ESPN will provide extensive, multiplatform coverage of the Masters Tournament at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club, including live telecasts of the first two days of Tournament play and expansive news, information and analysis on television and digital outlets for the entire week of golf’s first major of the season.

ESPN and ESPN Deportes will air 4.5 hours of live Round 1 and Round 2 action on Thursday, April 7, and Friday, April 8, from 3-7:30 p.m. ET with an edited encore presentation in prime time each night from 8-11 p.m. on ESPN.

ESPN also will air the traditional Masters Par 3 Contest on Wednesday, April 6, from 3-5 p.m. followed by a one-hour SportsCenter at the Masters special at 5 p.m.

Prior to the live television windows Thursday and Friday, live updates from Augusta will air on SportsCenter all morning and afternoon until coverage begins at 3 p.m. Thursday morning’s ceremonial first tee shot with legendary golfers Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player will air in the 9 a.m. hour of SportsCenter.

Mike Tirico will host ESPN’s Thursday and Friday telecasts and will conduct player interviews from Augusta National’s Butler Cabin. Tirico and ESPN golf analyst Curtis Strange will join CBS’ golf announcer crew for the telecasts.

SportsCenter at the Masters

ESPN’s flagship news and information program SportsCenter will feature live updates from Augusta National Golf Club throughout the Masters Tournament beginning the morning of Monday, April 4, and continuing through the end of the event on Sunday, April 10.

On the first day of competition, Thursday, April 7, SportsCenter:AM will have reports from Augusta in the 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. hours, then viewers will be brought up-to-date every 30 minutes on SportsCenter with in-progress highlights, scores and interviews from 9 a.m. until ESPN’s telecast of live play begins at 3 p.m. Live SportsCenter updates also will air on Friday before the 3 p.m. television coverage begins.

A one-hour SportsCenter at the Masters special will air Wednesday, April 6, at 5 p.m. on ESPN with a preview of the tournament. Host Scott Van Pelt will be joined by analysts Andy North and Dottie Pepper, and reporters Tom Rinaldi and Gene Wojciechowski. The SportsCenter special follows ESPN’s telecast of the Masters Par 3 Tournament from 3-5 p.m.

On Tuesday, April 5, SportsCenter will air the news conferences of several prominent players live (schedule to be determined) and will report the first-round groupings as soon as they are announced.

Van Pelt, Mike Tirico and Matt Barrie will host SportsCenter reports from the Masters with North, Strange, Pepper, Rinaldi and Wojciechowski.

Among the features that will be presented during ESPN’s Masters coverage:

• Jordan Spieth on the pressures of becoming a brand (with Rinaldi)
• Why Sunday at Augusta is the best (Rinaldi)
• Bryson DeChambeau the “Golf Scientist” (with Wojciechowski)
• Water at Augusta (Rinaldi)
• Tom Watson’s final Masters
• Arnold Palmer tribute
• Jason Day, Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Rickie Fowler features
• PGA TOUR player Sang-Moon Bae enters Korean military service and will miss the Masters (Wojciechowski)

Also, ESPN will recognize the 30-year anniversary of Jack Nicklaus’ last win in the Masters (1986) with features on his missing putter from that event (Rinaldi) and how improbable the win was (Wojciechowski).

ESPN Sport Science features airing during Masters coverage will include looks at the long putter, reading the greens at Augusta, Nicklaus’ 1986 win and the Par 3 Contest.

Masters Par 3 Contest

The fun and family-oriented Masters Par 3 Contest will air Wednesday, April 6, from 3-5 p.m. on ESPN. The contest, which began in 1960 and includes many current Masters players as well as greats of the past, was first televised by ESPN in 2008. On the telecast, Mike Tirico, Andy North and Curtis Strange will be joined by Tom Rinaldi, who will conduct interviews on the putting green.

The Masters on ESPN Deportes

ESPN Deportes, ESPN’s multimedia, Spanish-language sports brand dedicated to providing the widest variety of sports to the U.S. Hispanic sports fan, will have live television coverage of the first and second rounds of the Masters Tournament on Thursday and Friday, April 7-8, from 3-7:30 p.m. Francisco Aleman (analyst), Silvia Bertolaccini (play-by-play) and John Sutcliffe (on-course reporter) will call the action from Augusta National Golf Club. Luis Alfredo Alvarez and Sergio Dipp will host coverage from the ESPN Deportes studio.

ESPN Deportes Radio will have live updates of the Masters during Zona ESPN (Monday-Friday, noon-2 p.m.) and Zona Sabatina (Saturday, 9 a.m. – noon).

In addition, ESPNDeportes.com, the No. 1 Spanish-language sports website among Spanish-preferred fans in the U.S., will offer extensive Masters coverage at its golf index page, including:

• Chats with the on-air experts.
• Various feature golf columns leading up to first-round play and post reports daily.
• Previews and analysis, including a hole by hole preview
• Nightly ESPN video wrap by ESPN Deportes’ golf experts on site.
• Daily blogs
• Real-time leaderboards
• Hole-by-hole analysis
• Daily tournament photo galleries and video highlights
• Daily polls

The Masters on Other ESPN Digital Platforms

WatchESPN and ESPN App

All Masters programming on ESPN and ESPN Deportes also will be streaming live on WatchESPN and the ESPN App.

