It’s a tradition unlike any other: trying to spot the newest members of Augusta National Golf Club at the Masters in April.
Sometimes the news trickles out ahead of time such as last year when Golfweek learned that Annika Sorenstam was one of the club’s newest members. This year, citing “sources,” Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter reported former New York Giants QB Eli Manning and Sean McManus, who retired after this year’s Masters as chairman of CBS Sports, the longtime TV partner of the Masters, are among the newest members to sport the club’s famous green jacket. Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, and Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Airlines, are other new members.
Manning’s brother, Peyton, already is a member at ANGC. SBJ noted in its story other prominent members in the sports community include NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Braves Chair & CEO Terry McGuirk, among others.
Augusta National has traditionally cited membership as a private matter and gone to great lengths to keep its membership list, which is believed to be in the neighborhood of 300 and includes a group of some of the wealthiest and most powerful businessmen — and since 2012 women — private.
Augusta National was founded as a men’s-only club in 1932. It began hosting the Masters in 1934.
How will TV broadcasters address – or ignore – the elephant in the room?
How will broadcasters address – or ignore – the elephant in the room that is the ongoing civil war in professional golf with 18 members of LIV Golf competing at the 87th Masters next week?
It was an obvious question and one that CBS Sports’s Chairman Sean McManus knew he was going to be asked during the network’s annual pre-Masters conference call – it’ll be the 68th consecutive year for CBS broadcasting the Masters! – with sports writers. And McManus, who has been reticent in discussing LIV, gave a good answer.
“We’re not going to cover up or hide anything,” he said. “As I’ve said often, our job is to cover the golf tournament. We’re not going to show any different treatment for the golfers who have played on the LIV Tour than the other golfer. If there is a pertinent point or something that we feel we should bring up in our coverage Saturday or Sunday or on our other coverage throughout the week, we’re not going to put our heads in the sand.”
It was an interesting choice of expressions because when asked on previous calls with journalists, he has been quick to shut down any discussion of the topic. In a January call before the CBS team kicked off its season at the Farmers Insurance Open, I asked CBS lead producer Sellers Shy if there were any guidelines or rules for his broadcast team pertaining to LIV Golf and what they can or cannot say? Before Shy could answer, McManus cut him off. “I don’t want to get into discussing any other golf programming. I’d like to keep it to CBS.”
When pressed to get a better sense of what viewers can expect, McManus said only, “he can expect coverage of the CBS golf event, basically, and I hope it’s the best in the industry.”
This time, McManus had more to say, and make no mistake, CBS won’t be leaning into the PGA Tour-Liv controversy. “Having said that, unless it really affects the story that’s taking place on the golf course, we’re not going to go out of our way to cover it. I’m not sure there is anything that we could add to this story as it already exists. It’s a factor and we’ll cover it as suitable.”
When Shy was asked if there is a part of him that roots for a LIV player to be in contention going into Sunday because of the interest it would draw to the telecast, he said, “We’re not cheerleaders here. We just want to cover the golf tournament. So, whoever is on that leaderboard, we’re covering them because they are invited to the Masters.”
When the topic resurfaced later during the call in a question posed to Trevor Immelman, CBS’s lead analyst said, “The Masters Tournament and Augusta National is bigger than any player that has come before, any player that is around now and any player that will come in the years ahead. That’s what we’re focused on is giving that tournament justice and crowning a great champion and putting a Green Jacket on a great champion on Sunday afternoon.”
During a Tuesday media call with ESPN, who will have live coverage of the Par 3 Contest as well as the first and second round tournament coverage, ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt said, “I make zero distinction between anyone. It’s an Augusta National Golf Club event. This isn’t a PGA Tour versus LIV tour conversation at all. A guy like (LIV player) Cam Smith, the last time we saw him in a major, he played pretty well. We’re there to cover whatever storylines there are.”
Golf Channel, who will show plenty of auxiliary programming, seemed to have the clearest vision for how to address LIV Golf.
