Jim Nantz will have fun a Masters last in Augusta National.
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Anytime Jim Nantz arrives at Augusta, he lets us know: it is a custom in contrast to every other. But this Masters — his thirty eighth — actually will be in contrast to every other. It’ll be the last time he ever experiences his Nantz-only model of Masters Week once more.
When Nantz’s PJ touches down at Augusta Airport on Tuesday of match week, it can mark the official finish of an period, the last time he’ll ever full a (now-fabled) piece of sports activities media lore: his play-by-play trek from the Final Four to the Masters.
Yes, regardless that it isn’t technically part of Masters week, Nantz’s springtime sporting dominance has additionally earned its personal place in match lore. Nantz resides each sports activities fan’s wildest dream: he’s acquired the perfect seat in the home for each of the season’s greatest sporting occasions … and getting paid to do it.
That will all finish with this 12 months’s match, nevertheless, when Nantz provides up his March Madness seat upon the completion of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. The famed broadcaster made the tough resolution to step away from his position on the match earlier this 12 months, ceding the ground to CBS teammate Ian Eagle as Nantz turns his focus in the direction of the Masters and extra time with household.
“Listen, it’s always been a bit of a conundrum for me,” Nantz advised GOLF. “When I’m on the Final Four, all anybody needs to speak to me about is the Masters. I get reminded of it simply strolling by a restaurant, strolling down the road, strolling by a foyer — who’s gonna win the Masters subsequent week?“
But Nantz’s journey schedule isn’t the one broadcasting custom in flux at this 12 months’s Masters.
Below, we’ll get you prepared for golf’s greatest week of the 12 months with a FULL broadcast preview of the whole lot you’ll be able to count on to see in your TV (plus assorted streaming gadgets) from Augusta National subsequent week. But let’s begin with a bit extra on Nantz, whose ultimate tune on the Big Dance is already underway. This is the Hot Mic — however this week it’s, if I could say, even hotter than typical. The Mega-Hot Mic. The Masters Mic. Enjoy!
Jim Nantz’s Last Dance
“I get to Augusta as quickly as I can,” Nantz says. I’m querying him on the logistics which have allowed him to name the nationwide championship recreation and the Masters in the identical week for the higher a part of the last 4 many years. “I jump on a plane and often I’m there early Tuesday morning.”
It’s all the time a scramble for Nantz to get from the Final Four to Augusta, however this 12 months ought to show barely extra tolerable. The flight from Houston to Augusta ought to solely take about two hours, leaving loads of time on Tuesday and Wednesday for match prep — as long as these taking part in within the occasion wish to assist him.
“Usually I’m walking around trying to catch up, trying to get some face time with the top players,” Nantz says with fun. “But all they want to talk to me about is the basketball.”
“It’s never in sync.”
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Nantz has lengthy mentioned that his objective is to name 51 Masters, a feat that may coincide with the one centesimal taking part in of the match in 2036. But why step off the gasoline on school basketball now? It’s difficult. Nantz needs to spend extra time together with his household, and between golf, soccer and basketball, it’s robust for him to spend a lot time at house. CBS’s down stretch between Riviera and Augusta National was one of many few strain factors with a launch valve.
“People talk like I’m going to be working five weeks a year. I’m still working a full 40 weeks a year,” Nantz mentioned. “For me to have that ‘from here to there’ experience, it’s been a good one, but I have more than enough memories to last me a lifetime, believe me.”
With Nantz’s kids rising older, he and CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus got here to an settlement — one the famed broadcaster teases may land him on the Final Four once more, even when he isn’t calling it.
“Sean and I agreed we’re going to talk about me having a cameo at the Final Four in the future, I just won’t be doing the meat of the tournament,” Nantz mentioned. “There might be some role for me to go to the Final Four in Phoenix next year and continue my streak of being involved in that event. We’ll see.”
ESPN offers with LIV
ESPN Masters broadcast schedule
Thursday, 4/6: 3-7:30 p.m. ET
Friday, 4/7: 3-7:30 p.m. ET
Programming notes: Welcome to the Masters pregame present airs each days from 1-3 p.m. ET
Nantz’s ultimate run on the Final Four has courted the eye of extra than simply sports activities diehards. It’s even attracted the envy of his sports activities broadcasting counterparts, Scott Van Pelt amongst them.
“I’ve often just shaken my head and kind of needled Jim, who obviously is as lovely a guy as you’d hope to meet, when he gets there on Tuesday,” Van Pelt mentioned. “[I’m] just [like], your week, bro. Your week. I can’t imagine a better duo than those two [events].”
