Golf Fans Are Fuming After The Masters Opted No To Broadcast The First Half Of Tournament Leaders Third Round

The Masters, a tradition unlike any other.

Also a tradition unlike any other is the terrible television and streaming coverage of The Masters.

Augusta National Golf Club is notoriously stingy about the amount of golf that can actually be broadcast from the tournament. The idea is that they want to maintain the sanctity of the event and the special feeling for those in attendance.

Slowly but surely, they’ve back off that stance.

More and more coverage has become available to viewers in recent years. But it’s still not as comprehensive as every other tournament, including the other three majors.

That wasn’t a huge issue on Thursday and Friday.

But on Saturday, when then predicted inclement weather hit hard, it became a huge, huge problem for viewers.

The wave of golfers that teed off in the afternoon for Friday’s second round finished off those rounds on Saturday morning. Once they finished, golfers were regrouped and received tee times for the third round.

The final group of leaders included Brooks Koepka (-12), Jon Rahm (-10) and amateur Sam Bennett (-8). That group was scheduled to tee off at 1:06 p.m. ET.

There was just one problem.

CBS wasn’t supposed to begin its coverage of the round until 3 p.m. This happens every year for the third round, but usually the leaders tee off closer to the start of coverage time.

Many assumed the leaders would be put in a featured group that could be streamed on The Masters app.

No dice.

Instead, fans were treated to a group that included Tiger Woods, who was +3 and 15 shots off the lead, teeing off on the back nine.

That meant fans would have to wait nearly two hours to watch the leaders, or approximately half of their third round in the year’s biggest tournament.

And they were not happy about.

But hey, at least fans could watch Tiger go +6 for the first seven holes of his third round. He’s now 22 shots back of the lead. Good stuff!