“I don’t think there’s any way around it. This would be the first time that I can recall that Tiger Woods will very likely, certainly on Monday night barring any breaking news with respect to his health, first time that I can remember that on ‘Live From,’ we likely, underline likely, will not lead with Tiger Woods, but instead the presence of LIV Golf, the 18 players that are set to tee it up there,” said Golf Channel host Rich Lerner. “At this point not knowing what may be said or how LIV players may or may not interact with PGA Tour players, without knowing that at this point, our goal going in at this point is to cover LIV at least initially through the competitive lens.
“You cannot deny however you feel about LIV. You cannot deny their accomplishments at Augusta and at the majors in general. Six LIV players have won seven of the last 13 Masters, going back to 2010, LIV golfers have won approximately 40 percent of all the majors played. These are significant figures in the game. We’ll cover it and ask questions, how competitively sharp might they be, how much golf have they played, where have they intersected with PGA Tour players on the worldwide competitive circuit, the Middle East earlier in the year, things of that nature.
“And then we’ll have cameras trained to watch for any interactions in the tournament, the practice area. Will they be in the media center? Will Augusta make them available? Assuming they will, but we don’t know for sure at this point, so we’ll be ready on that front. Then from there, we cover the Masters and we remember always that — at Augusta you take a breath. You slow down a little bit. People are tuning in I think because they’re curious as to how all this is going to go with respect to LIV, but also because they love the Masters and they want to find out about the changes at the 13th hole…So we’ll be golfy. We certainly won’t be all LIV all the time. We’re certainly not going to shy away from that, but there’s so many other aspects to cover, as Brandel and Notah know full well.”
Sellers Shy is just the third lead producer in the 64-year storied history of the storied CBS Sports golf coverage.
Imagine trying to replace not one but two legends in your field.
As just the third lead producer in the 64-year storied history of CBS Sports golf coverage – following Frank Chirkinian, the godfather of televised golf, and Lance Barrow, who taught him the ropes – Sellers Shy faces an unenviable task. How do you freshen the telecast and push innovation with the ghosts of Chirkinian and Barrow sitting on your shoulder as you try to carve your own path?
Shy, a 49-year-old Memphis native and Ole Miss product, appears to be up to the task. He did more in his rookie year in the big chair than just reupholster the furniture while stopping short of blowing up the longtime formula. You could say he didn’t shy away from putting his own touches on how the CBS Eye covers golf since assuming the reins.
Shy is a true student of the game, a two-time Memphis high school golfer of the year and three-time Tennessee State Amateur qualifier. He played in two Junior World Golf Championships at Torrey Pines in 1987 and 1989, but he realized he didn’t have the game to match one of his fellow competitors, a hotshot lefthander named Phil Mickelson, who even Shy’s father went to catch a glimpse of, abandoning his son in the middle of his round at Torrey.
Shy got an early start on his career at CBS, serving as a volunteer runner as a 14-year-old for what was then his hometown’s only professional franchise, the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic. Before long, he was offering to drive to other PGA Tour stops, including every PGA Championship dating to 1992, with the exception of 1995 when it was held all the way in California at Riviera Country Club.
“My line was I didn’t have good enough tires to get out to L.A.,” he cracked.
Shy even took a month off from college to cover the ski jump at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and joined CBS Sports full time in 1997. He was in the second-nine truck when Tiger Woods won his first Masters, operating a schematic that was essentially a homemade excel spreadsheet and in the pre-ShotLink days moving the group’s location from hole-to-hole himself on card stock. He’s been groomed for bigger things at CBS by working in a variety of roles, and if his first season calling the shots is any indication, he could enjoy a run as long as his predecessors. About the only thing that went wrong in his rookie campaign is trying to secure his rental car upon arrival at his latest destination or checking in to his hotel at that week’s Tour stop. Turns out that’s nothing new.
