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Coverage for the Masters in 2024 just got a little bigger. ESPN recently announced that they're adding two familiar faces to the broadcasting team, giving more scope to golf's biggest tournament.
Jeff Darlington will work on SportsCenter as a reporter for the tournament, while Laura Rutledge is slated to host ESPN’s two-hour “Welcome to the Masters” pre-broadcast show. This is the second year of that show.
Rutledge first came to ESPN in 2014 as the host of NFL Live and the SEC Network’s SEC Nation. She has also worked the sidelines of both NFL and college football games as part of her career with ESPN.
Darlington came on in 2016 and has primarily worked as an NFL reporter and can be seen on several ESPN NFL weekly shows, including Get Up, NFL Live, SportsCenter, and Sunday NFL Countdown. Both have mostly worked in the football scene but will be transitioning to golf for the trip to Augusta National.
ESPN saw a slight dip in the first and second-round ratings last year when they had the broadcast, so they're upping their game for this year's show, providing much more coverage and sending familiar and dependable talent to the sport.
Jon Rahm provides a unique approach to the menu for the Masters
Jon Rahm has already revealed his menu for the Masters. As the reigning champion, he gets the chance to host the dinner party for all past champions. The biggest part of it is the food, which Rahm has prepared an epic menu for:
- Basque crab salad and potatoes
- Turbot with white asparagus
- Basque ribeye with Tudela lettuce and piquillo peppers
- Acorn-fed Iberian ham-cured pork loin
- Idiazabal cheese and black truffle
- Spanish omelet with onions and confit potatoes
- Classic lentil stew
- Spicy basque chorizo with potatoes
- Creamy chicken fritters with confit potatoes
Rahm admitted that all the menu items won't be familiar to a lot of people, but that's common for dishes where he's from. Via ESPN, he said he wanted to put his heritage into the menu:
"I wanted to put a little bit of my heritage and my family into this dinner, which is going to make it even more special. It should be quite special. And they're going to try a few things that they maybe haven't seen before that are really quite tasty."
Another aspect of his Spanish culture is on display. He said that most people in Spain don't go past medium rare or they get a funny look, but the dinner will give people a steak seared and cut but with a hot plate for them to cook it to their desired temperature.
Every champion gets the chance to host and put together a menu of whatever they want. Tiger Woods once served cheeseburgers and milkshakes, so it's all down to what the reigning champ is feeling that year.
