CBS showed 391 shots during its coverage of the Masters on Sunday, including all 71 of Rory McIlroy’s round as he went on to win his second straight Green Jacket. McIlroy was the only player to have all shots shown during Sunday’s broadcast. Cameron Young, who played in the final pairing and finished T3, had 67 of his 73 shots shown. Justin Rose had the third-most shots shown on Sunday with 51 (finished T3), while runner-up Scottie Scheffler had 50 shown during his round of 68.
Overall, CBS showed 391 shots on the day, up from 337 for last year’s final round. Those 391 shots were across 23 players, also an increase from 20 last year.
On the commercial side
CBS showed just 17.5 minutes of full commercials for the full broadcast, which ran from 2:00pm ET to just before 7:00pm. All ads were from the tournament’s four “Champion Partners” -- IBM, Bank of America, AT&T and Mercedes-Benz. CBS also aired two separate 30-second “sponsored by” segments during the day that highlighted the four partners.
All but one full commercial break consisted of three 30-second ads. CBS’s first break of the day, which came around 40 minutes into its coverage, was a 60-second break in total with two 30-second ads. CBS’s heaviest commercial hour came from 3:00 to 4:00pm, which had four 90-second breaks for 6 minutes of total ad time. CBS had just one 90-second break in the final hour between 6:00 and 6:53, when McIlroy’s final putt dropped.
Critics come out
CBS was widely criticized on Sunday for segments of its coverage. Both McIlroy and Young hit wild tee shots on the 18th hole, McIlroy to the right, Young to the left. McIlroy, with a two-shot lead, played a blind approach shot to the 18th green over a massive oak tree, but a full 60 seconds elapsed before CBS cameras found his ball in a greenside bunker. CBS did show Young’s approach in that window, but like McIlroy’s, it wasn’t able to track his ball. Still another 35 seconds elapsed before Jim Nantz indicated the ball in the greenside bunker might be McIlroy’s as he was walking in that direction.
Earlier on Sunday, the network drew criticism for not showing a short birdie putt by Scottie Scheffler on the second hole that, had he made it, would have pulled him within two of the lead. On the 13th hole, CBS’s shot tracer appeared to show Justin Rose’s second-shot approach heading straight for the tributary of Rae’s creek, but the ball instead pitched onto the green and gave Rose a mid-range eagle putt.
CBS also was praised during the week for its drone tracing, which was used for the first time at the Masters and highlighted the course’s sweeping doglegs and topography. CBS also added new cameras around Amen Corner that caught the attention of viewers with never-before-seen angles of Augusta National.
