Live at the Masters, Woods’s First Shot, but Not the Second

The Augusta National Golf Club, which has the fewest broadcast hours and the highest television ratings of any major golf tournament, has not given ESPN a free hand to show all of Tiger Woods’s shots live in his postscandal return at the Masters.

No one would expect the conservative club to accommodate the enhanced interest in Woods that much.
But the club has budged a bit. On Monday, it said that ESPN would be able to break into its morning and afternoon programming to show Woods and his group’s first-round tee shots live from the first hole.
That will be the extent of the Woods exemption offered to ESPN. No second shots. No chips. No putts. Just the tee shot. A few seconds, and that is all.
Depending on Woods’s tee time, it could be a long time before viewers see anything else live, if at all. That is because the Masters has long believed that less is more, so a lot of the action takes place before live coverage starts.
If Woods tees off at 1:52 p.m. next Thursday, as he did in last year’s first round, some of his shots will be seen live during ESPN’s 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. time slot. If he has a morning tee time, like last year’s 10:45 a.m. second-round time, nothing he does after his first tee shot will be shown live.
The tee times will be announced Tuesday.
ESPN will not ignore Woods, or the tournament, in the time before its three-and-a-half-hour broadcast window starts. It will, as it has since it started carrying the tournament in 2008, show hourly taped highlight packages of varying lengths on “SportsCenter” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and augment those clips with coverage on ESPN.com and ESPN Radio. Woods will not be followed by any additional cameras or crews.
“We’ll be able to document his play very thoroughly and still adhere to the traditions of the Masters,” said John Wildhack, an executive vice president of ESPN.
He added: “We’re pleased with the plans that we have in place. We’re pleased that we will be able to offer the tee shots of Tiger and his group.”
He declined to say whether ESPN asked for more time to follow Woods.
“I’m not getting into wishes or predictions,” he said.
Steve Ethun, a spokesman for Augusta National, said, “We discussed this with them and agreed that this coverage provides the correct quality and the quantity.”
Wildhack said that ESPN would market Woods’s return to the Masters, his first appearance in a tournament since November, even if it will be as fleeting as a drive from the first tee box.
“As we get closer to next week, it’ll be apparent that Tiger’s return at the Masters will be on ESPN on Thursday,” Wildhack said.
“At the same time, we’ll continue to promote the Masters and other players. Tiger will certainly be the headliner, but there are lots of other stories.”
He said the network would be careful to say what will be live.
“We’ll promote Tiger and his group’s tee shot, live, at whatever time it will be,” he said.
Neal Pilson, the former president of CBS Sports, who worked with Masters officials for 20 years, said Augusta’s decision to permit ESPN to show Tiger’s first tee shot Thursday was a small accommodation.
“You’re not saying they extended the broadcast window to show his entire round, are you?” he said.
He added: “I’m sure ESPN would love to cover his entire round, but their answer is you can catch him teeing off. Augusta National is exercising its control over the tournament as everyone expected them to.”
Over the course of negotiating 20 one-year deals with Augusta, Pilson said that CBS regularly requested the right to show more hours.
“Their feeling was to keep it limited and get the highest possible rating,” he said.
“They wanted to keep it special. Only gradually, over a period of years, have they expanded the window.”
CBS, which produces ESPN’s coverage, will carry the third round from 3:30 to 7 p.m. and the final round from 2 to 7 p.m. If Woods is leading or competing for the lead, he will be seen often.