Rory McIlroy won his second consecutive Masters title on Sunday as he defeated Scottie Scheffler by a single stroke. With the biggest stars in the golfing world and millions of viewers at home tuned in, it was the biggest sports story of the day by far.
So it was only natural that ESPN’s First Take, a noted show that documents goings-on in the sports world on the Worldwide Leader in Sports, would want to discuss what happened at Augusta. But the segment only proved just how far out of its depth the show (and ESPN as a whole) is when it comes to talking about anything other than football and basketball.
Let’s start with the fact that the person ESPN chose to bring in for the Masters discussion was *checks notes* ESPN NBA analyst Brian Windhorst?
This is nothing against Windhorst. Apparently, he’s a golf fan, awesome. He’s great in his basketball roles. But this is ESPN we’re talking about. The network is valued at THIRTY BILLION DOLLARS. Can’t we find one person actually affiliated with the golfing world to come in and shoot the breeze with Stephen A. Smith on a Monday morning after the biggest tournament of the year? We can’t find a single individual who can beam in via satellite who actually covers golf on a regular basis?
Scott Van Pelt, Laura Rutledge, and Marty Smith covered the tournament first-hand. Curtis Strange and Andy North are former major winners who are in-house golf analysts at ESPN. So is Michael Collins. What about Jason Kelce?!? At least he was there!
If they didn’t want to stay in-house, they could have scooped up one of dozens of golf content creators, influencers, or YouTubers to come in and do the spot as they leaned on Josh Pate during the college football season. Chris Solomon, Brendan Porath, and Kevin Van Valkeburg are just a few of the many options.
Nevertheless, First Take instead relied on Stephen A. Smith and Brian Windhorst to carry the load, and they looked about as comfortable as Greg Norman with a back-nine lead in a major.
As bizarre as the setup was, the conversation turned to a truly inconsequential topic to find something, anything, to debate. Smith brought up Rory McIlroy, who is preparing for the Masters by playing practice rounds at Augusta National. The two then debated whether that was somehow an “unfair advantage” or whether McIlroy was breaking some kind of protocol.
Newsflash: He was not.
“I don’t know how anybody else feels about that. He didn’t break any rules, didn’t violate anything. I’m not saying that, please don’t get me wrong. But what I am saying is that does give you an advantage. Not only familiarity with the course because you’ve been playing there for years, but you’ve been there over the last few weeks. That’s what he said. And saying that, you have some people that will believe from a gentleman’s perspective that was an unfair advantage. I don’t think it should take anything away from what we saw him do. I respect the man; he’s a two-time Masters champion right now. We all know he’s one of the greatest golfers in the world, but I did think that was important to bring that up with you,” Smith said.
Other PGA Tour golfers and people who actually cover the sport dismissed the talking point as a completely irrelevant figment of Smith’s imagination. Everyone who qualified for the Masters had the ability to play practice rounds at Augusta. To try to make this a “debate” or “discussion” about whether Rory had an “unfair advantage” is ludicrous. The guy who shouted “Give me back my son!” on Saturday was less offensive to the Masters than this.
It’s just one more example of First Take stumbling badly over a sport that is outside their wheelhouse. If ESPN is going to talk about the Masters, please, please, please at least try to make it halfway legitimate. Otherwise, please just stick to the Dallas Cowboys.
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