Lessons from the Masters

Make watching golf on tv more interesting

MAKE WATCHING GOLF ON TV MORE INTERESTING

Lessons from the Masters

I defy even the most travel weary, pleasure sated, cynical golfer not to feel a quickening of the pulse when they turn off the rather nondescript Washington Avenue into Magnolia Lane to play golf for the first time at Augusta National. And the second time. Even the third.

Whether spectators arriving to watch the Masters felt a similar thrill last Sunday probably depended on how often they’d been there before. They were rewarded with a more exciting afternoon than the eventual margin of Scottie Scheffler’s victory implies. It was only after a perfect tee shot and a confident birdie putt on the sixteenth that his triumph began to look assured.

Last week was the first time in nine months that LIV golfers came up against the best players from around the world and they ended up losing. It wasn’t even close. All right, Bryson DeChambeau started well and shared the half way lead. Cameron Smith finished alongside him in joint sixth place. But not a single LIV player was in contention during the last round. This calls into question LIV’s ability to nurture major champions.

Like millions of fans, I relied on tv to follow the action, thankful that the bad old days when coverage of the Masters was confined to the last ten holes are long gone. In Britain Sky TV now allows viewers a limited measure of choice over which players and which holes to watch.

But there remains the problem that television never shows the steepness of the slopes on the fairways. It fails to demonstrate the subtlety of the borrows on the greens. The screen is incapable of conveying to viewers the strategic challenges posed at some holes. If you want to get the best out of watching any golf on tv and really understand what’s happening on the course, whether it’s the Masters, the other majors, or lower level events there’s only one golden rule.

Make sure you play the course before you watch.

This message isn’t meant to discourage. Instead I hope it will motivate more people to do what they can. In Britain it’s easy because every club that hosts the Open has days when visitors can play unaccompanied by a member. Obviously that isn’t allowed at Augusta. So, do the next best thing. Save up, buy a ticket and watch in person. That way you’ll get a better idea of what the top players are doing. It’s a small investment of time and money which you’ll never regret because it will transform your enjoyment of watching the Masters on tv.

I’m lucky enough to have played Augusta several times. If you haven’t done this yet then you’ll have to wait for one of my future posts to let you into the secret of how to fix it. For the time being all I can say is you’ll be glad when playing the course is a happy memory, not an unfulfilled aspiration. Going one better and staying overnight on site in one of the cabins is a truly special experience.

Back when Concorde was the aircraft of choice for flying the Atlantic, not built by Boeing incidentally, its exclusive lounge at Heathrow was a place of amusement for observers of human nature. The first time I flew on Concorde about four fifths of the passengers in the lounge were obviously regulars, buried in their laptops or the middle pages of the Wall Street Journal.

The rest, including me, were whispering into their mobiles “I’m ringing from the Concorde lounge” thus revealing to anyone who cared to listen their childlike excitement at the prospect of their first supersonic flight. In a rather similar fashion, before my first round at Augusta, I gazed reverentially at everything my generous host showed me, trying to memorise the details so I could later bore envious less fortunate friends back home.

Another advantage of personal experience of playing courses before watching them on television is the freedom to dispense with the commentary if you want. Not enough of the broadcasters employed by Sky appreciate that viewers don’t usually need to be told what they can see for themselves on the screen. An exception is Nick Faldo. As a player he was rarely the most interesting interviewee. As a commentator he is one of the best.

Even Butch Harmon occasionally lapses into banalities like “wouldn’t this be the ideal start for Rory?” as the picture shows McIlroy lining up a birdie putt on the first green. No better was Paul McGinley’s less than insightful remark that “it’s notoriously difficult to win if you’re the defending champion” moments after viewers had been told that only three have done this in nearly ninety years.

I was reminded earlier this year of the value of playing courses before watching them on tv. The third and fourth PGA Tour Signature Events were at Riviera Country Club and Bay Hill. I’ve played Riviera a couple of times and much enjoyed it. As a result watching the Genesis Invitational in February was fun and I felt I had a good grasp of what was going on. By contrast I’ve never been to Bay Hill and found it hard to get excited watching the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March. I simply couldn’t fathom what some of the holes were about.

Having never attended the Masters in person I have no first hand experience of walking the course as a spectator. The relatively small galleries, barely half those attending most Open Championships, must make it a pleasant course to watch on. It’s sad, though, that the only view of the famous twelfth is from behind the tee. This is never the best place to watch a short hole from and is at least a hundred and fifty yards from where the real dramas on this hole usually occur.

FOOTNOTE

Augusta National is undoubtedly a very private club and seems to enjoy its reputation as such. Guests are not allowed inside the gate if their host is not already on the property. Once inside, however, they are free to spend their own money in the pro shop and load up with gear.

It’s different at Los Angeles Country Club. Last year a friend kindly invited me to refresh my memory of the course by playing for a couple of days just before it was shut to non-members ahead of the US Open. Several years had passed since my previous visit and I had forgotten one of the rules.

Wandering into the pro shop on the first morning I saw a nice shirt. I took it to the counter and produced my credit card. The assistant handed the card back and explained politely that my host’s account would be debited for the cost of this item.

One up to LACC?