Hello friends. CBS commentator Jim Nantz has denied rumours that the broadcasting network deliberately restricted its coverage of LIV players during the final round of the Masters.
Phil Mickelson made a stunning Sunday charge but some fans were unhappy with the amount of television time he received. Nantz however, told Sports Illustrated that CBS showed an adequate amount of action from the three-time Masters winner throughout Sunday.
The early portion of Sunday included the rain delayed third round coverage before the final round that afternoon.
“If you went back and looked at the full coverage on Sunday, including Sunday morning, the finishing up of the third round, our guys were really on Phil,” Nantz said. “Part of it is optics, when you look at the leaderboard at the end and you see that Phil’s tied for second, you think, ‘Well, my gosh, they must have been on him all day.’”
Nantz also explained that any reason for some restrained coverage of Phil was because he only truly entered the winning conversation on the 18th green when he rolled in a birdie putt and fist pumped to the patrons.
“With two holes to play, he was tied for fifth with eight other guys at six under par, and he happens to be facing two holes that you’re lucky if you come through there unscathed in 17 and 18,” Nantz said. “The odds are, if you had to make a prediction on it as you stood on the 17th tee, he’s probably going to make bogey on one of the last two holes and he’ll finish in the top 10.
“To Phil’s enormous credit, he knocked it to an inch in 17 and made birdie. We showed his entire playing of 18, and all of the sudden he finishes birdie-birdie, and it was a tremendous close by him.”
This isn’t the first time this year that LIV players have felt disrespected by broadcasters or the PGA Tour. Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson were omitted from the WGC Match Play winners list earlier this month while Ewen Murray and Rich Beem refused to acknowledged the LIV tour as part of their round one Masters commentary.
Murray referred to LIV Golf as the ‘other tour’ while Beem said that Koepka had won on ‘his tour.’
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