The Green Jacket is Golf’s World Heavyweight Championship, awarded to the winner of The Masters, one of golf’s most prestigious tournaments. On April 5, 87 professionals tee off – including Tiger himself – vying for those ‘Pantone 342’ threads and over US$11 million in prize money. Want to watch the first Major for the year, live and free?
Here’s when and how you can watch the Masters in Australia.
What Is The Masters?
The Masters is the first major golf championship event of the year and takes place at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, USA. The tournament is 84 years old and an invitational event, so not just any scrub gets to turn up with their clubs, a caddy and a ridiculous handicap – this is the Best of the Best.
This year looks to be particularly strong with Tiger Woods looking good, Rory McIlroy ready to go, Jason Day, Bubba Watson, Phil Mickelson all noted performers at Augusta and ready to claim that green (again). Of course, Jordan Spieth just turns up for these things and dominates. This is his wheelhouse.
The Aussies to keep an eye on are, of course, the aforementioned Jason Day, as well as Marc Leishman, Adam Scott and Cameron Smith.
When Is The Masters?
The Masters takes place during the first week of April and in 2018, it runs from April 6 to April 9, if you’re working on Australian time.
The event begins at 5am AEST on Friday April 6, Saturday April 7 and Sunday April 8, and slightly early on Monday, April 9, with a 4am AEST start.
If you’re in Perth, you’ll be hitting that coffee real early (or real late, I guess!)
Here’s those times in all capital cities:
Friday April 6, Saturday April 7, Sunday April 8:
- Perth, WA: 2:30am
- Darwin, NT: 4:30am
- Adelaide, SA: 4:30am
- Brisbane, QLD: 5am
- Sydney, NSW: 5am
- Canberra, ACT: 5am
- Melbourne, VIC: 5am
- Hobart, TAS: 5am
Monday April 9:
- Perth, WA: 1:30am
- Darwin, NT: 3:30am
- Adelaide, SA: 3:30am
- Brisbane, QLD: 4am
- Sydney, NSW: 4am
- Canberra, ACT: 4am
- Melbourne, VIC: 4am
- Hobart, TAS: 4am
How To Watch The Masters 2018 In Australia Online, Live, Free
Fortunately for Australian viewers, free to air TV has come through with the goods. You will be able to catch the entire tournament for free on Channel 9’s GEM. That means you can catch all four days of coverage by flicking on the telly and tuning in from 5am AEST every day.
Beyond that, you’ll be able to stream the Masters 2018 by logging into 9Now. On that service, there will be alternate live streams available that provide the action from a number of holes: 11, 12 and 13, 15 and 16 and action from two featured groups.
If you’re stuck at work early Monday and want to see who takes out the green jacket, that’ll be the way to get involved.
Foxtel subscribers are in luck as Fox Sports have committed to covering the Masters back to front with a dedicated pop up channel (507) with all rounds live, in HD and without any ads. Of course, there’s that little caveat that Foxtel costs a cheeky $40 for the Sports coverage. However, Foxtel Now is the way to go – and they currently offer a two-week trial period for new customers – so if you want to catch the Masters, you will have enough time to tune in for free and bail before it costs you a pretty penny.
The Foxtel Now channel is currently live and you can watch some pre-Masters content about some of the big players.
Want to get involved with an active golf community? Try Reddit’s r/golf. They won’t necessarily be able to offer you free live streams, but they will be able to offer plenty of memes, hilarity and highlights.
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