Masters - Where's the beef?

Is it just me, or is something missing from the Masters so far? Certainly the greens are fast enough, the fairways narrowed – just ask Phil – and the shaved fringe around the greens can still suck a ball into the water without much effort. My wife thinks there are too many players. Is it like the Seinfeld series with an army for a supporting cast instead of George, Elaine and Kramer. There’s no ongoing, week to week, year to year character development.

Five years ago I was hoping today would come and Tiger, Phil, Ernie, VJ and Sergio would be battling each other like dogs for the fiftieth time. What a dreamer I was.

I don’t think the broadcast is helping. The guys in the booth are alright, but none of them seem to be able to create drama. Is that their shortcoming, or maybe there just isn’t any. I thought Tim Clarke being at the top of the leader board on day two was worthy. Nick seems like an OK guy, but I’m wondering if he isn’t subconsciously downplaying everything. Is he stuck on wanting us to believe that he was better than any of these guys in his prime? When someone is trying to bend a shot around the trees while keeping it no more than 5 feet off the ground, someone has got to paint the picture for the viewer to get excited.

A note to the broadcasters, knock off the star wars movie soundtrack when you’re recapping earlier play, like you did today with Tiger. Watching the shots and listening to the commentary is enough electronic input, we don’t need the Hollywood Strings accompaniment.

Don’t let it be said that I’m only full of complaints with no advice. I think you could really add to the excitement and our understanding of the course and the changes made over recent years by inserting key shots on various holes from past competitions. Show Nicklaus hitting 3 iron where the players now routinely hit an 8 or Player in his prime blasting out to a foot from the front bunker on 18, where Monty left it 25 feet short today. The boys at Augusta own everything about the competition, so rights should be no problem.

I don’t know about you, but I hope things take a dramatic change for the better today and tomorrow.