By: Kipp Branch

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

This year’s telecast of the Masters on CBS recorded the major tournament’s lowest final-round numbers since 1957, extending a streak of soft sports TV viewership numbers.

The broadcast averaged a 3.4 rating and 5.59 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

That is about 51% lower than last year, when Tiger Woods recorded a comeback win, and also well below the previous lows of 6.7 in 1980 and 11.05 million viewers in 2017. (Viewership has been tracked since 1995.) In 1957, CBS aired one hour of coverage and drew a 3.0.

I enjoyed The Masters. I liked the fact that three of golf’s Major Championships were able to reschedule and play in 2020. The Open Championship cancelled the 2020 tournament early on in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dustin Johnson is the number one golfer in the world according to the World Golf Rankings.

With the win at Augusta he capped a stellar stretch in the majors this year finishing 2^nd in the PGA Championship, and 6^th in the US Open.

Johnson has now won the US Open and The Masters, and has runner-up finishes in the PGA and Open Championship.

The play has been consistently very good since August where has finished no worse than 6^th in seven starts on tours with two wins.

Johnson was born in Columbia, South Carolina and played his golf at Coastal Carolina University so the proximity to Augusta National made last weekend’s win very special to Johnson.

Johnson grew up in Irmo, South Carolina. His childhood dream was to win The Masters.

Once the Green Jacket was placed on him by Tiger Woods, he became very emotional and barely could speak a word.

That raw emotion from Johnson was very good to see. Johnson is known as stoic player, who just handles his business on the golf course and in 2020 style that post tournament side of Johnson was something that I wish we could see more of on the PGA tour.

Back to the final round of The Masters, Johnson carded a final round of 68 that left him at 20-under 268, beating the previous tournament best of 18-under set by both defending champion Tiger Woods, in 1997, and Jordan Spieth, in 2015.

Johnson shot four rounds under par for the tournament. He has played 11 straight rounds under par at Augusta which is a record.

Johnson became the first world number one to win at Augusta since Tiger in 2002.

Don’t let the low television ratings from last weekend put a damper on the quality of golf that was played.

Those of us who watched saw a record-breaking performance by Dustin Johnson, who has rapidly become one of my favorite golfers on the tour.

Johnson’s work ethic is better than most on the tour. At age 36 Johnson is in his golfing prime. Many more wins could be on the horizon.

Brooks Koepka called out Dustin Johnson as only having one major championship going into the final round of the PGA Championship in August and it backfired on Brooks.

Koepka finished tied for 7^th at 10 under par at The Masters. Good showing but it was 10 strokes behind your 2020 Master Champion Dustin Johnson, who now has two majors under his belt.

Dustin Johnson is the best golfer in the world and he may stay there for a while. He has The Green Jacket to prove it.

He will defend in April and this time we will have Azalea’s and Dogwood’s blooming once again.

Yellowstone is my favorite show on TV right now and in grand Rip Wheeler fashion it is time to take 2020 on a trip to the Train Station.