Not a surprise that today's first round of The Master's golf tournament -- and Tiger Woods' return to competition since his sex scandal broke -- is drawing a mix of media interest.

But don't ask the stodgy folks at The Master's how much media interest there is. Unlike those who run The Olympics and Super Bowl who love to brag about media credential records, the Master's folks gave me a stark “no comment” when asked how much more media interest there is this year.

When I asked how this year's interest compares to a normal year, the press tent overseer said, “what is a normal year?” Uh, perhaps it is normal when your best player is not caught up in a nationally followed sex scandal. Pardon me.

This follows Master's chairman Billy Payne's snobbish rebuke of Tiger on Wednesday. George Vecsey of The New York Times wrote a great piece today slamming Payne for such hypocrisy, given the Master's poor history of keeping out women.

Then there is Nike, ever supportive of the troubled Tiger, launching a new television ad Wednesday that includes a voiceover from Tiger's late father, Earl, in which he eerily appears to be questioning his son's actions. No word on where the voiceover came from or what his father was actually speaking about at the time.