Masters streaming isn't just in Rae's Creek
http://www.masters.org/en_US/index.html
http://cbs.sportsline.com/golf/masters/video
Need more proof that the Internet is taking over the world -- at least the mass-media world?
Check out www.masters.org.
That's right, even the tradition-obsessed Masters has entered the digital age -- in a big way this year.
Having already offered live Internet streaming two years ago of Amen Corner -- the name given to hole Nos. 11, 12 and 13 by golf's greatest writer, Herbert Warren Wind, back in the '50s -- CBS and the Masters now add Nos. 15 and 16 to the cybermix, with Bobby Clampett and Billy Kratzert offering commentary on all five holes via cbssports.com and masters.org.
If even the Masters is moving to accommodate the Internet, newspapers are in even more trouble than I thought.
Of course, that's in addition to the extensive live TV coverage, which has found ESPN joining in this year with the whimsical par-3 tournament Wednesday and then the more suitably staid first- and second-round coverage, Thursday and today from 3-6 p.m.
ESPN reruns the second round at 7 p.m. today, and CBS airs a highlights show at 10:30 p.m. on WBBM Channel 2 before seizing exclusive coverage at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
Of course, that's "exclusive" except for that live Web streaming at Nos. 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16, which gets under way at 9:45 a.m. today and at 10:45 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
"There's a lot of tradition at Augusta, but there are some new elements as well," said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, on a media conference call last week.
The key in adding these innovations, he said, is to make sure they're done with "quality" on all platforms and "not to do anything in any way that damages the primary platform, which is live coverage on Saturday and Sunday."
That's something equally sacrosanct to both the Masters and CBS, which of course is counting on the event to remain the highest-rated golf tournament of the year, no matter how many younger viewers have an eye on what's going on at Amen Corner on their laptops.
The person with the biggest say on those ratings is, of course, Tiger Woods, who has been talking Grand Slam since January. On the conference call, lead CBS announcers Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo had to fend off ridiculous questions about whether the golf season would be a loss if Tiger didn't win this weekend.
At the same time, though, Faldo fully expected him to rise to the occasion.
"Whether Tiger pulls it off or not, that's going to be the great excitement of the week," he said. "I'm pretty confident he'll be in the running all week."
He also expected Tiger to be in the running for all the majors, given how he plays Torrey Pines, this year's U.S. Open course, and how long Royal Birkdale is at this year's British Open. That would leave only the PGA Championship and Oakland Hills.
"The golf courses are very favorable for Tiger this year," Faldo said. "It's as good a setup as he's going to get, maybe for a while."
As for ESPN, it's already done a fine job of adding the early-round coverage without tarnishing Masters tradition. In fact, the kid-friendly par-3 tournament Wednesday went a long way to making the Masters seem less stiff and stodgy.
Yet look for Nantz, as ever, to make up for that this weekend.
"I think the word 'reverence' is something that applies to everyone who's on the grounds at Augusta," he intoned. "It's not something that you have to remind yourself, 'Oh, I'm at Augusta.' … Everybody who's at Augusta feels it."
And he's sure to make sure viewers feel it at home as well. Which makes that Nantz-free live Internet streaming of Amen Corner and Nos. 15 and 16 sound all the more inviting.
In the air