Golf

Welcome to Friday, at The Masters. Can you feel it? The anticipation is building towards the weekend. We've got a solid leaderboard. We've got drama. Balls are flying left and right. Bryson DeChambeau is vigorously printing new irons as we speak as he tries to make the cut. It's been a wonderful Masters week thus far, and we've barely dipped our toe in. We still have Moving Day. We still have the final round. First, we have to cut the field way down, and we'll do that later today. But first, before we head into the weekend and hand everything off to Jim Nantz and CBS, I have a question for everyone, because I've seen a TON of chatter about this. Has ESPN defiled Augusta National? Have they officially ruined the moment? Have they destroyed The Masters, and, really, the sanctity of the event? I'd argue this has been the No. 1 topic on Golf Twitter this week, and, frankly, it's probably a fair question after some of the crap I've seen:Look, it's been a lot. I'll just say that. It's been a lot. I knew the second I saw Jason Kelce on the scene, this was going to go south for ESPN, and that's exactly what happened. The Par 3 contest was a doozy. I know that's usually the event where everyone sort of breathes one final time before the tournament starts, but still, it was a lot. Jason Kelce. Kevin Hart. Please, for the love of God, ESPN, stop forcing Jason Kelce on us. We're begging you. If you want to throw him the MNF booth and make him an analyst, that's fine. By all means. But STOP making us watch him do stuff like this. It's not funny. Nobody ever laughs. I promise you, we don't laugh. Now, is ESPN completely to blame here? No. Augusta National deserves some of it, too. You can't fart on that property without someone knowing about it. If you even kind of look like you're about to go pee in the woods, it's a one-way ticket outta there. Don't you dare let them even sniff a cell phone. My point is, Augusta National controls everything – so much so, that it's, frankly, exhausting. But they control everything. So, yes, they knew exactly what ESPN planned for this week. They knew exactly what was coming. They signed off on everything. Which means they allowed Jason Kelce and Kevin Hart to be insufferable on Wednesday. And they allowed Laura Rutledge to interview "The Miz" on her rotating panel on the back of the fairway yesterday. They did not, however, allow Pat McAfee on the property, which, in hindsight, seems silly given all the other nonsense they let in. Regardless, this is as much an ESPN problem as it is an Augusta National one. Fair is fair. Anyway, happy Friday, at The Masters. Don't annoy us today, ESPN. Please.