“They have me down as Shy Sellers. It happens everywhere,” he says nodding his head in mock disgust. “That’s my namesake and my son’s namesake, Admiral David Foote Sellers. He never had kids, but his sisters did and they carried that name. He was superintendent of the Navy in the 1930s. My wife and I cut our wedding cake with his sword. More times than I can count, I’ll be at the counter and be told, ‘Sorry, sir, we don’t have you.’ I’ll be like, ‘Do me a favor and try Sellers.’ Oh, look at that, you’re here for eight nights.”
What follows is the edited Q&A with Shy from a wide-ranging discussion at the Wyndham Championship.
Q: I think CBS needs to add more foreign voices to the show! What’s up with that? I kid, but is that a requirement?
SS: (Laughs) I’ll leave that to our executives, chairman Sean McManus and president David Berson, to decide. It’s all based on Sean and David and what they see. The beauty is they are heavily involved with us because they love the game.
Q: After you got the job, you drafted a five-page blueprint. How much of it did you get to implement in your first year, how much is still to come and how much have you already scratched as ineffective?
SS: We presented this initiative, this plan, to Sean and David. They were encouraged by what they read and said let’s go for it. They approved it and we’re very proud of our presentation this year. We implemented a constant leaderboard, a ‘super tower,’ upgraded Amanda’s cart, added new music and a rotating cast of the Tour’s rules officials, and Sean and David supported all of that. Do we have room to grow? We do. It’s one of those things where it will be an assessment at the end of the season (Editor’s note: This interview was conducted with CBS having two events remaining).
Everything that we wanted to do in our plan for this year to enhance the broadcast, we were able to execute the way we thought. Again, there is still room for improvement, but we put out a sample set and confidence was high. After Northern Trust, the think tank will get back together and we’ll see what other initiatives can be approved for 2022.
CBS Sports lead producer for golf Sellers Shy (far left) preps for the show with director Steve Milton (center) and analyst Dottie Pepper (right) ahead of the broadcast of the third round of the Wyndham Championship. (Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports)
Q: What are you most proud of from your first year in the big chair?
SS: I’m proud of the seamless transition. I’m proud that our management team had faith in us and I’m proud that Sean and David trusted our team. I know it’s broad, but that was a very big step for us.
Q: How do you think Frank Chirkinian would grade your first year?
SS: The CBS Eye is very important to me. Maintaining the golf brand at CBS is very important to me, maintaining the golf standard is very important to me. Frank set that bar. I think he would be proud that we maintained it. Maybe behind closed doors he’d say we exceeded it, but I’d hope that he’d be proud of what we put forward.
Q: What was it like driving Chirkinian around in a golf cart as a teen?
SS: Nerve-wracking. I don’t know what I was more nervous doing: producing a tournament here and there or driving Frank to his office. The story is it had poured in Memphis and Frank arrives and he’s wearing perfectly pressed khakis, a button-down shirt, Gucci loafers, and I pick him up in a mud pit. If ever there was a time to have a four-wheel golf cart, this was it. He didn’t sit down because the seat was wet. He stood up! That was a big test for me in my first week as a runner to drive Frank Chirkinian 100 yards without getting a drop of dirt on him. I remember thinking if I hit the breaks a little too hard, I’m going to send him straight on his ass.
Q: How did you end up as a runner at the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at age 14?
SS: I enjoyed playing the game and was a decent amateur golfer. In 1986, the network partner, which was ESPN, asked the tournament organizers if they had anyone to be a runner. I joined them as the 18th hole spotter. Mike Hulbert, who is our rules liaison today, hit a wedge tight at 18 to win. He did so while wearing canary yellow pants. We always joke how they were fashionable then and they’ve come full circle.
Q: Dr. Cary Middlecoff is one of the more underrated Hall of Famers. You had a special relationship with him. What was it like to have him watch you hit balls as a kid?
