Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Note to Dean Barnett (and other golf junkies)

This doesn't do much for me, but I suspect that for a certain segment of the population, this will be catnip:

Forty-seven years ago, on Masters Sunday, Arnold Palmer staged one of his classic, furious charges. He nearly made birdie on No. 16 at Augusta National, and he did make dramatic birdies on Nos. 17 and 18 to snatch the green jacket away from San Francisco native Ken Venturi. . . .

As a lead-in to its coverage of the final round, CBS will air a one-hour, colorized re-broadcast of the closing holes of the 1960 Masters. Not a documentary, pausing frequently for retrospective interviews. Not a highlights show, bouncing quickly from shot to shot. This will be a genuine re-broadcast, as if the events were unfolding live.

The project was the brainchild of CBS play-by-play man Jim Nantz. He unearthed the original footage and spearheaded an ambitious effort to have it colorized. Nantz and Palmer introduce the show and Nantz interviews Palmer afterward. In between, viewers will see the same coverage viewers did in 1960, except in color. . . .

The idea hatched when CBS agreed to give Nantz air time before the final round of each Masters. Last year, he put together a 20-year anniversary piece on Jack Nicklaus' landmark victory in 1986. This year, Nantz and producer Chris Svendsen went one step further.

They hooked up with Legend Films, a San Diego company specializing in colorization technology. Nantz described the process as long and tedious, involving 62,000 frames of film and 10,000 man hours.

But it sounds like the result was worth the time, effort and expense. The show not only features Palmer rallying past Venturi, but also 47-year-old Ben Hogan on the 18th hole, Nicklaus as a hotshot, 20-year-old amateur playing alongside Sam Snead, and tournament founder Bobby Jones hosting the post-round ceremony.


Enjoy! (If you're into that sort of thing.)

1 comment:

Dean Barnett said...

It's not Wrestlemania, but it sounds very interesting. BTW, the Masters is the Wrestlemania of golf.