Sunday’s thrilling final round of the Masters had everyone with a pulse on the edge of their seats as Rory McIlroy fought to earn himself the career grand slam.
CBS earned widespread praise for its presentation of McIlroy’s roller coaster round. But no stranger to a contrarian take, Chris “Mad Dog” Russo had different feelings about the network’s handling of events. Taking to First Take on Wednesday morning, Russo laid into CBS for what he saw as a premature coronation of McIlroy.
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo takes issue with CBS’ coverage of Rory McIlroy’s Masters win.
“They spent so much time in the last two hours jinxing him… you can’t do that with McIlroy! He’s not Jack, he’s not Tiger… I had so many fans rooting for Rory who said, ‘jeez, they’re jinxing… pic.twitter.com/g01Nghxwvb
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 16, 2025
“They went on and on and on, much too premature,” Mad Dog said. “They spent so much time in the last two hours jinxing him! They thought it was over on 13. They thought it was over on 15 when he hit that great 7-iron, he hooked it into the green, the par-5. They thought it was over on 16 when he hit the nice iron shot to get to the par-3, hit a nice shot. They thought it was over on 17 when he birdied the hole. And then they thought it was over on the tee shot I just showed ya on 18!
“You can’t do that with McIlroy! He’s not Jack [Nicklaus], he’s not Tiger [Woods]! When you gave them a three-shot lead, they were never blowing a tournament. Rory’s up and down, that’s why it’s so much fun. When you think it’s over, it isn’t. When he’s great, then he’s bad. When he’s bad, like the playoff hole, he’s great! Let it play out from an audience perspective! I had so many fans rooting for Rory say, ‘Jeez, they’re jinxing it! Shut up!’ And you know what? They’re right!”
Mad Dog has clearly come out on the side of believing in the vaunted “announcer jinx.” But at the end of the day, was McIlroy really jinxed? He won the golf tournament. He won his career grand slam. Sure, it wasn’t pretty. He didn’t make it easy on himself. But he won, and that’s really what matters.
There’s a legitimate discussion to be had about whether or not CBS and Jim Nantz should have focused on McIlroy as much as they did. But no matter if McIlroy won or lost on Sunday, he was going to be the main story coming out of this year’s Masters. CBS was simply doing its job by following the story the most people cared about.
