Masters Video Player May Be the Future of TV

Unless you're a serious golf enthusiast, watching golf tournaments on television can be about as exciting as caddying for an old fuddy-duddy who has no sense of humor. The annual Masters Tournament, one of golf's four majors, begins this week at the famed Augusta National golf course in Georgia. The tournament's official Web site is now offering unparalleled, interactive video coverage that is cool enough to impress tech-geeks and hardcore duffers alike.

The impressively smooth and easily navigable interface allows you to choose your coverage: You can watch players come through the legendary "Amen Corner" (holes 11, 12, and 13), check out the action at holes 15 and 16, catch player reactions in the post-round interview room, and view an extension of ESPN's televised coverage in a channel called "Masters Extra." For the serious information junkies out there, this Internet golf extravaganza also gives you a picture-in-picture feature, allows you to receive Twitter-like update alerts about any player in the field, and lets you view and customize the real-time leaderboard. Somehow, this all manages to fit on one, uncluttered screen. Oh yeah, did we mention it's in high definition? The HD widescreen format perfectly captures the brilliant colors of the azaleas and other foliage that make Augusta National the most revered golf course in the world.

With its incredible wealth of available information, this type of interactive coverage would be fascinating to see applied to any athletic endeavor -- maybe even ribbon dancing. We'd also love to see this carried over to regular network broadcasts and shows. It could help us understand a show like 'Lost,' which has a steadily changing cast-of-characters and shifts through time that can make it difficult for the easily-confused to follow. Hopefully, the online Masters coverage will influence television viewing as a whole -- not just sporting events -- sooner rather than later. [From: Masters.com, Via: @chadmumm]

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Tags: augusta national, AugustaNational, golf, hands-on, interactive tv, InteractiveTv, sports, the masters, TheMasters, top