The Times keeps score

In three hours, New York Times writer Richard Sandomir reports, CBS did not show a single shot by Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson on tape, while by his count it showed 13 shots by Masters leader Kenny Perry on tape, including two birdie putts.

It's hard to fault CBS, of course. It was simply taking the viewers where they most wanted to go, and suffice it to say, they presumably wanted CBS to take them to the unfolding Woods-Mickelson story, despite the fact that neither at any time on Sunday held even a share of the lead.

The eventual winner, Angel Cabrera, got short shrift, too. At the ninth hole, CBS' Jim Nantz said that Perry and Cabrera had "really ceded control of the tournament" to Mickelson and Woods. "Quite the exaggeration," Sandomir wrote, "except if you measure control by total patron count."

So it goes in the Woods and Mickelson era, or, as Sandomir calls it, the TigerPhil star system.

-- John Strege