SS: His career was one I had a great respect for. He won a Masters and two U.S. Opens. My dad asked him if he’d look at my game. How lucky was I to have a three-time major winner in Memphis whose brain I could pick? He’d grit his teeth and took it seriously. Working with me took him back to when he was grinding. He encouraged me to hit it really low, often under the top bar of a fence at the range. He didn’t want the wind to dictate the shot. The way he gave of himself and his time so freely, it showed how much he cared.
When Sellers Shy took over as lead producer of CBS Sports’s coverage of the PGA Tour the 2020-21 season, he drafted a five-page blueprint for continued success. (Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports)
Q: Technology progressed lightyears in a few years – RF camera technology, digital recording devices, Trackman. Things seem to have stalled. What’s new? What’s next? Is there something that you haven’t tried yet that you think could put your stamp on what the CBS show looks like?
SS: Weekly, we are looking into new technology. The Tracer in the fairway has been a great implementation into our package. Super-slow-mo – it’s invaluable. The bar has been set so high now in our coverage. We understand that and we’re constantly looking for the next greatest piece for our regular season tournaments. There’s nothing specific I can tell you right now but in 2022, you’ll probably see a rollout of some new technology. At this point, it’s still in R&D.
Q: Are you interested in showing a live heart-rate monitor?
SS: We produce many of the Thursday-Friday shows (on Golf Channel) and we’ve been part of Whoop and its process and execution. It’s something we’re absolutely exploring for the fall. We’ve seen it work.
Q: Was bringing the JIB cameras lower and closer around the greens a major goal or just a byproduct of less grandstands and the ability to put those cameras in different places than in normal times?
SS: The RF ability is able to take our JIBs to places we maybe couldn’t have in the past. I would assume that having fewer fans has allowed us to get a little closer but let’s not downplay the pride our technicians have in doing their job. They are always pushing the envelope to get the shot.
Q: With the changes next year with the new TV deal kicking in and the Tour having more control over the TV compound, what do you hope to transfer into 2022 or expand on/collaborate on with the Tour?
SS: It’s important. That’s the approach I’m going to take into 2022 is making sure we have a cohesive relationship and extreme collaboration. The beauty is we’ve worked with the PGA Tour for a long time. I have total faith in that collaboration. They have great minds there and we want to work with them to have a successful run through 2030.
Sellers Shy, pictured in the CBS truck in 2016, has worked in various roles as he ascended to lead producer of CBS Sports’s PGA Tour coverage. (John Paul Filo/CBS)
Q: How are you being incentivized to add production value?
SS: Our team has great pride to maintain the standard of CBS golf. That’s my incentive. Listen, the feedback also doesn’t hurt. Everybody who enjoys the game appreciates a good telecast and that’s my incentive to put the best broadcast up that we can.
Q: You’ve got a day off. What do you like to do?
SS: If it’s a rare weekend, likely watch the kids do something. My oldest son, Sellers Jr., plays wide receiver for Ole Miss and Edwin is a freshman at North Carolina, where he’ll play lacrosse, and I’ve also got a daughter, Gracie, who’s a junior in high school and plays volleyball and lacrosse. Her team just won the high school lacrosse state title (in Tennessee). During the week, after prepping for what’s to come, I’d probably play golf and if it was during the fall, hunt or fish.
Q: Best concert you’ve ever been to?
SS: I’ll give you two. During the years of the PGA Tour event at the Greenbrier they had concerts, and in one week you could see Keith Urban, Bon Jovi, Lionel Richie and Lady Antebellum. It was just endless. The other is Guns N’ Roses. I saw them play in AT&T Stadium about three years ago and it took me back to late high school.
Q: What’s your favorite city for dining out?
SS: It’s taken me until the Zurich Classic became a team competition a few years back, but I’ve come to the realization that there isn’t even a second place to New Orleans. It’s like lasagna, there’s so many layers to the cuisine. The food is the window dressing to the week.
CBS will utilize the latest in video technology at the 2021 PGA Championship.
