ESPN Experiencing the Slippery Slopes at Augusta

Tirico clearly wanted to stay away from any question dealing with Berman's absence from the ESPN mix.

"All I know is that I got a call when the deal was about to be announced saying 'we'd like you to host,'" he said. "At that point, you don't ask any questions. You say 'great, and thanks.' Why they chose me, they can answer better than I can."

Tirico also said he has had no conversations with anyone from Augusta National about how to approach his first Masters broadcast. He already knows that reverential is the preferred tone.

"I would hope I'm smart enough to understand the way things have been done," he said. "My own track record fits in with the broadcasters who have been there in the past. I've always said that no one watches a sporting event for the announcers, and especially at The Masters. You love the tournament no matter who's on. I'd be completely out of character to do anything different. And no one has said you have to do this or you have to do that."

Tirico also said he has no intention of stepping on any toes in terms of the club's membership policies. On the fifth anniversary of Martha Burk's failed attempt to convince the Lords of the Masters to admit female members, Tirico said he has no plans to talk about it.

"For me, it's a golf tournament," he said. "Membership issues are club issues. I'm there to cover the tournament. I'm just showing up to do television. It's not part of the equation."

Augusta National also is not the only Masters entity that does not include women among its ranks. There will be no women in front of the camera for ESPN, and, sad to say, there has never been a woman on CBS's on-air Masters golf coverage team.

This past weekend, the network employed LPGA Hall of Famers Judy Rankin and Beth Daniel during its Sunday coverage of the Kraft Nabisco Championship, the first major of the season. Both women, and particularly longtime ABC/ESPN golf broadcaster Rankin, are eminently capable, and one of these days CBS ought to do the right thing and get one or more of them on the air from Augusta National.

After all, the club has been ballyhooing its attempt to attract a younger demographic and a new generation of golf viewers, women very much included, by moving early-round coverage to ESPN, expanding its internet coverage with live streaming video from Amen Corner and the 15th and 16th holes and airing the Par 3 event for the first time.

Now more than ever it certainly would make sense for either ESPN or CBS to get a woman into the coverage mix, as well, unless The Lords of The Masters are pulling those membership strings as well.

E-Mail of the Week

I was listening to the Georgetown-Davidson NCAA game on the radio (Westwood One's national version) and noticed that John Thompson was calling the game. How can a guy who is an employee of the school and whose son is the head coach be expected to be an unbiased analyst? It's one thing for him to call the games on Georgetown's own broadcast where no one expects or cares about unbiased opinions and where boosterism and homerism is acceptable. But to be the color analysis on a "non-partisan" broadcast seems to be completely out of line. Am I missing something?

Matt Mandel, Rockville

Len Shapiro can be reached at Len.Shapiro@washingtonpost.com.