This just in: Golf beats hockey in Great White North

The 2009 Masters managed something that few sports events in this country can do: beat out Hockey Night In Canada.

According to BBM Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings, Sunday's final round, won by Angel Cabrera in a playoff, attracted an average audience of 1,039,000 viewers to Global. That's 12,000 more than CBC drew for its split prime-time broadcasts of the Toronto-Ottawa and Pittsburgh-Montreal games, even though the hockey game had no tinkling pianos.

Golf also beat out the world men's curling final, accomplishing a rare Canadian ice sport double sweep.

Global's Sunday audience represents a 6 per cent increase over last year. CBS scored an 8.3 rating, which was down 3 per cent from 2008.

Here are the top-rated sports programs of the weekend:

1.  Masters final round, Sunday, Global: 1,039,000

2. Hockey Night In Canada early game, Saturday, CBC: 1,027,000

3. World men's curling final, Sunday, TSN: 807,000

4. World men's curling playoff, Friday, TSN: 711,000

5. Masters third round, Saturday, Global: 645,000

6. Calgary at Edmonton, Saturday, CBC: 613,000

7. Masters second round, Friday, TSN: 549,000

8. Women's world hockey final, Sunday, TSN: 313,000

9. . Blue Jays at Indians, Sunday, Sportsnet: 291,000

10. Blue Jays at Indians, Saturday, Sportsnet: 279,000

If you missed the Masters, here's how it ended. You can barely make out the British commentary, but amazingly obviously you don't miss a thing other than the superlatives.

MEA CULPA

A misunderstanding and an appalling lack of hockey historical knowledge led me to report that TSN was the first network other than CBC to carry a Stanley Cup playoff game. In fact, CTV and Global carried games in the `80s. Of course, RDS has been broadcasting Stanley Cup games in French for several years.