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ESPN's Michael Eaves On Covering The Masters Without Spectators

ESPN will have more Masters coverage this year than ever with roughly 50% of the on-site staffESPN IMAGES

ESPN's coverage of The Masters begins today at 1:00pm ET, but Michael Eaves has been anchoring “SportsCenter” programming from Augusta National all week. With a smaller crew on site than normal, Eaves, working his fourth Masters, has seen more work than in the past. “On camera, I'm doing way more than I have in the three previous trips because the only on-air hosts that we have here are Scott Van Pelt and me, so we are sharing all those duties.” That does not mean there will be less content, though. “The irony is we are doing more Masters coverage this year than ever before and we're doing it with maybe 50% of the on-site staff,” Eaves said. Below is a Q&A with Eaves on ESPN's approach to broadcasting the first November Masters and how not having fans will impact the week. Some responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Q: Will the TV product change without fans in attendance?
Eaves: From a director standpoint, once you're showing the action and how they cut it will be different. That's going to change how we present the highlights. You just don't have those crowd cutaways.

Q: Will that make the course look different for the viewers? 
Eaves: Based on the placement of the cameras, sometimes you don’t see patrons anyways. But I think one of the places that is going to be most notable is No. 1 because that hole is always five or six, maybe eight deep around that tee box. And then on 16 because it is completely framed by the patrons. When you see it, it won't look the same at all.

Q: Does not having fans provide any unexpected benefits?
Eaves: You can go more places than you could previously because they don't have patrons there, so they don’t have the ropes up. At a PGA Tour event with the media badge, you can get inside the ropes. You don't have that same privilege at Augusta, you have to say within the same boundaries of the patrons. So, especially early in the week, Sunday, I was walking on the golf course down the middle of the fairway. I was on standing on 11 green and looking at some of the places you never had that opportunity to do so.

Q: Will you watch more action live because of that?
Eaves: Typically, when I cover golf events, once the tournament starts, I don’t go back out to the golf course because I want to see as much golf as possible and the best way to do that is on television. At the PGA Championship, I saw more live tournament golf than I have probably in my career, based on the fact it was easier to get around. So, I’m probably going to do that here as well. Probably on Thursday and Friday, I’ll be on the course way more than I would have normally.

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