Jim Nantz defended CBS’s Masters coverage on Sunday after former winner Kevin Kisner blasted the network’s broadcast during the final round of the 90th Masters, where Rory McIlroy won his second straight title. Nantz was on the call as CBS and Paramount+ carried the finish at Augusta National, and the debate centered on how the telecast handled key shots on the closing holes.
The flashpoint came after McIlroy’s second shot on the 18th hole, when cameras lost track of the ball as it landed in the woods right of the fairway. Kisner, who served as a guest analyst during SiriusXM’s coverage on Saturday and Sunday, later appeared on Barstool Sports’ Fore Play Golf podcast and said he was “so f—ing confused” trying to follow the CBS feed. He added that he was “better off following the f—ing app than following your feed,” complained that CBS was showing action he already knew about “ten minutes ago,” and said, “Whatever we all watch has already happened seven minutes ago.”
CBS’s Masters coverage has long been treated as the gold standard in golf broadcasting, but some viewers have criticized apparent broadcast errors during McIlroy’s run at a repeat win at Augusta National. CBS also reportedly uses a brief tape delay for some shots during Masters coverage because multiple players are often hitting at the same time and commercial interruptions are limited. That setup helps explain the lag Kisner complained about, but it also leaves the network open to the kind of criticism that followed Sunday’s final round.
The broader story is not whether CBS can show every shot in real time. It is whether a broadcast built on precision and prestige can survive when a player’s finish, a camera miss and a guest analyst’s public criticism all land in the same frame. McIlroy’s victory matched the rare standard set by Tiger Woods in 2001 and 2002, and the network that carried it will now face questions about whether its most celebrated golf telecast is still keeping pace with the moment it is paid to cover.
