2016 Masters thread

[trifectarich]

There are spots where they can absolutely kill you, but you generally have to be really wayward to get penalized.

The anti-Spieth today is Ernie Els, who needed seven putts to card a tidy 10 on the first hole.

When I saw that Els made 10, I just assumed there were penalty strokes involved, but, no; the Els video shows him needing six putts to cover what looks to be about 3 feet — maybe less.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Fowler out in 36, in in 44! for an 80.

Two double bogeys and a triple and a beeline to the range after his round.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

When I saw that Els made 10, I just assumed there were penalty strokes involved, but, no; the Els video shows him needing six putts to cover what looks to be about 3 feet — maybe less.

The video was unbelievable. Wow!

 

[Cosmo]

Day comin'

 

[Fly]

In the comments the author says:

"There is literally no other event on the planet where security would treat you that way for ducking a rope near a putting green."

Having covered an Olympics, I disagree. Maybe I didn't have any experiences THAT outlandish, but at the Olympics someone had clearly thought of every shortcut a reporter might want to take, ever corner he or she might want to cut, and they had a person or three standing there ready to tell you "no."

Try that at a Presidential or Presidential candidate function/gathering (minus the putting green). Guarantee you'd be treated harshly if you tried that one.

 

[da man]

Bubba just missed a gimme on 11, and followed with one of the best WTF? looks I've ever seen.

 

[hondo]

It's a news story. It's also one of the ten most important sports stories every year. Not covering it is not an option.

It's a private club, but they open it to the public for this Tournement. They cannot refuse to sell tickets to women because they want to. If you are critical of the Tournement as journalist and they revoke your media credentials because of that, it's wrong and the other journalists should call them on it, repeatedly. Whether they do that or not is open to debate.

Whatever the rules of the Tournement are, journalists should obey them, but it's their job to report the rules. And it's part of the function to opine on them.

That said, it's not North Korea. It's China. Dictatorial Capitalism

There were some pretty harsh things written during the 2003 Martha Birk situation, including some by Christine Brennan and Len Shapiro. Karen Crouse of the New York Times has never gone easy on them.
All three are credentialed and here this year.
UPDATE: Shipnuck is in the house. So the claim that Augusta National will not credential you if they don't like what you write (or, in his case, the private areas he tries to crash) is horse****.

 

[hondo]

In the comments the author says:



Having covered an Olympics, I disagree. Maybe I didn't have any experiences THAT outlandish, but at the Olympics someone had clearly thought of every shortcut a reporter might want to take, ever corner he or she might want to cut, and they had a person or three standing there ready to tell you "no."

Pretty sure you're not going to be able to run on a basketball court or football field during a practice or a game without some issues (like a coach or player decking you, for example).
The Masters has progressed under Payne. They have female and African-American members. Women reporters can go into the locker room. Shane Ryan seems to want to bring up the past (and yes, some of it is sordid) an awful lot when almost all of those issues have been resolved. Boiled down, he seems to have a problem with practices the club takes for safety (no running, everyone has to wear shoes, because there are a lot of hills and it gets slippery when wet), common courtesy (giving the media rides to the media center and banning cell phones on the course) and what I call DUH!!! issues (you can't go onto the practice areas, you can't barge into the Butler Cabin and you can't crash the club's private party it gives for the champion). He also is flat-out wrong about a lot of stuff (there are birds, there are pine cones on the ground, anyone can take pictures Monday-Wednesday, just like any PGA Tour event). It also was a one-sided story with one named source, the biggest malcontent to ever cover golf.

 

[Batman]

In the comments the author says:



Having covered an Olympics, I disagree. Maybe I didn't have any experiences THAT outlandish, but at the Olympics someone had clearly thought of every shortcut a reporter might want to take, ever corner he or she might want to cut, and they had a person or three standing there ready to tell you "no."

Or, really, any sporting event.
The colleges in my state have all sent out the list of media policies for spring football practice. Almost all of them put restrictions on what can and can't be filmed or photographed, what periods reporters can observe, cell phone usage at practice, etc. I might go cover a minor league baseball game tonight. It's pretty loose as far as access, but I'm still not allowed in the dugout even if it's the quickest route from one camera vantage point to another. As someone else said, see what the Secret Service does to you if you try to wander around at a presidential appearance. It'll make that Augusta security guard look like Officer Friendly.
Credentials come with access, but also restrictions to help the actual event go on as expected. Every credential. Every venue.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Any time someone threatens Spieth's number, Augusta bites them. Day is the latest.

 

[albert77]

Or, really, any sporting event.
The colleges in my state have all sent out the list of media policies for spring football practice. Almost all of them put restrictions on what can and can't be filmed or photographed, what periods reporters can observe, cell phone usage at practice, etc. I might go cover a minor league baseball game tonight. It's pretty loose as far as access, but I'm still not allowed in the dugout even if it's the quickest route from one camera vantage point to another. As someone else said, see what the Secret Service does to you if you try to wander around at a presidential appearance. It'll make that Augusta security guard look like Officer Friendly.
Credentials come with access, but also restrictions to help the actual event go on as expected. Every credential. Every venue.

I am friends with Ron Hickman, who is a VP for the PGA of America and who attends most of the major events as a referee. He tells a great story about a time when he was at the Ryder Cup, when President Bush showed up. Ron wasn't aware of this and he was tooling along in his cart toward his assigned hole when he saw his path was blocked by a rope. So he just ducked under the rope, didn't think anything of it and continued on his way until he was suddenly confronted with Secret Service agents asking him what the hell he was doing. Ron showed them his PGA badge, told them he was the referee for such-and-such hole and this was the short cut to the hole. They told him it was a restricted area for the president, and "encouraged" him to find another route to his hole. He said, "yes sir," and went found another route to his hole.

 

[TigerVols]

Is Gary Player the youngest-looking and acting 80-year-old on the planet?

 

[Cosmo]

He's in better shape than most 30 year olds I know.

 

[qtlaw]

Player is amazing;

Just read that Spieth is actually named after MJ. I cannot recall another instance of some great (ok he's not there yet) actually being named after someone who was great.

 

[Mr. Sunshine]

Naming a child after an athlete/team is so ****ing annoying.

 

[da man]

Player is amazing;

Just read that Spieth is actually named after MJ. I cannot recall another instance of some great (ok he's not there yet) actually being named after someone who was great.

Looks like he's pretty great to me.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Naming a child after an athlete/team is so ****ing annoying.

I'll take it over six different spelling variations of Aaron, Kelsey, Erica and 100 other names.

Player is amazing;

Just read that Spieth is actually named after MJ. I cannot recall another instance of some great (ok he's not there yet) actually being named after someone who was great.

He's already greater than Sergio.

 

[jr/shotglass]

Looks like he's pretty great to me.

We've certainly thrown the "great" label on lesser luminaries than Spieth.

 

[da man]

I'll take it over six different spelling variations of Aaron, Kelsey, Erica and 100 other names.




He's already greater than Sergio.

Inarguable among the sane, as a famous former poster used to say.

 

[Chef2]