ESPN.com

Coverage of the Masters Tournament on ESPN.com will be extensive and will include:

• News, reactions and columns from golf writers Bob Harig, Michael Collins and Jason Sobel, and ESPN.com national writers Ian O’Connor and Kevin Van Valkenburg.
• “Quiet Please,” ESPN.com’s weekly golf preview program, hosted by Scott Van Pelt and Andy North, on Tuesday of Masters week and shot on site in Augusta, Ga.
• “Digital Drive,” an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by Scott Van Pelt and Andy North, will be produced each night Wednesday-Sunday of Masters week.
• Senior golf analyst Michael Collins will hand out nightly grades for the top players in the world plus other notable names.
• ESPN GolfCast chat with an easy to use interface with scoring, video and social media elements hosted by Collins with contributions from other ESPN.com writers on site.
• Links to Masters.com incorporating traffic roll-up of live feeds from Amen Corner, Holes 15 and 16 and Featured Groups as well as driving range video.
• Video clips from ESPN golf analysts Andy North, Curtis Strange and Dottie Pepper.
• Photo Gallery wrapping up the year’s first major
• Live scoring from Masters.com.
• On Monday, April 4, com will launch its second Golf Confidential Survey where PGA Tour pros answered questions anonymously on topics such as: Who will be No. 1 at the end of 2016? How many green jackets will Jordan Spieth own 20 years from now?

Among features that will appear on ESPN.com during Masters Tournament coverage:

• Thursday, March 31: The science of choking, connecting to Greg Norman’s finish at the Masters 20 years ago (Johnette Howard)
• Friday, April 1: Looking back at Jack Nicklaus’ 1986 Masters victory on the 30th anniversary year. (Bob Harig) and in conjunction the Nicklaus anniversary, a look at a few “older athletes to catch lightning in a bottle” like the Golden Bear did. (Arash Markazi).
• Saturday, April 2: Smylie Kaufman will play in the Masters this year, nearly a decade after “winning” a trip there. (Jason Sobel)
• Sunday, April 3: Jordan Spieth breakout feature (Jason Sobel)
• Monday, April 4: The Grand Slam club might grow by one this week from five to six with Rory McIlroy. (Jason Sobel)

Additional coverage of the Masters on ESPN platforms:

ESPN Radio

Dan Davis will provide coverage through all four rounds of the Masters for ESPN Radio. His reports will run throughout the day on SportsCenter on both ESPN Radio and the ESPN App. Davis also will guest on network talk shows throughout the week and provide nightly features for SportsCenter AllNight.

Mike and Mike, which airs on ESPN Radio and ESPN2, will have live updates from Augusta on Wednesday (with Tom Rinaldi) and Friday (with Dottie Pepper) at 9:05 a.m. and Thursday at 8:05 a.m. with Andy North.

ESPN The Magazine

In ESPN The Magazine’s Golden State Warriors Issue on newsstands Friday, April 1 – Golf Confidential: Before the Masters, golfers anonymously dish on who they think will finish No. 1 this year, whether Tiger will win his 15th championship and if golfers care about winning a gold medal at the Olympics. By Hallie Grossman.

ESPN International

This year 53 countries will see the Masters on ESPN platforms and can follow the event on ESPN television, online, mobile and broadband platforms.

• In Latin America and the Caribbean, all four rounds and the Par 3 Contest coverage to 52 countries and more than 69 million households.
• A live 30-minute studio preview show will air prior to all four rounds of the Masters in Spanish-speaking Latin America.
• The Par 3 Contest, all four rounds of the Masters and exclusive broadband coverage of “Amen Corner,” Featured Groups of the day, holes 15 & 16 and Masters On The Range will be streamed live on ESPN Play in Spanish-speaking Latin America and the Caribbean; and via the WatchESPN platform in Brazil. Select Featured Group coverage will also be televised in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• In Canada, TSN will air the first two rounds of the Masters and the Par 3 Contest live with same day re-airs in primetime of the third and final rounds; RDS will carry all four rounds live in French language and the TSN.ca/RDS.ca digital platforms will stream exclusive live coverage of “Amen Corner,” a Featured Group of the day, plus holes 15 and 16. TSN’s/RDS’ television networks reach more than 12 million households.

ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic will feature a two-day tribute to the Masters leading up to ESPN’s live coverage of the event. The tribute begins Tuesday, April 5, at 8 p.m. with an airing of highlights of the 1978 Masters won by Gary Player, followed by the 2012 Masters won by Bubba Watson. Then, at 9:20 p.m., highlights of every Masters since 1960 will air consecutively starting with the 1960 event won by Arnold Palmer, running straight through until 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 7, when ESPN’s live coverage of the 2016 Masters begins.

The Masters Tournament – Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, GA

(all times Eastern)

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Media Contact: Andy Hall, [email protected]