Keyboard Quarterbacks

By Mark La Monica

Most days, golf can be more boring than boring to watch on television. Not this past Sunday. Not at Augusta.

We're talking about the final round of The Masters, the ninth best sports day of the year.

It's not so much the actual striking of the ball and the walking to the ball and the striking of the ball again and the walking to the ball again and the putting of the ball and the picking up of the ball and the repeating of that process 18 times that makes the final round of The Masters so compelling. Surely, all that stuff is just like any other day television decides to broadcast live golf events.

The enjoyment of the final round is the pressure and the pursuit of the green jacket, golf's most coveted prize. It's golf first major of the season and deeply rooted in tradition, just like the CBS commercial spots for it say. It's played at the same course every year -- Augusta National Golf Club -- whereas the U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship move around each year.

This sort of tradition deserves a sports fan respect and admiration.

Plus, the broadcast has very few commercial breaks, thanks in part to Martha Burk's protesting about sexism at the club a few years ago and Hootie Johnson's decision to not use advertising in response to Burk's threat of boycotting those companies who bought advertising time on CBS.

You may hate to play, hate to watch, hate to even hear about golf, but a true sports fan must see the bigger picture of the American sporting landscape and embrace its mighty, cross-platform appeal. The Masters is big business, just like every other professional sport, and Sunday is golf's Super Bowl.

It's as good as golf gets, regardless of who's in contention on the final day. This year, we lucked into a great Sunday, full of the biggest names in the sport, an old guy recapturing his younger form in Freddy "Boom Boom" Couples, the amazing scenery that is Augusta, some extra holes thanks to Saturday's third round being suspended partly through because of rain, and the soldification of Phil Mickelson as a major champion with his second green jacket in three years.

No matter the storyline, Sunday at Augusta remains a great day for sports. So great, it's the ninth best sports day each year.