CBS Sports is embarking on its 38th year—and 31st in a row—of televising the PGA Championship.
The event is the second men’s major of the 2021 calendar year.
“We like having the first two major championships on CBS,” Sean McManus, Chairman of CBS Sports, said in a Zoom call with reporters. His network has long carried the Masters, which is in April. The PGA’s move to May gives the network two in a row.
Needless to say, television broadcast technology has changed as much as golf equipment over the years.
At its disposal at the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, CBS has a stockpile of gadgets: live drones, fly cams, 4D replays, the Atlas cam, Toptracer, SwingVision and anemometers, measuring wind speed and direction, paired with on-screen graphics.
A drone flies over the course as Brendan Steele walks during the first round of the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort’s Ocean Course on May 20, 2021 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
Perhaps the most intriguing tech for Kiawah are the two robotic cameras that have been installed inside the bunkers on the 17th hole.
“There is water right, bailout is left. The bunkers have a massive lip, on them both of them,” said CBS lead golf producer Sellers Shy the week before the championship. “We plan on planting them [the cameras] right in that lip. We’re hoping we’ll be able to cover the entire space of each one of them.”
How the hole will be played will obviously change over the four days, depending on the players, the tees, the pin placement and the wind.
One day after signing a nine-year extension of its PGA Tour rights deal, McManus discusses the deal, the future of golf on TV, and much, much more.
CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus, 65, is fresh off negotiating a nine-year extension for “the Eye” to retain its role as the primary broadcaster for network coverage of the PGA Tour. Here is an abridged version of an exclusive interview he conducted with Golfweek discussing the deal and the future of golf on TV.
Let’s start with a bit of a softball. What do you think your dad, legendary ABC Sports broadcaster Jim McKay, would make of this deal?
SEAN McMANUS: Well, he loved golf, so he would have loved the longevity of it. There wasn’t a sport that my dad enjoyed covering more than golf, that’s for sure.
Q. How do you think this deal is going to enhance the fan experience?
SM: You know, I think we’ll continue to put more facilities against the broadcast portion of the deal, but the coverage won’t look all that dramatically different than what it is now on CBS or NBC. I think the digital offerings are going to be much more robust and interesting on the ESPN+ platform, and I think we’ll continue to work with the Tour and our production team to improve coverage, obviously. But I don’t see drastic differences in the broadcast component. I think most of the new offerings will come from the digital side of the deal.
Q. How much interest did CBS have in the streaming rights that went to Disney and ESPN+?
SM: We were focused primarily on the broadcast rights, to be honest with you. That was our main priority, and the interest in the other platforms was really secondary. We did not pursue those aggressively.
Q. With Tiger cutting back, CBS certainly demonstrated a lot of confidence in the PGA Tour by investing in a nine‑year extension. With his career potentially winding down, any concerns about paying so much money for the rights?
SM: Not really. The deal didn’t anticipate Tiger being a major factor in the coming years. If he is – and listen, we hope he is, that would be terrific – but the numbers aren’t based on the “Tiger effect,” and you know I think that the way the underpinning works with the PGA Tour, they deliver between 60 and 70 percent of all the commercial inventory through the title sponsors and the FedEx contributions. We pretty much know what the majority of our revenue is going to be each and every year, and that just helps to tighten up the overall marketplace for our other category.
I think the deal is a reasonable one for us. It’s a significant increase, but it makes a lot of sense financially for both CBS and for the Tour. So we’re very happy with the finances.
Sean McManus Chairman CBS Sports Photo: John P. Filo/CBS.
Q. Do you think it was smart what the Tour did moving things up ahead of NFL contracts and negotiate first?
SM: Yeah, I’m not sure how much it related to the NFL, but I think the timing right now is good. The golf marketplace is really strong. The image of the sport and the perception of the sport is really strong. So I think the timing was good. I’m not sure how it necessarily relates to the NFL, but I think getting it done when the economy is as strong as it is, and as I said, the advertising marketplace for golf is as strong as it is, I think the timing was good that the Tour established.
