Look at Masters week in the Augusta Chronicle
Augusta, Ga., is an interesting town. Most people around the world only know it as the gorgeous, gorgeous place that you see once a year on TV, with dogwoods and azaleas in full bloom and greens and fairways neatly trimmed.
In fact, Augusta is a little dirty, a little grimy and not particularly sophisticated. The famous golf club is mere steps away from Washington Road, one of the ugliest franchise boulevards you’ll find anywhere in the country:
The Augusta National is just behind the water tower on the right:
It ain’t pretty, but it’s home: I grew up about 40 minutes away, just across the river in McCormick, S.C. My sister, brother and dad all still live in the area. In fact, my dad — long retired from the textiles business — sometimes works as a night security guard at Augusta National. This was the first time in years that he didn’t.
And while I don’t get homesick very often, I do get a pang or two this time each year. I make a point of watching the Sunday broadcast of the Masters on CBS.
God only knows how many extra copies the hometown Chronicle sells each year during Masters week. This week, in particular, the fronts looked terrific. As you scroll through these, pay particular attention to the presentation above the fold — the headlines, the entry points, the graphics and the enormous, immaculately edited photo report.
This was coverage of the first day of the tournament proper. The leaderboard across the top is a particularly nice touch, as is the photo of the Masters jacket patch (as opposed to a vector logo):
The Chronicle put only three stories out front Friday. All three were golf stories.
Tiger Woods is big, big news in Augusta, for obvious reasons, so the Chronicle tracked him every day on page one. I feel that is overkill, frankly. But of course, Tiger’s performance on Sunday proved the Chronicle right and me wrong.
Friday, the Chronicle experienced a nightmare scenario: The tournament was in Day Two, but there was real, live non-golf breaking news in town — a tornado ripped through the area, causing the evacuation of a nursing home and killing two across the way in South Carolina.
Normally, you’d put the weather news out front and push golf inside. But with literally thousands and thousands of golf visitors in town, what do you do? You follow the money, of course:
Again, it’s an all-golf front. The lede photo is veteran Gary Player, in his last-ever scheduled appearance in the tournament.
Note, however, that the leaderboard was displaced with a banner promo referring to storm coverage inside on… Page 1A? Apparently, then, the Chronicle considers these fronts to be wraps.
Also, note: “Tracking Tiger” got bumped down to the very bottom right.
Sunday’s front reflects the fact that the leaders going into the final day had one huge flaw: They were not Tiger Woods. Also note the storm promo still up top, with the leaderboard again displaced below the nameplate:
Sunday was an extremely dramatic day at Augusta National. Tiger Woods staged a huge comeback, at one point zipping up to second place. His playing partner for the day, Phil Mickelson, played even better.
The tournament ended in a three-way tie. It took two holes to determine a champion — Angel Cabrera, who won his first-ever green jacket:
The elements in play here: a) Celebratory shot of the new champion, because the Chronicle knows golf fans will sell their papers; b) Story about the champion and how he won; c) Shots of the Woods/Mickelson pairing, with fat cutlines and promo to an inside story; d) A graphic recap of the three-way playoff with another refer; e) a refer to a story about the last time a man from Argentina won the Masters — Roberto De Vicenzo tied for the lead in 1968 but lost the right to a playoff when it was discovered he had signed a scorecard containing an error.
In all, a terrific week for the Chronicle. As usual. These guys always kick ass during Masters week. Find the Chronicle’s online Masters coverage here.
Despite the Chronicle’s fabulous work, our very favorite photo from the week was this one by the Associated Press, of Camilo Villegas of Colombia, lining up a putt yesterday:
The Chronicle recently hired a new editor — a former photographer. Here’s our story about that.