On Thursday afternoon, in a cloistered lounge at New York's bustling Time Warner Center, pimento cheese sandwiches were served to several dozen guests in dark glasses.
It was a taste of Augusta National in the middle of Manhattan, provided by Time Warner Cable. The event was held to allow guests to watch live coverage of the Masters in 3D, which... if one can't physically make it down to Augusta... is clearly the most exciting way to experience the tournament.
After a hectic day in the city, I arrived at the viewing party. I grabbed a glass of chardonnay and took a seat on one of the low slung leather sofas positioned in front of one of the sleek flat screens. The 3D glasses I had been given at the door were NOT those old cardboard things you used get back in the day. In fact, they were as sleek and stylized as the screens, and as soon as I put them on, the broadcast... literally... took on another dimension.
There was Camilo Villegas in a green side bunker, he took a full swing and lifted his ball onto the green with a spray of sand ...and that's all it took for me to see exactly how impressive this technology is.
The course looked beautiful... and quite a bit more challenging than it does in a normal broadcast because each contour is heightened in 3D. So the elevation changes, the slightest undulation on the greens...not to mention the undulations of Camilo's biceps... were ultra-perceptible.
Those sitting around me, some of them golfers some not, were all as impressed as I was. I met up with intrepid NY golf blogger Stephanie Wei of Wei Under Par and she heartily agreed that golf... with it's beautiful and varied venues... was a perfect sport for 3D.Time Warner Cable subscribers with 3D TVs and a Time Warner Cable HD box with HDMI output can watch daily highlights in 3D on Demand. Relatively few have the technology in their homes at this point however, most feel that'll change soon. In the meantime if you're in New York on Sunday, Time Warner Cable is having a Masters viewing party that's open to the public. The event is free and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Similar events will be held in San Diego and Charlotte and additional details can be found at the Time Warner site.
The thing is, no matter where one watches the iconic tournament this weekend, a stellar leaderboard is probably going to make it pretty awesome. 3D just adds an extra dimension to the awesomeness.