Q. This week the Tour and NBC are trying to show every shot live. How far are we away from the ability to do that on a week‑to‑week basis?
SM: I think it’s pretty close. As you know, we did it extremely successfully for the first time at Augusta National, and the results and the reaction were incredibly positive. I think the Tour is committed to getting it done pretty quickly. You’d have to ask them what the exact timetable is, but I think we all understand the technology now. We all understand the value of it. So, I would think it would be part of the regular offering sooner than later, but an exact timetable would have to come from the PGA Tour.
Q. What was your initial reaction to the Tour wanting to have more of an Olympic‑style production where they’re overseeing things?
SM: I think it’s fine. You have to remember that it’s going to be our production team and our talent. So I think that obviously gives us some comfort. But I think, listen, the Tour understands that they need to work really closely with all of the media partners, so I’m very comfortable with it.
I think they’re going to take our guidance and work with us, but I think to serve as many platforms and as many different feeds as they need to, I think it probably makes sense for the Tour to have a larger role in how those feeds are gathered and how they are produced and how they are distributed around the world.
Q. You retained a lot of the traditional golf properties, plus now you’re going to be alternating years on the three-event FedExCup Playoffs with NBC. Do you think that can lead to greater prominence for the Playoffs?
SM: I think it’s a really good idea for the Playoffs. We enjoyed obviously doing the Northern Trust every year, but to have the final two events on one network and the first event on another, I think probably didn’t make a lot of sense, I think, from a promotional standpoint and a branding standpoint, having one network be able to produce and promote, more importantly, all three, I think it’s easier on the viewer. He’ll know where the events are. So I think it’s a really good idea, and to develop the story lines that you want to develop throughout the Playoffs I think is easier for one broadcaster to do than if two are involved in that storytelling and production and promotion.
Q. Will you make any efforts to encourage the Tour Championship to be played on the West Coast when you’re airing it?
SM: Hadn’t really considered that. I think it would be fine if they did. As you know, we’re airing the PGA Championship in primetime this May, so if the Tour Championship moved to the West Coast, I think we’d certainly have discussions about the possibility of doing that in primetime, and I think the West Coast has proved to be a really good venue for numerous major championships. So I would look favorably upon that, sure. We haven’t had discussions with the Tour about that specifically, but I would look upon that favorably, sure.
What is your comfort level and how soon do you think we may see more gaming and use of some of the technology and richer data to support people that are interested in the ability to bet on sports legally?
SM: Yep, I think it’s going to continue to evolve. I think you’ll see more interest in it from the viewers and from the fans. I can’t answer right now how much we’ll integrate it into the broadcast because you have to really be careful. There’s a fine line between supplying some interesting statistics and data that the viewer enjoys. There’s a fine line between that and overburdening the telecast with statistics and gambling information that people who aren’t gambling find intrusive. So I think we need to find that sweet spot on golf and in all sports.
But I think it’s only going to increase the interest in golf, and I think we need to do it in a progressive way that makes sense that doesn’t over-clutter the broadcast with meaningless information.
Q. With the extension that you just had also with Tony Romo and his contract and his growing role in the game of golf, will we occasionally see him on golf telecasts?
SM: No plans right now to have Tony involved. I think Tony wants to play golf more than commentate on golf. But no, there’s nothing in Tony’s deal that talks about him doing golf, and we actually have not had a conversation with him about that, so I would not expect to see that during the term of this deal.
Q. When you played with Jay Monahan last month at TPC Sawgrass, how did you do on the par-3 17th?
SM: I actually parred 17. I hit a shot a little bit long on the left‑hand side. The pin was not far from where it is on Sunday of the Players, and I two‑putted for my par. I must tell you, though, in full disclosure, my non‑pars outweigh my pars on 17.
