How do I watch The Masters today: Coverage gap leaves golf fans searching

The anticipation for the start of The Masters truly can't be beat. It's the first major championship of the golf season and fans are pining by the time the start of the tournament comes to see Amen Corner, to see the white coveralls caddies are sporting, and to see one of the most beautiful golf courses on the planet in Augusta National Golf Club.

Unfortunately, when Thursday morning and the start of the first round rolls around, that excitement is always dampened for one reason: The start of the first and second rounds isn't on TV. While this is a partnered broadcast between ESPN and CBS throughout the week, neither network — not even ESPN2 — has The Masters on, much to the chagrin of fans.

That leaves fans asking a simple question with players on the course and no TV coverage: How do I watch The Masters? It's a good question for any golf fan to be asking. Fortunately for anyone wondering, we have everything you need to know.

What channel is The Masters on for Thursday?

The Masters broadcast will be on ESPN on Thursday and for Friday as well. However, the reason fans can't find it on TV is because the coverage on TV and ESPN won't begin until 3 p.m. ET. That's the root of a ton of frustrations for golf fans, which is why we need to dive even deeper into how you can watch The Masters this week.

How do I watch The Masters today? TV channel, coverage schedule

When tee times began at 7:40 a.m. ET but the ESPN coverage won't begin until 3 p.m. ET, what are golf fans supposed to do for the seven-plus hours of golf that's being played until that TV broadcast comes on? Well, the good news is that they are options, even if there isn't a full regular broadcast that golf fans would ultimately love to see.

Having said that, while there isn't a full broadcast available, there are other options to watch some of the golf via streaming. ESPN+ and Paramount+ subscribers can tune into their apps on their mobile devices or TVs and find select streams of various aspects of the tournament. On Thursday morning before the TV broadcast begins, there is streaming for the Collin Morikawa and Scottie Scheffler groups in Featured Groups coverage, a stream of Holes 4, 5 and 6, a stream for Amen Corner, and a stream for Holes No. 15 and 16.

The one nice thing for fans is that The Masters app, by far the best app in sports (despite an early hiccup on Thursday) offers all of this coverage as well as coverage on the range as well for free if you simply download the app. You can also go to Masters.com to watch those streams as well.

Fans are frustrated with The Masters TV coverage

With the lack of TV coverage to begin the first round on Thursday, though, fans were less than thrilled about not being able to watch anywhere other than the streams. They had no problem letting those frustrations be known.

Those frustrations are well-founded, though. This is the first major championship of the golf season and, dare I say, the most popular among golf fans. Throughout the week, the analysts, the pre-tournament coverage and just the way people talk about the event brings excitement to a fever-pitch. Even though I'm certainly going to have different feeds on as many screens as possible, it'd be a lot easier to just have TV coverage of some sort involved.

In the interest of growing the game of golf, which is a hotly debated topic even on the PGA Tour, it simply makes sense for The Masters to aim to change all of this moving forward. Fans will still use the app with all of the features and probably to still watch the Featured Groups coverage as well. However, getting the start of the tournament on TV just makes too much sense not to happen.

As the number of malcontents with the lack of TV coverage continues to grow, the hope is that Augusta National and The Masters will recognize that and make changes sooner rather than later.