Millions of golf fans watched coverage of the Masters this week on ESPN and the Masters app.
They watched Rory McIlroy recover from a rocky Thursday with a dominant Friday performance. They heard Jordan Speith drop an F-bomb in frustration. They cheered Bernhard Langer in his final Masters round. They heard CBS’ Jim Nantz predict Scottie Scheffler’s chip-in.
One person they didn’t feel they saw much of was Bryson DeChambeau.
Despite shooting a 4-under 68 on Friday and entering Saturday in second place on the leaderboard, many Masters viewers voiced their frustrations with ESPN’s and the Masters app’s lack of coverage of DeChambeau, with many blaming his LIV alignment as the reason why.
Rapper Lil Wayne seemed to kick the concerns into high gear.
“The Masters blew it (with) this lack of coverage on Bryson!!! They gotta stop (hating) on the LIV s—. This man is killin’ it out there and I can’t watch,” Wayne posted to X.
He certainly wasn’t the only person on social media voicing their frustrations.
Many complaints seemed to come from conservative circles, where the perception that the PGA Tour, Masters, and Disney-owned ESPN were conspiring against LIV and DeChambeau (who has openly supported Donald Trump) seemed to take hold.
It’s worth noting that the PGA Tour does not own or control the Masters. Augusta National, Inc. controls the event and is noted for its strict demands and requirements around its broadcasting.
Ratings for Thursday’s first round were down 28%. Many critics are likely to point to the above frustrations as the reason why, though it’s much more likely that the lack of Tiger Woods played a prominent role.
ESPN has not responded to any calls for comment on the complaints.
CBS now takes over, and perhaps they’ll squash any concerns about showing DeChambeau. He begins the day in the final pairing for the third round, teeing off alongside Justin Rose at 2:40 p.m. ET.