The Masters app gives golf fans a March Madness-like look at all the action from Augusta

Golf fans almost universally agree that The Masters is the best week of the year the sport has to offer. The combination of tradition, beautiful scenery and the best players in the world competing for a coveted prize isn’t exactly a difficult sell.

But one of the underrated reasons The Masters maintains its credibility as a top-tier event is the level of detail included in the incredible Masters official app. A rare necessity for actually following a sporting event on your phone in an age where doing so can feel slow and tedious, the Masters app offers a staggering amount of sophistication – particularly for a free app that is only used for one week a year.

The leaderboard updates quickly and efficiently. March Madness enthusiasts think they’re slick with a four-screen setup until the Masters app blows that out of the water by offering six unique viewpoints around Augusta National.

Fantasy teams, course information, individual player tracking and advanced data is all available. The technology developed by Augusta National Golf Club and the app’s partner, IBM, is so sound that Full Swing producer Chad Mumm dropped anecdotes about the respect shown by other app development teams.

The singular feature that makes the Masters app stand out above all else, however, is the unparalleled ability to view every shot hit by every player in the field mere minutes after the shot occurred.

Television production and technological advancements in apps has greatly aided golf coverage in recent years. Larger field sizes at other events and traveling television production crews also makes it impossible to put a camera on every player for every shot at nearly every other major golf event. Since Augusta National runs its own app on its own land, they can post cameras at every conceivable location around the course.

With the ability to see every shot, the app has turned golf’s biggest event into a virtual playground for golf enthusiasts. It’s become a necessity for golf gamblers following deeper plays on lesser-known players. Instead of tracking shots on a digitized hole on a screen as is done every week, every shot at Augusta is watched and studied.

Fun threads from golf fans full of under-the-radar moments have also emerged from the see-all-shots revolution. Whether it’s reddit or No Laying Up’s annual Twitter thread, there is never a shortage of shots that spread among the golf community.

It’s great to see the incredible shots missed by the main broadcast, the bad shots that make golfers at home relate and the meltdowns that come during a pressure-packed moment. There’s only so much that the main television broadcast can pack in.

Paywalls and blackouts permeate modern sports viewing culture and force cord cutters to make decisions based on interests. Viewing all of a PGA Tour event on a weekly basis often requires a paid subscription to ESPN Plus. But unmatched access with a free, quality product is yet another reason to love The Masters.