Jim Nantz insists CBS did NOT deliberately keep Phil Mickelson off the screen as he shot up the Masters leaderboard… after LIV Golf fans fumed at lack of airtime for rebels
- Jim Nantz was the main CBS golf commentator at The Masters last weekend
- Phil Mickelson made a late charge, but some thought he didn’t get much TV time
- DailyMail.com provides all the latest international sports news
CBS’ star announcer Jim Nantz has hit back at criticism from LIV Golf fans that the network deliberately snubbed Phil Mickelson and other rebel players from their Masters coverage last Sunday.
Mickelson shot up the leaderboard on the final day at Augusta National, eventually finishing tied-second in a huge boost for the controversial Saudi-backed breakaway tour – and some felt CBS did not give the lefty his fair share of airtime.
That opinion was put to the network’s top announcer Nantz this week, and he was quick to shut down any rumors of a deliberate decision.
‘If you went back and looked at the full coverage on Sunday, including Sunday morning, the finishing up of the third round, our guys were really on Phil,’ he told Sports Illustrated.
‘Part of it is optics, when you look at the leaderboard at the end and you see that Phil’s tied for second, you think, “Well, my gosh, they must have been on him all day.”
Some fans argued that Phil Mickelson was not given sufficient CBS airtime on Masters Sunday
Jim Nantz refuted claims it was a deliberate decision for CBS to keep LIV Golf star off-screen
‘With two holes to play, he was tied for fifth with eight other guys at six under par, and he happens to be facing two holes that you’re lucky if you come through there unscathed in 17 and 18. The odds are, if you had to make a prediction on it as you stood on the 17th tee, he’s probably going to make bogey on one of the last two holes and he’ll finish in the top 10.
‘To Phil’s enormous credit, he knocked it to an inch in 17 and made birdie. We showed his entire playing of 18, and all of the sudden he finishes birdie-birdie, and it was a tremendous close by him.
‘At the end, the leaderboard looks like, “Well, he should have gotten that much coverage because he finished second.” But you don’t know how it’s all going to play out in the end. There was no effort at all by anybody at CBS to treat anyone any differently.
‘Phil has been a buddy of mine for a long time. There was no effort to conceal him or hide him at all.’
In the end, it was the PGA Tour’s Jon Rahm who pulled on the green jacket at Augusta National
A CBS TV drone flies over the 16th hole during The Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia
At the end of the Masters, there were three LIV Golf players in the top 10, with Brooks Koepka and Mickelson tied second, and Patrick Reed tied-fourth.
Elsewhere, Joaquin Niemann (16th) and Harold Varner III (29th) finished in the top 30 to prove that LIV players can cut it at the highest level.
Overall though, it was a PGA man who pulled on the green jacket at the end of the week, with Spaniard Jon Rahm taking top honors at Augusta National.
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