Masters 2026

[Game Girl]

hi everybody this is the Masters is back and I am so excited to hear it everybody's thoughts about the masters along with posting my comments like every year. This year, I’m shifting my focus a bit away from the beginner's guide since it’s been four years. Even though I'm moving on, I’ll still concentrate on casual viewing, catering to those who haven’t followed every single day. If CBS provides mini recaps, I’ll cover those as well. I might also touch on the kids' tournament (Drive chip and putt) if time permits. (Quick add-this is because of Easter is really dependent on if there is any last-minute Easter plans, I made a lot of this on March 23 before checking the date.)

Coverage for the final day should be shorter compared to last year. I expect this year to streamline my posts. it was supposed to happen last year but last year's tournament was particularly thrilling. There may be some delays, as the board admin has now mandated that I get an editor for all my posts. (which might change the tone slightly) I was previously banned for 34 days last summer, and I’d like to avoid any future bans, so I’m being extra cautious. This might result in a one-day delay, but it could be longer, especially on weekdays.

I thought about extending my coverage, but after seeing how many streaming services are involved, I wondered who they’re actually targeting with their fragmented broadcasting strategy. While I understood the Golf Channel's approach (even with my complaints), splitting the tournament across three different subscriptions without cross-broadcasting will likely lead to fewer viewers. After all, no one wants to watch a tournament where they can’t see the conclusion— except a person that's putting it on in the background.

Now that I've vented about the streaming arrangements for the Masters, let’s get started!

[Game Girl]

In this post, I’ll focus on the standout performances and give a quick overview of the broadcast. I apologize for the delay, but reviewing this in a timely manner has been challenging due to the extensive amount of material to review. Additionally, the event falling on Easter Sunday adds to the difficulties given family obligations. 

Moving on to the broadcast itself, I think this was broadcasted nicely. they went through each person as they were going on and you got to understand why you were supposed to care about these people but not to the point that you couldn't see the game.

One critique is that (even with excellent announcing) it was sometimes difficult to follow the various age-based competitions all incorporated into one program.  Clarity might have been improved with a better use of graphics. Given that each age range has only one division, the organization could have been more straightforward. As presented, however, I repeatedly had surreal feeling that I was bouncing between different tournaments. I did ballroom and it really does not need to be this messy of a structure considering each age range in this tournament has one division. (ballroom has each age range having a gold, silver, bronze and newcomer division)

I also noticed an overabundant amount of promotion of 'get your kid playing.' While some dialogue on the subject was to be expected, at times it was so repetitive that encouragement appeared to be used as a substitute for substantive information about the competitions. Thankfully, the announcer appeared to focus more on the actual gameplay deeper into the broadcast. I feel like it would have been better if they did it once every 30 minutes instead of 3. it got better later on. I did like the 'plastic golf' club segment though.

Regarding the participants, my insights are somewhat limited due to the nature of this tournament. In future years, I’ll likely focus more on standout performances. For now, I want to mention a couple of individuals who caught my attention. Texas Terry and Lucy Cui were, respectively, the overall winners in the Boys and Girls 12-13 groups. Stephen Sanders and Ava Chin were, respectively, the overall winners in the Boys and Girls 10-11 groups.  Roy Moon and Riley Huang were, respectively, the overall winners in the Boys and Girls 7-9 groups.   Notably, Riley scored a hole-in-one on her way to hosting the winning her trophy.

Some interesting miscellaneous notes include a gritty performance from Tyler Fink, who is returning to the fairways after suffering a recent injury. also apparently one of the announcers had cotton candy from a 7 year old.(named Sophia) though for the record she did offer to share. Additionally,  Zoe Crosby impressed me with her performance. I also enjoyed the friendship quest by the “Texas Trio” triumvirate that competed in different groups. 

Looking forward to next year’s competition and watching how the next generation of golfers continue to improve their game play. (author note- some information relating to who won was added by the editor. usually I would just use my post and throw this post away but I was I gonna risk me being allowed on the site for that. I finished watching it as of this post when Texas won his division. honestly I think it's really obvious this particular post based on tone got edited to the gills even if the majority of the information was kept.)

[Game Girl]

sorry for the nearly 24 hour delay. my editor took a while.(I actually had everything finished by 1250am but my dad wasn't going to edit at that time)  this has to do with Thursday not Friday, since the highlights coming out at 11pm anyway meaning nothing is getting posted until after the highlights. I will focus mostly on the CBS highlight recording. I watched a little of it at approximately 5:20pm. I admire that, at least, they have the usual announcers, but some of the cuts are a bit strange, in that a good amount of time the camera panned in on a still azalea bush. I think trying to move the cameras around, even if it looks a tad bit sloppier, one may actually see more of the action shots in the long run, including the balls going bouncing on the green. Granted, unlike CBS, this is their first year, and hopefully, overtime they will reconsider showing entire minutes, versus mere seconds, of azalea bushes as broadcasting content. However, I do appreciate the bigger print that they put for the scoreboard on the corner of the screen. Yet, I question why, in a category named “featured group,” we have someone I have never heard of – Gotterup. I stopped watching at approximately 5:30pm and the rest of this post is focused based on the highlight video.
 
