Catching up at a professional golf tournament can be an unnerving exercise for the players, caddies, television partners, tournament staff and the fans. The finish line is Sunday night and few other sports deal with the prospect of the event being pushed into an extra day. The 87th Masters felt the pressure of playing golf on this Saturday because in the absence of at least finishing the second round, a Monday finish was very much in play. When play resumed on Saturday morning it was in the upper 40’s with light rain but they were playing golf at 8 AM in Augusta and that was a good start to the day.
Our team at SiriusXM was in place when play resumed which meant we were all in route to the course at 6 AM. The Masters spectators are not an arrive early and leave late, kind of crowd. The traffic was legit on Washington Road at 6:15 for the gates to open at 7 AM. After a quick breakfast of egg whites and bacon I was prepared to go on the air in the event of a stoppage at any point in the morning. Golf writers and media members are very in-tune with the potential weather changes and despite the tedium of packing for four seasons the scribes in the Press building were outfitted for the extreme change in the weather conditions. Being able to drive from Charlotte allowed me to bring way too many clothes and I had four layers on Saturday morning. I would only need them for an hour because by the time I got on the golf course at 2:15 PM I knew that the amount of time they would continue to play was dwindling down to very few minutes.
Before going on the air today I spent an hour talking to Mike Tirico who is anchoring the radio broadcast after doing three hours on Golf Channel. He’s a generational broadcaster with greater range than anyone of his or any other generation. Mike isn’t just an elite broadcaster, he’s a sports nerd and broadcasting savant. We went from discussing the sports broadcasting landscape to talking about the careers of some of the top analysts in sports, not as broadcasters but their athletic backgrounds. Mike is a superstar in the industry but he’s the consummate team guy.
I walked out on the golf course to find Phil Mickelson, Gary Woodland and Joaquin Neimann playing the 8th hole and to observe three elite players today all have to play it as a legit three shot par 5 is rare. The golf course was beyond saturated, and the greens were approaching the unputtable stage. Mickelson currently being in the top 10 amplifies the adage that talent is timeless. He has institutional knowledge of Augusta National, but he has no form to speak of late so his place on the leaderboard is more than a little bit surprising.
I told you I was going to step out for my lunch order, and I did with an order of fried chicken and mac and cheese. It was pretty good but there were way too many breadcrumbs on top of the mac and cheese and the flavor was ordinary. I make a four-cheese mac and cheese a couple times a year and my standards are high, and their offering was average. The fried chicken was nicely done but I want some spice and they are trying to satisfy the masses so there was no kick. I dined with Taylor Zarzour, Justin Ware, one of our lead producers and Rocco Mediate. Producing golf on the radio is an art and science and Justin is Michelangelo and Einstein in one. He’s tremendous at his craft. Rocco is dipping his feet in the broadcasting waters this week and I appreciated his ordering of a cheeseburger with no bun. A naked burger is underrated especially if the bun offering is poor.
It was an early departure for our team when play was called at 3:15 PM. We recorded some segments for the postgame show, and I grabbed an oatmeal and raisin cookie for the road before heading to the media lot. Eating this garbage is research and not an indictment on my discipline. Maybe it’s both.
Best dressed media member… Brandel Chamblee. I saw the junior senator walking through the press building and he was resplendent in a muted maroon plaid jacket, adorned with a navy pocket square, and taupe-colored trousers.
It’s going to be a long and wonderful Sunday.