With most of the chasers already on the course enjoying one last chamber of commerce Augusta afternoon, CBS came on the air at 2 p.m. ET—an hour earlier than usual. And while it kept one eye on the action, its focus was on Rory McIlroy and Bryson DeChambeau, two titans of the game who have taken divergent paths in fractured times, readying for their moment.
No one in sports is better at telling a story than incomparable CBS director Sellers Shy, but in this case the plot was not exactly subtle. The sheer enormity of McIlroy, the people's champion, seeking to join golf's immortals by completing the grand slam against self-fashioned man of the people DeChambeau, whose theatrics and own major triumphs have turned him into a cult-like figure, had Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman wondering if one of the most iconic and important rounds of golf in modern history was nigh. This was a heavyweight fight complete with tale-of-the-tape graphics and the type of buzz that felt more like something suited for pay-per-view than network television.