It has occurred to me that between this year and last we should at least keep in mind that production turn-around is a mere 3-5 hours. Thus, the fact viewers even had a chance to see anything on the matter seems miraculous given the extremely quick production for these recaps. While I still review as harshly as I usually do, and note that with such a quick turn-around mistakes will be made in production, I certainly appreciate the massive amount of work put into the production itself to allow views by the public.
 
There is little fondness, for me, with broadcasters talking about 2022  since that was the first Masters I watched and the one that began this tradition of making these posts annually. Despite my prior posts mostly complaining about, rather than analysing the game – that is done currently - everyone has been talking about how the course is dry, and I'm happy they began by summarising that for the people who purely watch CBS. However, how much the average viewer cares about how the course feels is up for debate.
 
Starting with Scotty Scheffler is always a great way to start. Yet, I feel that showing only one hit per player is a bit of a disservice particularly for the likes of Justin Rose and Scotty. But, Kurt Kitayama getting a lot of birdies was a highlight worth mentioning. I have been thinking about Justin Day - when I was going to make a “beginners guide” on YouTube, perhaps,(as of Saturday I don't think this is happening, I am much better at talking after the fact that to make stuff for before the fact) talking about each player and why you should care about them. While it may sound harsh, the best I can come up with on Justin Day is he appears a lot but does not do a lot. I understand it takes a lot to even get on that course, but he never breaks that wall of ever being a contender. When I was watching an interview - that listed his top score ever in the Masters - he never appears to have received a score high enough to really be a contender. Thus, I wonder, do we just focus on him to just focus on him? Something to contemplate. I see he is close to the top of the leaderboard, but it will take another day for me to believe he will stay there.
 
Notably, programmers showed some great shots. Sam Burns seems to get a lot of coverage. I will note he is quite creative in placing sponsor coverage on his clothing, including using the collar. I have never heard of Burns, and it would have been nice to have a better introduction of him. It was, however, nice to see Rory McIlroy be more relaxed after how tense he appeared over the last few years. Based on a recent documentary (which I think is fair game here considering how big it was) it seems like he had trouble recovering ever since his first tournament hitting into the woods so many.
 
I will add that they are speaking about one of the IBM ads using AI to choose different players to show. I certainly hope that is only for the app and would explain the disheveled style of the broadcast if, indeed, they have been using AI for multiple years in choosing who to show.
 
When I read someone's review on a different site they said that the par 4 contest was optional and not recommended. Now, I am starting to wish I covered it, but it's too late to record it now. I can see why they do what they do with the dry chip in putt because I wanted to watch that after seeing them talk about it heavily on this review last year, yet, I think they could have at least listed who won each category in a quick montage. The woman's amateur was heavily cut from previous years and that's pretty sad. Hopefully they delve a little more into it tomorrow, but for now I think they could have done a bit better than just mentioning the winner. Interestingly, apparently Sam Burns and Scotty Scheffler usually stay in the same house - who knew – but I suppose even pro-golfers need to bunk together. What did surprise me was that there was no mention of Gary Woodland, considering how hot a topic he is currently. Yet, I realise they are attempting to fit everything within 15 minutes and one of the segments is dedicated towards events not related to the Masters, thus, understand the need to cut some segments.

[Game Girl]

Regarding the broadcasting of the prime service (not to be confused with the CBS late-night summary broadcast, which will be addressed later), my overall impression is that it was satisfactory. Most of the advanced features worked well; however, I felt that we spent too much time analyzing a swing. Additionally, the "colored dots" segment distracted us from the game. That said, I do believe they are improving day by day, which is encouraging.
 
I began watching the Masters at 3:40. I acknowledge that I was only watching Amen Corner, which I realized around 4:05 PM. During the broadcast, Rory hit into the woods again at approximately 7 hours and 23 minutes into the recording (hole 13). After all, we can't have a Masters without Rory finding himself in a woodland area! This is more of an inside joke than a critique of the player, and he managed to get out nicely.
 
Rory's record for the largest lead in Masters history for 36 holes is a significant achievement. In terms of the highlights broadcast, I particularly enjoyed the Rory slideshow. Watching his new attitude on life during the interview was also refreshing.
 
Fleetwood and Lowry received appropriate coverage, while Rose and Sam Burns could have benefited from a bit more airtime. I'm uncertain where I stand on Patrick Reed; considering how much he appeared in the prime television broadcast, I was surprised they didn’t feature him more. I'm not sure if I’m pleasantly surprised or disappointed, either way he got a single bumper. It would have been nice to see coverage of players like Jason Day as well, but given Rory's dominance, I understand why why they did not feel the need to.

Finally, I must point out that the use of complete segments being slideshow about different back-to-back championships was lacking. these slideshow can be a great addition to the main broadcast, but when you only have 15 minutes to summarize 6 to 7 hours of play, this is not the time for such segments.Saturday should be short since there is actually no recap segment airing. I hope we can get some more posts coming. I might like to talk but I do like to see some other people talk as well.

