Saturday, April 07, 2007

April is here. Show me the golf!

With the winter looking like it had finally coming to an end here in Atlantic City, we have a forecast for April "snow" showers . . . Is that how the saying is supposed to go? April snow showers bring frozen May flowers . . .

But, what is April really about to any true golfer? The Masters.

And so, here we are sitting inside thinking, hey, let's watch the Masters Tournament (www.masters.org). Golly, it doesn't come on until 3:30 pm. That is just standard issue TV coverage just like any other tournament. No respect! Then we get this little article coming down from the top brass at CBS Sportsline and the Masters:

http://www.sportsline.com/golf/tournaments/masters/story/10031101

They are being kind enough to give us an extra hour of coverage, ONLINE. As it stands, I spend the better part of my life at the computer and I know that nothing would please me more that to spend a few extra hours on the computer watching low-quality video. Is this supposed to be a gift to golfers of some kind?

Why is it that there is no way to see entire Masters coverage. I would pay dearly for pay per view or anything to see this. What golfer, even on Easter weekend, or especially because of Easter weekend, would not be spending a large portion of their time watching this. With 30 million golfers in the US, this is a substantial potential audience and a tremendously targeted audience for advertisers. We can pay for 50 pay per view channels of wrestling and crappy cartoons, but all we can see is golf interviews or reruns of past Masters.

Last year while on a 10 day cruise in the Caribbean, we watched on international ESPN, an entire 2 (8 hour) days of coverage of the Masters. It seems that only American Television can disrespect such an important event.

So thank you Masters and CBS for giving us so little coverage of such an important event. And especially so, for not even offering us the possibility to pay out the nose get some real coverage of this tournament. Shame on you both for not providing true access to this national treasure revered the world over.