As Rory McIlroy delivered a putt to win the Masters Tournament in a sudden-death playoff and subsequently became the sixth golfer in history to attain a career Grand Slam, CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz delivered a memorable call documenting the action. Nantz declared that McIlroy now had his masterpiece, and the call received plaudits from industry professionals and users on social media since the culmination of the tournament. Dusty Likins, the co-host of Fescoe and Dusty on 96.5 The Fan, recalled that his colleague Bob Fecsoe sent a text on a group chat asking if the broadcast was going to let Nantz speak.
Fescoe acknowledged the message and qualified such by explaining that viewers heard Nantz when it was most important. Earlier in the show, he had extolled his final call of the tournament leading into larger discussion about the proceedings. As the show revisited the topic in its second hour, Fescoe pointed out another nuance to the overall presentation and how it could potentially be implemented into other competitions.
“Imagine doing an NFL game like that, right, ‘Now let’s go down to the 20-yard line where have another announcer,’ and he’s taking it from that perspective or just different places in the stadium,” Fescoe said. “I like that feel. Obviously, it’s a golf course, there’s different holes, you can’t be on every one. I get all of that, but that’d be kind of fun for a baseball game, like, ‘Now let’s go to the outfield where we have Denny Matthews standing by.’”
As a part of his role on the broadcasts, Nantz appears inside Butler Cabin with Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley to interview the Masters Tournament champion before they are presented with the coveted green jacket. While Nantz has broadcast 40 editions of the tournament and has expressed a desire to potentially reach the 100th playing of the Masters in 11 years, Fescoe enjoyed what the CBS Sports broadcaster expressed alongside McIlroy towards the conclusion of the presentation.
“At one point, he said, ‘I feel like America’s spent watching this,’ and I was like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m spent watching this,’” Fescoe said. “He nailed it. It kind of drains you like a Chiefs game or a Royals baseball playoff game where you’re living and dying on every single pitch or a Chiefs game where you’re living and dying on every single play. That’s kind of how I felt towards the end of that tournament.”
Metrics for CBS Sports broadcasts within the final two rounds have yet to be divulged, but the play ended with a thrilling playoff between Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose with the Masters championship hanging in the balance. Although Fescoe admitted that he does not watch golf, he articulated his passion for big moments in sports and affirmed that it is what the public received on Sunday. The question moving ahead, he later averred, is how baseball in June or basketball in December can hold similar meaning, although he admitted that it could be simply impossible. In the end though, he remembers exhaling when the tournament ended and could not imagine what the athletes feel in those instances.
“We love sports for the way that that match ended yesterday where you’re living and dying on every single shot and every single moment in that,” Fescoe said. “If you’re not a golf fan, which I’m not, that’s fine, but I was a sports fan yesterday, and it was more about sports yesterday than it was about golf yesterday because it gave us the moments we want in every sporting event.”
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