Fortunately, Van Pelt received’t have a lot time to dwell on Nantz’s Masters luck. His personal week is jam-packed with Masters goodness, together with the introduction of a brand new pregame present known as Welcome to the Masters that Van Pelt will host for the 2 hours instantly previous ESPN’s Masters protection on Thursday and Friday.
“The new show will be fun. You just want to set the expectation,” Van Pelt mentioned. “We know how hungry every golf fan is out there from the moment that you’re on: let’s see shots. We’ll be able to bring some more of that, but it’s also some interviews that carry us up until our coverage begins in earnest.”
Not a lot else is understood concerning the present, which was undoubtedly created in tandem with the carefully discerning broadcast eyes at Augusta National. Still, it’s affordable to count on that Welcome to the Masters will slot in properly subsequent to the standard outfit of wall-to-wall SportsHeart and ESPN protection over the primary few days on the occasion.
The greater unknown going through ESPN subsequent week has to do extra with LIV, which is making its first look on the Masters. The community has no plans to regulate its protection expectations for the Saudi-backed rivals, although I wouldn’t count on ESPN (or CBS) to spend a lot airtime discussing the occasions of the tour throughout its Masters protection.
“This isn’t a PGA Tour vs. LIV conversation at all,” Van Pelt mentioned. “It’s who’s the low man at Augusta National. There’s been zero conversation, nor would there be, to exclude someone based on which tour he played for.”
A miraculous Masters comeback
SiriusXM Masters broadcast schedule
Thursday to Sunday, 4/6-9: 2 p.m. ET by the completion of play
Programming notes: Rocco Mediate joins SiriusXM’s Masters protection as an analyst.
This 12 months’s Masters was all the time a longshot for Maureen Madill.
The former professional and longtime analyst for SiriusXM and the BBC had crossed Augusta National off her schedule months earlier than XM government producer Taylor Zarzour approached her about serving as an analyst on the printed.
“You’re probably not aware of this,” she advised Zarzour with a chuckle. “But my stepson is getting married on Wednesday of Masters week … Shows you how much interest my family has in golf.”
But that wasn’t the one cause why Madill thought the Masters was a pipedream. Far from it.
It was solely months in the past that Madill discovered herself actually too ailing to face, dwelling “the life of an 85-year-old.” The trigger was a illness docs couldn’t fairly perceive. First, they thought her situation was an offshoot of Long Covid. Later, after discovering a mass on her liver, they assumed the trigger was most cancers. But a battery of assessments and scans known as that analysis into query.
All the whereas, Madill was at house; unable to work and, way more typically, unable to stroll.
“My husband and me, our own private mantra was, ‘No bad news yet,’” Madill mentioned. “Because they couldn’t tell us anything bad definitively, you see. Then some bright spark sent my blood off to the Tropical Diseases Unit in London…”
The Tropical Diseases Unit discovered the reason for the mass on Madill’s liver wasn’t most cancers, however fairly a uncommon amoebic parasite. She acquired an intense battery of remedy a couple of weeks again and, thus far, has been surprised by her personal progress.
“My health has been a cliff face,” Madill mentioned. “A vertical cliff upwards.”
A cliff so important, she started to surprise if she would possibly have the ability to name the Masters once more. One day, she acquired one other name from Zarzour.
“What’s the latest on this family wedding?” Zarzour requested.
“Are you asking me if they’ve broken up?” Madill replied.
Zarzour paused.
“Would you consider flying out on Thursday and coming and watching for us for the weekend?”
Next weekend, you’ll have the ability to hear Mo Madill on SiriusXM’s protection of the Masters. It’ll be her first broadcast since June 2019, and the success of an Augusta National comeback that’d make even Tiger Woods blush.
“The thing that I’m going to regret is because I won’t be there on the practice days, I won’t be able to get any photographs at all,” Madill mentioned.
“I reckon I can get over that.”
CBS nixes Masters ‘walk-and-talks’
CBS Masters broadcast schedule
Saturday, 4/8: 3-7 p.m. ET
Sunday, 4/9: 2-7 p.m. ET
Programming notes: 13 Green Jackets, a dialog with Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Scottie Scheffler airs at 2-3 p.m. ET on Saturday.
Jim Nantz remembers Augusta: The Masterful Tom Weiskopf airs Sunday from 1-2 p.m. ET
One extremely well-liked component of CBS’s PGA Tour protection received’t earn a highlight throughout the community’s Masters protection: the walk-and-talk.