[Game Girl]

Today, was only able to commence beginning watching the tournament around 4pm. (though I later went back through my recording, all of those bits had to be added after the editing process) I was treated with a flashback of an impressive shot made by Collin Morikawa on the 15th, who is presently tied for 12 place. Sam Stevens 18th hole with that ball pop in shot was impressive along with very entertaining visually to say the least. I doubt we will ever hear of this player again but for that one moment it was cool. the announcer says it was dancing around the cup, I say it was hopping towards it.

Speaking of standings, I was happy to see Scottie Scheffler have an amazing round to squeeze to respectable placement on the leaders board (even if it’s realistically on the outskirts of contention). The fact that it knotted at the top between Cameron Young (who also hit an amazing round of golf) and Rory Mcllory adds a welcome element of high-stakes drama for the final round being played tomorrow. I looked away for one second and Rory is in the forest again at 540pm. I have to say the traffic director comment it was funny. but too bad, he organise that shot so good except he hit a post. Aberg was briefly in the broadcast 36min which was nice even though I wish we got more.

Finally, I cannot sign off without tipping my cap to Shane Lowry and his hole-in-one on the 6th hole, something that when I was watching I was happy to be able to rewind it three times. This was his second hole-in-one playing at the Masters with the prior ace taking place on the 16th hole two years ago. thank you CBS for showing that particular clip again. Lowry stands in 4th place. you have to give him some credit from hitting it in a tree on the 11th. (I checked I can't find any footage of how he ended up in the tree though) Obviously, all eyes will be on Cam and Rory, but we can’t count out Shane or Sam Burns (who is currently in 3rd place).

this had to be added after the fact because it was during the recording watching process but thanks for making a package describing why DeChambeau was not there. I am sure are plenty of people wondering watching this why he appeared almost not at all because I was wondering where he was for the majority of all of the broadcast.

[Game Girl]

What an incredible tournament! Cameron Young’s first-hole bunker shot was impressive, and Shane Lowry's fourth-hole shot really stood out. 

Perhaps the greatest suspense came from Rory roaring (pun intended) out to a lead early in the tournament, then stumbling with a miserable round, only to collect himself sufficiently to pull off a fantastic victory with a wonderful final round of play. Speaking of the final round. between 350 and 414 was a roller coaster, not just for Rory but for multiple players going back and forth. I thought Rory did a wonderful job on the 12th and 13th holes. And it may be corny, but I loved the watch party at his home for that moment. it didn't seem that he followed the plan on trying to put the jacket on himself though. something I was actually disappointed in but understood why he wanted to respect tradition.

Justin Rose had a great overall performance.  He finished tied for third.  Early in the third round Justin was on a roll with three straight birdied (holes 7th, 8th and 9th) but momentum shifted against him at Amen Corner with buggies on the 11th and 12th holes.  On the 13th hole, Justin reached the green with two strokes, but ended up only scoring a par due to three putting the green. In the end, Justin finished two strokes behind Rory. 

did one of the announcers say they think Koepka was going to win at the end of his final round when he is not in first place. he can't fit any more shorts to get any higher so the only way he would win would be if every single person got lower. talk about a stumble of a comment.  This year felt like a record for "in-the-woods" type shots from multiple players. It could also simply be that the broadcast focused more on the analytics of players obstacles or that I’m personally more aware that great players sometimes have the ball land with very bad placement. 

It was a bit disappointing to see Bryson DeChambeau absent for most of the broadcast. (even before he was cut) This was because he missed the cut with a poorly timed triple bogey.  I am curious if his apparent focus on 3D printed clubs is impacting his game play, because I noticed people talking about that threw out some of the forms?  Bryson being cut deprived me of often colorful commentary regarding his golfing style. granted I am happy they had a segment explaining why he was not on the final round for viewers that did not see the rest of the tournament.

Miscellaneously, I’m curious if we’ll have comprehensive Friday to Sunday reviews again next year, given the complexities of streaming rights. I also noted that regular play ended exactly at 7 PM, which is a rarity for sports on network television! The jacket ceremony itself took another half hour, which may have frustrated viewers that wanted to shift their attention back to prime time television.  Finally, I appreciated the announcers keeping their commentary to a minimum; which allowed the focus to be on the actual game play.I like that the announcers are not announcing that much stuff again. I think these announcers are the best when they announce that one or two minor things. sorry for being a week late, I gave this actually the day after the masters but my editor took a week. again I have regulations that I have to wait for my editor before publishing.

What were your favorite moments from the tournament?

[mellongraig]

For me, it wasn't so much about the tournament itself, but the fact that The Masters experienced no rain for the first time in 15 years allowed it to be the driest since 2011. This meant that there were no delays weather wise and the players went off on the first tee for all four days (Thursday and Friday were threesomes off the first tee only, while Saturday and Sunday were twosome parings).

It was warm and hot especially the last two days of the tournament where temperatures got up into the mid to high 80s at peak point.