest of the Tour, back in 1997. If you watched that tournament, like millions of us did, it changed you as a golf fan.
Even as Woods struggled the past few years, he was surprisingly competitive at Augusta: Since his last green jacket in 2005, here is how Tiger has finished: 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 6th, 4th, 4th, and then 40th last year. Those results are a career for most of the stiffs on Tour; so now that Tiger is back in form (especially on the greens) how can he not win?
In terms of work ethic, physicality, smarts — he has the whole package, something nobody else has. What is missing… is the mojo.
Majors are all about psychological pressure. What Woods showed last year is that he is susceptible to it. He didn’t use to, but now — he cracks. He’s the closer who can’t close anymore, Mariano Rivera without the cut fastball. He fooled us all, even the best: Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck, best golf beat writer out there, wrote this after the first round of the U.S. Open and probably still regrets it.
What Shipnuck thought — what we all thought — is that the Tiger of old had returned. On Thursday it looked like Woods had it wired again, like he was the GOAT. Then on Saturday he looked like a club member, complete with the hospital shoes. Timid. Afraid. The same thing happened at the British Open — on Sunday there was Woods trying to play smart golf while Ernie Els smoothed his way to the kind of major Tiger used to clear off the table. And then at the PGA the whole golf world ran into the Rory McIlroy buzzsaw, which is awesome to see whenever it flits into focus.
Rory, Phil, or some unknown ready to rise up like Bubba Watson or Charl Schwartzel… there are a hell of a lot of good golfers on Tour now, with what looks like a much higher level of overall play than when Tiger broke in back in the ’90s. And the hype on golf has ramped up too, making all the tournaments that aren’t majors a beta release.
Golf fans and even casual sports fans get it — the Masters is one of the times of the year we need to pay attention, and we will. Majors are about history. Lore. They are player-defining moments. For many of us, there is no doubt that Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer to ever play the game. But until he gets past Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major wins, Tiger knows he can’t legitimately make that claim himself. Nicklaus, as great a student of the game as any, publicly says Tiger can beat his total. Then he adds: But he’s got to go out and win them.
And that’s what a lot of golf fans want to see. They want to witness the greatest, at the top of his game. I think that second chapter starts this weekend — I can see Woods blowing everyone away, just like in 1997. The intimidation factor is creeping back in, and if he gets 4-5 strokes clear by the weekend Shipnuck can go back to his early close-out predictions. But I could also see it going the way of Jim Harbaugh play-calling at the goal line in the Super Bowl… Tiger pressing too hard, staying close but never getting in a groove, and someone who doesn’t feel pressure, like… Jason Dufner? … emerging from the pack.
Enough talk. Fore, gentlemen.
THE MASTERS
(all times Eastern)
TV COVERAGE
Thursday, April 11 — ESPN, 3 p.m. — 7:30 p.m.
Friday, April 12 — ESPN, 3 p.m. — 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 13 — CBS, 3 p.m. — 7 p.m.
Sunday, April 14 — CBS, 2 p.m. — 7 p.m.
RADIO
SIRIUS XM (Satellite)
2 p.m. — 6 p.m., Thursday-Sunday
Sirius will also have several feature shows. Check this schedule for more.
Masters.com
There will be a live streaming radio report on the Masters.com site.
ONLINE
Full live video coverage at Masters.com and CBSSports.com. Different cameras start at different times each day, so… check the schedule to see when they go live. Right now tentative start times for Thursday are: Amen Corner camera, 10:45 a.m.; Holes 15 & 16, 11:45 a.m.; Featured Groups 1 & 2, 12:00 p.m.
ESPN: The Worldwide Leader will be at the Masters in force, with its live coverage Thursday and Friday, and more online coverage goodies. Here is ESPN’s Championship Central link. This is also a good place to check for live ESPN online coverage, via ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app for mobile devices.
Golf.com is going Masters overboard, with more content than you could possibly read. But the Sports Illustrated group of writers hanging out there may be the best covering the game right now.
TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOW
Dan Jenkins — golf’s Shakespeare. From Texas. Hope he is on form for the Masters. If you don’t know who he is, hit Google. And buy a few books.
Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer is slinging Masters lore and great links.
Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed
@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed
@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend
LOCAL FLAVOR
The Augusta Chronicle knows how to play the biggest event of the year. A good bookmark.
WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s an incredible service: The Masters course page has video flyovers of each hole. I think I will only spend about 80 hours on this page alone.
Want to check out the historic clubhouse? Sports Illustrated’s Golf.com has a video that takes you inside.
WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
The man who hates publicity who has been so overexposed I would bet that just about every Golf Digest reader could go out to the pines at #11 and replay Bubba’s hook shot to win it. Well maybe not. But Bubba Watson sure did know how to win his first major. Props.