Lead producer Sellers Shy mentioned there have been “no plans” to run the extremely well-liked on-course interviews throughout the first main of the golf season. It’s unclear whether or not that change was pushed by Augusta National, the gamers, or some mixture of the 2.
That mentioned, the additional broadcast time shall be crammed with a handful of technological developments. Shy mentioned the CBS group was experimenting with a sequence of recent drone photographs and tracers for use throughout the match protection, together with a brand new “monopole” digital camera and tracer on the new-look thirteenth gap.
The monopole figures to present followers a brand new perspective on the thirteenth, a gap the membership lengthened by 35 yards in 2023 in response to distance beneficial properties throughout the game.
“We have hopefully tried to match the enhancements that the club afforded by lengthening the tee,” Shy mentioned.
NBC to supply largest-ever ANWA protection
NBC Augusta National Women’s Amateur schedule
Wednesday, 3/29: 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Thursday, 3/30: 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel)
Saturday, 4/1: Noon-3:30 p.m. ET (NBC)
Programming notes: Drive, Chip and Putt shall be broadcast from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sunday, 4/2.
Not many of us understand the labor that goes into making ready a brand new golf course for broadcast protection, from establishing cameras and tools to operating the fiber-optic cable relied upon for transmitting video and audio knowledge. This is why NBC’s resolution to indicate the opening two rounds of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur — held at close by Champions Retreat Golf Club — deserves excessive reward.
Unlike Augusta National, which has the printed infrastructure ready-made to televise an occasion, NBC crews dedicated dozens of hours to get Champions Retreat broadcast-ready.
Now the match that includes 72 of the perfect novice golfers alive could have the three days of nationwide TV protection it deserves, together with final-round protection on NBC. Kudos throughout for that effort.
The finest app in sports activities?
Programming notes: Do your self a favor and obtain the app here.
It was intriguing — however under no circumstances shocking — to listen to the next data posited by Full Swing government producer Chad Mumm.
“Cool tidbit on the Masters app,” Mumm tweeted Monday. “I talked to a Netflix exec who said the engineers there consider The Masters app to be the best streaming app in the world (outside of Netflix of course). Hard to disagree.”
I’ve heard comparable sentiments of surprise concerning the Masters app from numerous corners of the sports activities media world over the last few years. According to some well-informed sources, the app’s backend work is even higher than its uber-impressive person interface, which permits golf followers to effortlessly discover any shot from match week and watch greater than a dozen dwell streams.
Of course, Netflix does bear not less than one noticeable distinction to the Masters app: it’s used for multiple week out of the 12 months.
Developers, take notes.
Brandel Chamblee readies for battle
Programming notes: 55 hours of dwell protection throughout Masters week starting at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, April 3.
To these lucky sufficient to be on-site at Augusta National (or unlucky sufficient to be actually anyplace apart from their lounge throughout match play), there are few sources of knowledge higher than Golf Channel’s Live From, which airs day by day all through match week.
During Masters week, Live From guarantees no scarcity of highlight-worthy leisure, notably from analyst Brandel Chamblee, who got here out firing on NBC’s pre-Masters media name.
“As much as I’m against rolling the golf ball back, there were a few holes in the game of golf that when the pros played them, I did kind of wince. No. 13 was one of them,” Chamblee mentioned. “It did bother me to see players cut that corner and have a wedge into the green.”
And then there was this:
“What I saw earlier this year from Tiger Woods made me look forward to the Masters with great anticipation,” Chamblee mentioned. “He certainly has the world of golf’s attention.”
For the following 14 or so days, Brandel will, too.
Faldo’s return
We don’t know a lot, however Sir Nick is again within the broadcast sales space once more on the Masters! Per James Corrigan, the three-time Masters champ has signed on to work as an analyst for Sky Sports’ protection at Augusta National.
As I discovered once I spoke with him again in December, retirement has are available in matches and begins for Faldo. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too shocked to listen to he’s again on the printed circuit, nevertheless. These had been his phrases when requested about life in retirement: “I’m not sitting on my a–.“
The better of the remainder
It can be unsuitable to put in writing a column of this size about Masters media goings-on with out highlighting the work that’ll quickly be coming your method on this very web site.
GOLF could have one in every of our largest contingents ever at subsequent week’s Masters, with wall-to-wall protection of the whole lot taking place on the bottom at Augusta National in digital, print, social media, video and podcast type. We’ve spent weeks planning out our content material plan for subsequent week, and whereas I’m wildly biased, I can’t look ahead to you all to see it.
Keep your consideration locked on our social channels, on our newsletters, and naturally, on our web site. You received’t wish to miss it.
