In its fifth year of live coverage of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, ESPN will air 4.5 hours of live Tournament play daily from the first two rounds, the traditional Par 3 Contest the day preceding the Tournament and 14 total hours of action on the ESPN 3D Network. Expansive news, information and analysis will appear on a variety of ESPN platforms in the U.S. and around the world, including television, radio, online and mobile devices.
ESPN and ESPN HD will air 4.5 hours of live first and second round action on Thursday, April 5, and Friday, April 6, from 3-7:30 p.m. ET with an edited encore presentation in prime time each night from 8-11 p.m. ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s Spanish-language U.S. sports network, also will televise the first and second rounds live from 3-7:30 p.m. and the ESPN 3D Network will air three hours of live play from the first two rounds each day starting at 4:30 p.m. as well as live play from the Saturday and Sunday rounds and the Par 3 Contest.
Prior to the live television windows Thursday and Friday, ESPN’s flagship news and information program SportsCenter will air updates every 30 minutes beginning at 9 a.m. daily.
Mike Tirico will serve as host of ESPN’s Thursday and Friday telecasts and will conduct player interviews from Augusta National’s Butler Cabin with analyst Curtis Strange. CBS will again produce the telecasts with CBS’ golf announce crew also contributing to the coverage. Paco Aleman and analyst Silvia Bertolaccini will present on ESPN Deportes with John Sutcliffe serving as the on-course reporter.
SportsCenter at the Masters: Live reports on SportsCenter from Augusta National Golf Club begin Monday, April 2, in the afternoon and continue through Sunday. Media Day is Tuesday, April 3, and SportsCenter will air the news conferences of Tiger Woods (1 p.m.) and Phil Mickelson (2:30 p.m.). Tirico and Scott Van Pelt will host SportsCenter reports from the Masters and will be joined by analysts Andy North, Paul Azinger and Strange, and reporter Tom Rinaldi. Van Pelt, North and Rinaldi also will present a special one-hour preview SportsCenter at the Masters on Wednesday, April 4, at 5 p.m. following the Par 3 Contest telecast. ESPN the Magazine’s Rick Reilly will provide essays for SportsCenter Wednesday through Sunday.
The Masters on ESPN 3D: ESPN’s television coverage will include 14 hours of programming in 3D on the ESPN 3D network, an additional 2.5 hours from last year’s coverage. Included will be three hours daily from all four rounds of Tournament action plus two hours of Wednesday’s Par 3 Contest. Thursday and Friday’s telecasts begin at 4:30 p.m. while the weekend telecasts begin at 4 p.m. The Par 3 Contest airs at 3 p.m. In 2010, the Masters became the first major sporting event produced and broadcast live in 3D internationally on television and the Internet. Gannon will host ESPN 3D’s telecasts with analyst Azinger Wednesday through Friday, while Tirico, Azinger and Strange will have the call Saturday and Sunday.
Masters Par 3 Contest: The Masters Par 3 Contest will air live Wednesday, April 4, from 3-5 p.m. on ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN 3D and ESPN3. The Par 3 Contest, which began in 1960, was first televised by ESPN in 2008. On ESPN, Tirico, North and Strange will be joined by Rinaldi, who will conduct interviews on the putting green, and on-ground reporter Peter Kostis. Host Terry Gannon and analyst Azinger will be the announcers on ESPN 3D.