ESPN at the Masters Tournament
In its seventh year at the Masters Tournament at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club, ESPN will air 4.5 hours of live Tournament play daily from the first two rounds and the traditional Par 3 Contest the day preceding the Tournament. Expansive news, information and analysis will appear on a variety of ESPN platforms in the U.S. and internationally, including television, radio, online and mobile devices.
ESPN and ESPN Deportes will air 4.5 hours of live first and second round action on Thursday, April 10, and Friday, April 11, from 3-7:30 p.m. ET with an edited encore presentation in prime time each night from 8-11 p.m. All Masters programming on ESPN is also available on computers, smartphones, tablets, Xbox, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon FireTV to fans who receive ESPN's linear networks as part of their video subscription from an affiliated provider.
Prior to the live television windows Thursday and Friday, SportsCenter will air updates every 30 minutes beginning at 9 a.m. daily. Thursday morning's ceremonial first tee shot with legendary golfers Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player will air in the 8 a.m. hour of SportsCenter.
Mike Tirico will host ESPN's Thursday and Friday telecasts and will conduct player interviews from Augusta National's Butler Cabin. CBS will again produce the coverage and ESPN golf analyst Curtis Strange will join CBS' golf announcer crew for the telecasts.
SportsCenter at the Masters
ESPN's flagship news and information program SportsCenter will feature live updates from Augusta National Golf Club throughout the Masters Tournament beginning the afternoon of Monday, April 7.
On the first two days of competition, Thursday and Friday, April 10-11, beginning at 9 a.m., SportsCenter will bring viewers up to date from Augusta every 30 minutes with highlights, scores and interviews until ESPN's telecast of live play begins at 3 p.m. each day.
A one-hour SportsCenter at the Masters special will air Wednesday, April 9, at 5 p.m. on ESPN with a preview of the tournament. Host Scott Van Pelt will be joined by analysts Andy North, Curtis Strange, Paul Azinger and Dottie Pepper, reporter Tom Rinaldi and ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski. The SportsCenter special follows ESPN's telecast of the Masters Par 3 Tournament from 3-5 p.m.
On Tuesday, April 9, SportsCenter will air the news conferences of defending Masters champion Adam Scott (11 a.m.), Rory McIlroy (1:45 p.m.) and Phil Mickelson (2:30 p.m.). In addition, SportsCenter will report the first-round groupings as soon as they are announced Tuesday.
Van Pelt and Mike Tirico will host SportsCenter reports from the Masters with North, Strange, Azinger, Pepper, Rinaldi and Wojciechowski.
Among the features that will be presented during ESPN's Masters coverage:
· What if Tiger Woods' ball had not hit the flagstick on the 15th hole in the 2013 Masters?
· Rory McIlroy has an extensive conversation with Rinaldi.
· Rising star Jordan Spieth's dream of playing Augusta is finally realized.
Masters Par 3 Contest
The fun and family-oriented Masters Par 3 Contest will air Wednesday, April 10, from 3-5 p.m. on ESPN. The contest, which began in 1960 and includes many current Masters players as well as greats of the past, was first televised by ESPN in 2008. On the telecast, Mike Tirico, Andy North and Curtis Strange will be joined by Tom Rinaldi, who will conduct interviews on the putting green.
The Masters on ESPN Deportes
ESPN Deportes, ESPN's multimedia, Spanish-language sports brand dedicated to providing the widest variety of sports to the U.S. Hispanic sports fan, will have live television coverage of the first and second rounds of the Masters Tournament on Thursday and Friday, April 10-11, from 3-7:30 p.m. Francisco Aleman (analyst), Silvia Bertolaccini (play-by-play) and John Sutcliffe (on-course reporter) will call the action from Augusta National Golf Club.
In addition, ESPNDeportes.com, the No. 1 Spanish-language sports website among Spanish-preferred fans in the U.S., will offer extensive Masters coverage at its golf index page, including:
· Chats with the on-air experts.
· Various feature golf columns leading up to first-round play and post reports daily.
· Previews and analysis, including a hole by hole preview
· Nightly ESPN video wrap by ESPN Deportes' golf experts on site.
· Daily blogs
· Real-time leaderboards
· Hole-by-hole analysis
· Daily tournament photo galleries and video highlights
· Daily polls
The Masters on Other ESPN Digital Platforms
WatchESPN
All Masters programming on ESPN and ESPN Deportes also will be available via WatchESPN. Launched in October 2010, WatchESPN delivers live access to ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN3, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes and ESPN Buzzer Beater/Goal Line on computers, smartphones, tablets, Xbox, Apple TV, Roku and Amazon FireTV. It is currently accessible in 67.5 million households nationwide to fans who receive ESPN's linear networks as part of their video subscription from AT&T U-verse(R) TV, Bright House Networks, Cablevision's Optimum TV, Charter, Comcast Xfinity TV, Cox, DISH, Google Fiber, Midcontinent Communications, NRTC, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon FiOS TV.
