Pat McAfee said he has tried to broadcast his show live from The Masters for the past three years, but has been unequivocally denied each time.
“We have attempted to be a part of the Wednesday coverage of The Masters at the Par 3 thing for three consecutive years now,” McAfee said on Wednesday’s episode of The Pat McAfee Show.
“And for the people that are mad about Jason Kelce being a part of The Masters, I got a good piece of news for you: They told us to go to hell,” McAfee said. “So, I think you should be happy about that—that they do try to preserve it as a whole. They have a certain thing that they are looking for.”
McAfee was discussing the backlash to ESPN adding Jason Kelce to its coverage team for The Masters Par 3 Contest next week.
“To the people that are upset, saying that The Masters are the only thing you got left: Know that they’ve turned us down very loudly numerous times,” McAfee said.
McAfee has had a relationship with ESPN since 2019, and in 2023, moved The Pat McAfee Show to the network. He’s an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturdays in the fall, and has broadcast his show live from other major sporting events like the NFL Draft and College Football Playoff games.
His show has not broadcast from a golf tournament yet, but McAfee does regularly interview golfers after major championships and other big tournaments.
“There will still be a Masters standard,” McAfee said. “And that’s the only reason why I’m saying they told us ‘yeah, right’ a couple times. Because they’re still like very much—the people that are making those decisions—are very like, ‘We’re not doing that,’ which we understand and respect. It’s The Masters, for God’s sake, down there in Augusta.”
ESPN and Augusta National did not respond when reached for comment by Front Office Sports.
Defending Kelce
McAfee and his co-hosts defended Kelce’s Masters role, which will include serving as an on-course reporter during the Par 3 Contest, interviewing players and their families.
“We think he’d be good to maybe freshen up the coverage of The Masters,” McAfee said. “That’s potentially the thought as it happens. I like it. The internet was rude.”
Connor Campbell, commonly known as “Boston Connor,” said, “The stuff with Jason Kelce, that’s just not going to go away. Anytime he does something now, going forward, that’s always going to be the response: ‘They’re shoving this guy down our throat. Nobody wants him on this or that,’ or whatever the case may be.”
McAfee replied: “I love that Jason Kelce’s getting an opportunity to do all this shit.”
The TGL ‘Whiff’
Finally, while McAfee said he enjoyed Kelce’s role on TGL at the end of the regular season in early March, McAfee added, “I know TGL was a little bit of a whiff, I think is what people would call it. It drew some attention. I don’t know if it was as big as they thought it was going to be.”
TGL’s Season 2 finished with 488,000 viewers per broadcast across ESPN platforms, down roughly 2% from Season 1’s 498,000 average audience.
ESPN’s two-year media rights deal with TGL expired last month, and the sides are discussing an extension.
