CBS Sports’ Jim Nantz “did not speak for almost four minutes” during the Masters’ final round as he let fans soak in Rory McIlroy’s win, according to Andrew Gamble of the IRISH STAR. McIlroy, falling to his knees on the green, “shared an embrace” with caddie Harry Diamond before greeting wife Erica and daughter Poppy in an “emotional moment.” The whole scene “played out to a backdrop of silence from Nantz in the booth.” Nantz’s “call and the silence that followed truly showcased the 65-year-old’s veteran savviness as he let the pictures and emotion do the talking” (IRISH STAR, 4/13). THE ATHLETIC’s Richard Deitsch wrote the Masters was “thrilling television.” Nantz and analyst Trevor Immelman “paid homage” to Justin Rose, who finished second, after McIlroy’s winning putt dropped. After a “quick back-and-forth between the lead broadcasters, CBS went silent.” With the camera tight on the golfer, McIlroy was “feted by a parade of well-wishers during a long stroll back to the clubhouse.” CBS “got the money line” when McIlroy told his buddies, “I gotta go get a green jacket.” CBS Sports Lead Golf Producer Sellers Shy said that “approach, for the broadcast to ‘lay out’ or be silent, began in 2019” when Tiger Woods won his fifth Masters. Deitsch: “You can complain about CBS Sports when it comes to who it shows during a tournament, but it generally nails the post-celebration of the Masters” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/13).
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ATLANTIC: In London, Alan Tyers writes Sky Sports coverage of the Masters was the “most anticipated sports broadcast of the year so far because McIlroy versus Bryson DeChambeau was a proper duel.” That showdown “didn’t really happen, but maybe that made it even more watchable because the drama became truly zoomed in on one man.” McIlroy has “never been less than a captivating watch on TV,” but Sunday night was the “latest and greatest thrill ride he has taken us on” (London TELEGRAPH, 4/14). In Dublin, Mary Hannigan writes on Sunday afternoon, Sky’s “sole focus was on Rory and Bryson.” Sky started that Sunday coverage with “clips of Rory’s past major meltdowns, accompanied by a melancholic soundtrack and slow-mos of him looking crestfallen.” And then he had a double bogey on the first and “it felt like deja vu all over again” (IRISH TIMES, 4/14).