ESPN.com
Coverage of the Masters Tournament on ESPN.com will be extensive and will include:
· News, reactions and columns from senior golf writer Bob Harig, national columnists Gene Wojciechowski and Rick Reilly and ESPN New York's Ian O'Connor.
· "Digital Drive," an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by Scott Van Pelt and Andy North, will be produced each night Wednesday-Sunday of Masters week.
· For the first time, ESPN.com will have exclusive video featuring on-site writers and reporters reacting to news as warranted throughout the Tournament.
· Live chat, featuring newly redesigned for video and mobile "Scribble Live" application -- moderated by golf reporters Michael Collins, O'Connor and Farrell Evans.
· Collins will hand out nightly grades for the top players in the world plus other notable names.
· "Championship Central" on the ESPN.com/Golf index page focusing on the majors and the Ryder Cup.
· ESPN Golf Cast with an easy to use interface with scoring, video and social media elements.
· Links to Masters.com incorporating traffic roll-up of live feeds from Amen Corner, Holes 15 and 16 and Feature Groups as well as driving range video.
· Daily Masters coverage began March 28 with ESPN analyst Andy North ranking his best 10 rounds in Masters history. The video series began with the 10th ranking and will conclude Sunday, April 6, with the No. 1 round.
· Video clips from ESPN golf analysts Andy North, Curtis Strange, Paul Azinger and Dottie Pepper.
· Photo Galleries
· Live scoring from Masters.com.
· Interactive elements including fantasy golf game -- Best Ball Challenge -- and Masters conversation pages.
Additional coverage of the Masters on ESPN platforms:
ESPN Radio
Dan Davis will provide coverage through all four rounds of The Masters for ESPN Radio and ESPNRadio.com. His in-play reports will run during SportsCenter updates twice an hour. Davis will also guest on network talk shows. Additionally, the weekly Ian O'Connor Show (Sundays 7-9 a.m.) will originate from Augusta on April 13, and Scott Van Pelt will appear on SVP & Russillo (weekdays 1-4 p.m.) Tuesday through Friday to discuss the news of the day.
ESPN The Magazine
In the One Day, One Game Issue of ESPN The Magazine (on newsstands April 4), writer Scott Eden and ESPN Sport Science team up to analyze Tiger Woods' infamous drop from last year's Masters Tournament.
ESPN International
This year 53 countries will see the Masters on ESPN platforms and can follow the event on ESPN television, online, mobile and broadband platforms.
· In Latin America and the Caribbean, all four rounds and the Par 3 Contest coverage to 52 countries and more than 47 million households.
· A live 30-minute studio preview show will air prior to all four rounds of the Masters in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
· In Canada, TSN will air the first two rounds of the Masters and the Par 3 Contest live with same day re-airs in primetime of the third and final rounds. RDS will carry all four rounds live in French and the TSN.ca/RDS.ca digital platforms will stream exclusive live coverage of "Amen Corner," a Featured Group of the day, plus holes 15 and 16. TSN's television networks reach approximately 12 million households.
· The Par 3 Contest, all four rounds of the Masters and exclusive broadband coverage of "Amen Corner," Featured Groups of the day, holes 15 & 16 and Masters On The Range will be streamed live on ESPN Play in Spanish-speaking Latin America and the Caribbean and via the WatchESPN platform in Brazil.
ESPN Classic
ESPN Classic will feature a tribute to the Masters in the days leading up to ESPN's live coverage of the event with 43 hours of special programming. The tribute begins Tuesday, April 8, at 8 p.m. with an airing of highlights of the 1979 Masters won by Fuzzy Zoeller, on the 35th anniversary of that tournament, and will run straight through until 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 10, when ESPN's live coverage of the 2014 Masters begins. The tribute includes highlights from every Masters played since 1960.
The Masters Tournament - Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, GA
(all times Eastern)
Day/Date Program Time Networks
Wed., April 9 Masters Par 3 Contest 3 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
SportsCenter at the Masters 5 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Thu., April 10 First Round 3 p.m. ESPN, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN
First Round (encore) 8 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
Fri., April 11 Second Round 3 p.m. ESPN, ESPN Deportes, WatchESPN
Second Round (encore) 8 p.m. ESPN, WatchESPN
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