Q. You’re not alone there.
SM: Yeah, exactly.
Q. What do you feel is the best thing that you were able to gain at the negotiating table in this new deal?
SM: I think protecting the important events on the CBS calendar was a really high priority of ours starting with the West Coast Swing and the other tournaments we have. We wanted to protect our position as the primary broadcast carrier for the PGA Tour. That was important. Obviously the continued support of the title sponsors and of FedEx underpinning were important for us. So those were really the two main priorities. From the time we go off the air at the Final Four until the time we come back on with college football and NFL football, PGA Tour golf and the Masters and the PGA Championship, that’s our primary programming staple, the sport of golf, and the PGA Tour obviously is an incredibly important part of that. So it was really important that we kept the same number of events and the same quality of events that we were able to maintain with the Tour.
Q. Nine years, is that a number that you were pushing for or more the Tour pushing for?
SM: You know, it really came from the Tour. We had said to them, the longer the deal, the better it is for us. And the Tour thought that nine years made sense. We obviously have two more years on the current deal. If they had wanted to go longer, we would certainly have gone longer, but I think nine, with the way the media landscape is changing almost on a daily basis, I think nine years is a good compromise between something even longer and something shorter because no one really knows what’s going to happen to the media landscape in the next 10, 11 years.
The good news is we work closely enough with the Tour, now increasingly more so on production, increasingly more so on sponsorship sales, increasingly more so on promotion, increasingly more so on distribution, that I’m comfortable that there are enough elements in the new deal that protect any new technology that might come along, and a lot of that pertains to the deal they did with ESPN+, a lot of it deals with the auxiliary feeds that we’re doing like the featured groups and the featured holes. So it’s a long‑term deal which gives us security, but I know the Tour is also intent on making sure that we and the other partners really keep up with all the new technology and the different ways of distributing their product, and every shot, every hole is certainly a manifestation of that.
Q. There’s been a lot of talk about the Premier Golf League as an upstart. If that takes flight and 48 of the top players decide to do this, is there some ‘out’ of the deal? Are you protected in any way?
SM: You know, I really can’t get into that, unfortunately, to be honest with you. I would say on the record that there’s no doubt in my mind that the PGA Tour is going to remain the premier golf tour in America and indeed around the world.
Q. How much of an influence did the PGA Tour have in some of the on‑air commentator decisions that you made during the off‑season?
SM: Really none. Those were decisions that we made. We informed the Tour of the decisions, but those were CBS decisions that we made on our own.
Q. With CBS having to pay significantly more in rights fees, should viewers be concerned that you’re going to have to add additional sponsorship and promotional elements to make up that difference?
SM: Definitely not. In fact, we have regular conversations with the Tour about eliminating some of the clutter, so I would say if anything you’re going to see fewer interruptions than more. We’re going to continue to try to do more CBS Eye on the Course, the double box, so you don’t miss live golf action. We and NBC, although sometimes we get criticized, we and NBC run basically the same commercial load. You will not see that expanding in this deal, and if anything we’re going to try to reduce the clutter a little bit. We’ve already reduced the amount of on‑air promotions we do for other programs, and I think we and the Tour are really cognizant of the fact that you want to show as much golf as you possibly can, and the two box is one way to do that, and less clutter is another way to do it. But no, there’s not going to be increased sponsorship or increased commercial inventory in the new deal.
Q. Even though Augusta National has said they’re monitoring coronavirus, now that we’ve seen at least one big event canceled, Indian Wells tennis, can you imagine a Masters without patrons and just maybe members allowed in the gallery or something to that effect?
SM: You know, I can imagine anything. I think it would be very interesting to watch that way. It would have certainly a different feel. But I think the primary draw at the Masters is the golf course and the competition on that golf course, and that theoretically wouldn’t change if there were no patrons. You know, that’s a decision that people at Augusta National will make, and we’ll be there to cover it in whatever form that it takes place.
