- CBS has been the network TV broadcast partner of The Masters for the past 64 years.
- The Week 10 NFL schedule has been rearranged to allow CBS to broadcast pro football and The final round of The Masters.
- There will be no 10 AM Pacific start games on CBS for the first time since 1998.
Dustin Johnson won’t become the first player in Masters history to shoot under 70 in all four rounds but that’s about all he’s done wrong to this point. Johnson essentially ‘lapped the field’ on Saturday shooting a ridiculous 7 under par 65 which included an eagle and two birdies in the first four holes. So dominant was DJ’s third round performance that Golf.com called it ‘almost golf’s version of a perfect game’. Had he hit the green on the 18th–he missed it by inches–he would have been in a class by himself according to Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee:
“I almost feel like I’m talking about a perfect game that was lost on the 27th batter. Because he hit every single fairway and missed that 12th green by just inches coming into the 18th green. That’s how close this was from tee-to-green to being the most perfect round of golf ever played in the statistical era of major championships. Because no player has hit every fairway and every green. That’s how close Dustin Johnson came to perfect today, it was right there.”
What Johnson *did* accomplish was to tie the 54 hole record at The Masters and give himself a four shot lead heading into the final 18 holes. He’s got a legit shot of setting the 72 hole record at The Masters and that would rank him among golf’s elite legends. And to make sure you see it all The Masters, CBS and the NFL are working together to accommodate an unprecedented Sunday of sports action.
CBS has broadcast The Masters for 64 years–for those of you scoring at home Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House then–and they’re going to cover the final round on Sunday. The problem is that they’ve also got a contract with the NFL to honor and thanks to COVID-19 they’ve got an unprecedented situation with NFL football and The Masters on the same day. No problem, assuming that all of the relevant parties are willing to work together. The Masters will do their part starting the final round at a brutal 5 AM Pacific with threesomes off of both tees. The plan is to get everything finished by 3 PM.
This will let CBS air the late games thanks to a bit of schedule shuffling by the NFL. For the first time since 1998, there will be no 10 AM Pacific start time games on CBS. All five games in the 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern timeslot will air on Fox. It also means there will be more late afternoon games than early afternoon games. Not counting Week 17 action, this is the first time in at least a decade that there will be more games at 1 PM Pacific/4 PM Eastern than at 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern. There are five games in the early timeslot and six in the late one. Finally, some good news for Nevada sports bettors.
It also means that there won’t be any Jim Nantz/Tony Romo pairing on CBS NFL coverage this week. Nantz is the lead announcer for the Masters for the 33rd time and obviously that takes priority over a midseason NFL game. Romo–an avid golfer himself–will have the weekend off from his NFL duties and will presumably be watching his usual broadcast partner call the action from Augusta.
As far as Dustin Johnson, he’s now a prohibitive -265 moneyline favorite to win his first Masters green jacket. The golfers behind DJ are Cameron Smith (+1400), Sungjae Im (+1400), Abraham Ancer (+1600) and Justin Thomas (+2000).
