The Masters, a tradition unlike any other. My experience as a broadcaster there.

I was lucky enough to cover 9 Masters dating back to 2006 in various positions ranging from reporter and announcer to editor in chief. I'm still far away from the end of my professional career but I know that I will have a hard time topping that experience. Why ? Because the Masters is a tradition unlike any other.

When I first got to the grounds in April 2006, I felt overwhelmed by the beauty of the site and the weight of history and tradition. 30 minutes afterwards, I was overwhelmed by the rules I had to follow. The Masters is all about rules for patrons, press, photographers, television and even players. Of course the "no phone rule" can make it very hard to work and stay in touch with your production people at home and those rules might feel like a burden at first but I quickly discovered that it was actually a blessing in disguise.

Covering golf for a French TV can be tricky, you don't have the same production budget as the big markets for golf like the US or the UK and It can be very hard to get access to players, even the french players sometimes. But here comes the Augusta National Golf Club where everything is done to make sure you can work properly. As an international broadcaster you have your own area to talk to players and when a green jacket tells a player to stop there, he usually does (and I've seen ones trying to escape without luck) and you don't even have to bring your own camera, ANGC takes care of that. You have the opportunity to ask at least one question to any player, even Tiger, and once the interview is done you don't even have to handle the task of sending the footage back to your home base. ANGC is handling the upload to a very fast FTP server in a matter of minutes. I've never seen any sport event taking such a good care of its international partners and that's a good reason why the Masters keeps being such a powerful brand worldwide

Nobody (except a very small number of people from the CBS production crew) is allowed inside the ropes at the Masters. It's the only major that does that, and although it can make our work harder it also brings an unmatched experience for both the patrons and the viewers at home with an immaculate golf course only occupied by the players and caddies. To me, it's definitely worth the trouble, and sometime when I was inside ropes at golf tournaments I felt bad for the fans. During the 2008 US Open, there were so many journalists and photographers inside the ropes (along with VIPs, Tiger's wife and agent to name a few) following Tiger that the fans almost couldn't see a thing. In other majors you are sometimes allowed, sometimes not. The Open Championship always drove me mad because as an official broadcaster we were not allowed inside ropes even though anybody with a press badge was. Same thing with the Ryder Cup in Europe, I was on site for 3 different Ryder Cup in Europe (K Club, Celtic Manor and Gleneagles) and wasn't allowed once inside ropes. I was on site but only watching players on TV ! At least, at the Masters, everybody get the same treatment.

Even though nobody is allowed inside the ropes, from time to time you might get a pleasant surprise. In 2009 we were allowed on the Hogan Bridge to shoot stand ups. At any other course it would have been a great experience to be able to shoot on this type of monument, here at the Masters we felt like we were walking on the moon. I've been to some of the best golf courses on earth, from St Andrews to Pebble Beach, the Augusta National Golf Club is in its very own category. From Patrons to working press and international television I would bet that every single person allowed inside the ANGC would agree that they had the best experience of their lives... It all comes down to this, providing the best experience for everybody, every single day, every single year while even getting better at it each time. From 2006 to 2016 I noticed a lot of changes. They rebuild the international television center, the suites area, the press building and this year the merchandise shop. They added the Berksmans place for the ultra VIP, a place unlike any other. The quest for perfection never ends, this is what makes the Masters so great ! This year they are also providing top notch digital coverage of the event with feature stories from Jimmy Roberts, highlights clips etc. All the people running big time sport events around the world could take something, anything out of the Masters experience to improve their own product. The Masters is so good at everything it's almost unfair. Even the Pimento Cheese sandwiches are unmatched !

Maybe I will never set a foot again on those hallowed grounds but If I do I will make sure I appreciate every minute of it, just like I did for 9 years covering the greatest golf tournament on earth.

Have a great Masters week-end ! Can't wait to listen to Jim Nantz call the winning putt.

Sébastien AUDOUX

Edit 04/2020 : I was lucky to be able to get back on the grounds last spring just for a couple of days to shoot a few interviews for a documentary. On the sunday night before tournament week, as we were chilling out by the club house terrace, we saw Tiger Woods arriving late for his first practice round, nobobdy was around, except me and my cameraman. A week later Tiger was winning his fifth green jacket. A brief moment, unlike any other...