Golf missing out on new fans with Masters omission from terrestrial TV - Nick Westby comment

The vivid colours associated with the first major of the year are all part of the charm of the Masters.

But my first introduction to it was on a black and white television, one of those where you had to turn the dial to find the station every time you wanted to change channel. Young ‘uns have it so easy!

It was the 1994 Masters, Jose Maria Olazabal’s first win at Augusta, and being my first introduction to golf – the drama, the tension, ‘the Masters doesn’t get going until the back nine on Sunday’ - I was bewitched.

I bought my first golf club in the days that followed, played my first round of golf shortly after and the fairways of South Yorkshire haven’t been safe from divots ever since.

The BBC had brought golf to life with its Masters coverage and a convert was born.

The following year I watched it from the start as Ben Crenshaw prevailed, and then in 1996, finally with a colour TV in my bedroom, watched enchanted as Nick Faldo hunted down Greg Norman in a Masters for the ages.

The Masters had become appointment viewing. Always the second weekend in April, always the colours and the drama, forever in the mind’s eye the voices of Peter Alliss and Alex Hay to guide us, Ken Brown out on the course with the lawnmowers on the fifth fairway at 4am.

The landscape began to shift as long ago as 2011 when Sky secured rights to broadcast all four days, leaving BBC with only live footage of the weekend action.

By 2020 that had been reduced to just highlights when Sky landed the exclusivity rights it craved. And now in 2023 for the first time in 56 years, there is absolutely no coverage of the Masters on terrestrial television because the BBC – which in 2005 broadcast 28 days of live golf - balked at the reported £1m fee for a highlights package and no other broadcaster picked it up.

What a shame. What a huge shame.

How many kids is golf missing out on because they are unable to see free-to-air coverage of the Masters like I was?

This is not to decry the job Sky do in covering golf.

They do a splendid, thorough job. As someone who can afford their golf package, I have been impressed at the scope of their coverage from the Open in particular. Not just wall-to-wall of all four days and in-depth interviews, but the educational packages they do with the big-name golfers on the range.

Sky have pumped plenty of money into the game of golf through their partnership with the R&A. They also acknowledge the limitations of their reach, offering free coverage of Amen Corner throughout the four days via the Sky Sports Golf YouTube channel and Sky Sports App, much as they do with the major cricket finals that they have simul-broadcast on Channel 4 in recent years.

We also live in a world now where there are far more ways for broadcasters to showcase content, and for consumers to enjoy it.

Not only is there YouTube and mobile apps which Sky are utilising, but their own social media channels are full of highlights.

As many sports are finding, audiences are increasingly moving towards bitesize content in the face of rising costs for broadcast rights.

Sky are not immune to the economic challenges, either, they have yet to agree a deal to broadcast this year’s men’s US Open, the major won by Matt Fitzpatrick last year.

But that doesn’t solve the immediate problem – how to watch the unparalleled drama and splendour of a Masters on free-to-air television this weekend?

Even Rory McIlroy, golf’s great ambassador these days, has an opinion.

“I think if you’re thinking nostalgically, yes, it is a shame, growing up watching the Masters and The Open on BBC," he said when news broke earlier this year.

“I just think the landscape of sports and media and entertainment has changed so much over the last 10 years that it’s not the model anymore. It’s either Sky in the UK or it’s streaming services.

"And the rights to these sporting events have just become so expensive that it’s just not feasible for companies like the BBC to pay that sort of money. Is it unfortunate? Yes.”

A modern perspective and all highly agreeable.

But the nostalgist in me wonders how many new fans golf is missing out on because the majesty of the Masters unfolds without them seeing it.