Masters TV Review: Streaming Improved but Several Key Things Have Been Lacking

Objectivity and decent humor are in short supply, John Hawkins writes, and the Masters leader's knee shouldn't be a talking point anymore.

Editors note: An earlier version of this story stated that Shane Bacon said on air that Tiger Woods was not limping on Thursday. It was Colt Knost who observed that Woods was walking with "hardly any limp." We've removed that portion of the column.

Not to hang out at the punchbowl of hope or anything, but early-round streaming from golf’s biggest tournaments appears to have taken a step forward. Multiple featured groups were all consolidated into a single feed on ESPN+ and Masters.com, enhancing a platform that had required viewers to moonwalk back to the home page for a different threesome.

That left us with Shane Bacon, Colt Knost and Billy Kratzert presiding over the first 36 holes of the 2023 Masters, at least until the main telecast began in the middle of the afternoon. After a strong opening round buoyed by high energy and engaging chemistry, the trio sounded like a team that had played a 19-inning ballgame the previous evening. Six or seven hours chained to a microphone is two or three hours longer than logic suggests—pro golf doesn’t move swiftly enough to fend off redundancy or fatigue.

I would have fallen asleep by morning’s end if the editor hadn’t asked for a quick-hit recap of the pre-cut presentation from Augusta National. His wish is my command. Beats working.

> Armed with a deep background on fellow Texan Scottie Scheffler, Knost shared generous portions of that knowledge while the defending champion opened with a 68. As Scottie went south on Friday, so did the depth and frequency of the commentary. A glaring example occurred early Friday, when Knost patted himself on the back for predicting that Dustin Johnson would hit an iron off the third tee. The subject was revisited beyond the edge of overkill a couple of hours later, although no mention was made as to why so many players were laying up. Pin position at the third unequivocally dictates whether guys try to drive the green or pull an iron for ideal fairway position. Kratzert finally explained this after a meaningful strategic point had been bungled and belabored.

> I’m a Knost fan. The announcer, not the comedian. In his smooth transition from unsuccessful tour pro to network analyst, the 2007 U.S. Amateur champ has brought some life to Dullsville, strengthening CBS with his reservoir of knowledge and familiarity with today’s players, not his sense of levity. “That’s higher than Phil’s leap on 18!” Knost declared after Jon Rahm blasted a towering drive off the eighth tee Thursday. Mickelson barely got off the ground after winning the 2004 Masters. Too many of Knost’s quips are low-flying flops.

> Television humor is like a baby’s diaper. It can really stink, but eventually, you get used to the scent. Streaming, meanwhile, equates to an untamed frontier with few rules and a shortage of narrative polish—Jim Nantz doesn’t call golf on the internet. Given how ESPN’s Manningcasts were such an immediate hit, why not chuck the play-by-play format on Thursday/Friday and find a few guys who can shoot the bull without playing the fool? It certainly works for talk radio.

> Two words never used in succession throughout the TV week: LIV Golf. As if Brooks Koepka’s four-shot lead was actually held by a guy who drives a truck for a living.

> While we’re at it, Koepka’s bum knee has long served as a wobbly crutch used by analysts to explain why the four-time major champion vanished from leaderboards of any size for the better part of two years. In the second episode of the Netflix documentary series “Full Swing,” Koepka makes it perfectly clear, F-bombs applied for emphasis, that his confidence was damaged considerably in the fallow period following his victory at the 2019 U.S. Open. He was a shaken man, not a wounded one. Just because he makes back-to-back bogeys doesn’t mean he needs another surgery.

> When Bacon referred to a Danny Willett bunker shot as “delicious” Friday morning, some educated viewers might have felt compelled to reach for a doggie bag. Again, there’s no law prohibiting goofy descriptions or nerdy phrasing during the auxiliary coverage, although Bacon, who sounds like a nice guy, could use some honest-to-goodness coaching if he wants to call tournaments on a regular basis. He knows how to dispense relevant information and play nice with others, but Bacon leaps before he looks. Not an advisable trait in a visual medium.

> Something all sportswriters learn 20 minutes out of college is a lesson made essential by its obviousness: no cheering in the press box. Words to live by, which doesn’t rationalize why an alarming (and growing) number of golf announcers indulge in shameless levels of rooting and cheerleading almost every week. It’s unprofessional. It’s also unnecessary, nauseating and journalistically nefarious. Maybe the three men assigned to the marathon shift in the early rounds just don’t know any better. Even if nuanced viewers do.

> Kratzert has been calling tournaments for what seems like a hundred years, so it’s disappointing that he acquiesces to every observation made by his fellow announcers without a syllable of original thought. He begins his responses by saying “I agree” more often than a company man at a mafia meeting. “I was just gonna say” is another of his favorites, which means Kratzert is repeating what you just heard instead of adding insight to the discussion, let alone enlighten the audience with a credible counter-opinion. Conflict isn’t the mother of all verbal intercourse, but it’s always the most interesting aunt at the dinner table.

> Too bad Brian Crowell and Smylie Kaufman didn’t take over on the stream until right before ESPN came on the air at 3 p.m. Kaufman, an NBC rookie, has already established himself as a terrific addition to the Peacock lineup—he’s a rare natural talent with superb announcing sensibilities and effortless conversational style. Crowell adds a touch of class while serving as a highly compatible partner, meaning the late shift is a very different and much cleaner show. Both should be wired up and rolling no later than noon.

> A sense of duty is the primary reason why Dottie Pepper has been such an effective on-course reporter over the years. Not that she can’t trade frivolous jabs with the fellas or laugh out loud on occasion—CBS could use a lot more of that repartee—but Pepper fully understands the responsibilities her job entails. She is business friendly and crucial to every telecast she works, leaving us to wonder why a voice from the grass hasn’t become a fixture in the streaming world. Three dudes describing the action off a set of monitors? No wonder the commentary sounds so shallow.

It’s just another predictable excuse in a frontier full of them.