MUMBAI: Discovery Communications branded sports channel DSport is all set to broadcast the year’s first golf major – the Augusta Masters 2018 – for Indian viewers.
The tournament, taking place at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, USA from 6th April to 9th April, 2018 will be aired starting 12:30am (IST) for Indian audiences.
This year’s Augusta Masters will be a special one for Indian viewers as young golf sensation Shubhankar Sharma has received a special invitation to compete.
The 21-year-old received a special invitation following a breakthrough season, which includes two wins over four months and a top-10 finish in his first PGA Tour event.
On Thursday, Shubhankar will become just the fourth Indian golfer after Jeev Milka Singh (3 apperances), Arjun Atwal (1) and Anirban Lahiri (2) to play in this event.
And there is of course the heightened interest in the 82nd edition of the Masters with the return of Tiger Woods.
His worldwide legion of fans aroused by a run of 10 rounds of par or better, is sending expectations northward.
Woods has been installed odds-on favourite (10-1) along with Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Justin Thomas. “I’ve been better with each week I’ve competed,” said Woods in a statement on his website.
ESPN and CBS would likely be set up for a ratings success, but it can go beyond that if Tiger is at or near the top of the leaderboard next week, the New York Post reports.
“There’s no comparison. It’s a whole other level of interest when Tiger is in contention,” the daily quotes ESPN analyst Andy North as having said.
“People love to see what he’s going to do one way or the other. We’ve missed that the past three or four years. You can’t count on a guy that’s 42 years old to carry your business very long, but at the same time it sure is fun watching him compete and there sure [are] a lot of people out there that want to see it.”
