The world of golf, specifically the PGA TOUR, has benefited greatly by its precious gift from heaven, Tiger Woods.
Television ratings, sponsorship dollars, tournament attendance, merchandise sales and overall interest and popularity in golf have skyrocketed since Woods exploded on the sports scene in 1997 with his stunning win at the Masters.
There is no one single athlete who has ever made more of an impact to his or her sport than Tiger Woods (yes, even more than Michael Jordan).
But is it wise for golf to allow the media to turn its sport into the “Tiger Woods Show”? The foundation of any sport is competition. So when one single athlete draws such a heavy majority of the media’s attention and focus, how does it affect the rest of the athletes and the sport as a whole?
Virtually every TV sports report, newspaper article or Web site story about a PGA TOUR event revolves around Tiger, regardless of where he is in the standings.
If Tiger is 10 strokes behind the leader in a tournament after a round, the inevitable lead story is – who’s in front and where Tiger is on the board. There could be six other golfers in between the leader and Tiger, but the top story is how Tiger is doing.
Now, most people following a tournament Tiger’s playing in usually only care about Tiger and whether he’s got a chance at winning.
So perhaps it’s a Catch-22: The media covers Tiger so heavily because that’s what the public is interested in / The public is interested in Tiger because the media covers him so heavily.
But either way, golf’s massive dependence on Tiger, to the point where the sport’s entire identity is one man, could cause serious damage down the road.
Take, for example, Woods’ injury-shorten season in 2008. After dramatically winning the U.S. Open, where the final round earned one of the highest TV ratings ever for a golf tournament, Woods underwent reconstructive ACL surgery on his left knee – putting him out of action for the rest of the season.
As a direct result, TV ratings for PGA TOUR events from that point fell significantly. Here’s a look at the 2008 tournament ratings without Tiger compared to the previous year with Tiger:
• British Open down 14.6%
• PGA Championship down 55%
• AT&T Classic down 48%
• WGC-Bridgestone Invitational down 39%
And the attendance numbers for these events had a decline consistent with the TV ratings drop.
Tiger’s unprecedented popularity, supported by the media, is burying all other golfers and is morphing the sport into a Tiger vs. Everybody Else event.
What’s the best aspect of watching sports and following your teams? The rivalries.
Historically, what’s the Yankees without the Red Sox, the Celtics without the Lakers, the 49ers without the Cowboys, North Carolina without Duke…or, Jack without Arnold?
Well, where’s Tiger’s rival? He doesn’t have one. And not because he’s so great and dominates so much. It’s that the sport and the media won’t allow him one.
During the 2007 Bridgestone Invitational, Rory Sabbatini blew a five-stroke lead and lost the tournament to Tiger. Afterwards, Sabbatini was quoted as saying that Tiger was “more beatable than ever.”
Well, you would have thought Sabbatini desecrated the America Flag or denounced Jesus Christ. The media blew the quote up and made the remarks an international scandal.
“How dare you say anything negative about the great Tiger Woods!”
Sabbatini, who possesses a strong personality with character and attitude that’s good for a sport, was almost ostracized by the golf media and fans for his remark. He was heckled and ridiculed during subsequent matches and turned any potential rivalry into an insult to Tiger.
Most post match press conference involve other golfers praising Tiger and acting like they’re lucky to be within 500 yards of him. It’s nauseating…and boring.
Eventually, Tiger is going to retire and slowly slip away from the sports scene. When he does, golf is going to be left very empty with no other golfers for the fans and media to turn to for their love and adulations.
Golf is a different type of sport than football or basketball. It’s considered a gentleman’s game and its players are not supposed to reflect the aggression or intensity that is seen by athletes from other sports.
But don’t take the guts and fun out of the sport.
There are plenty of other great golfers out there. The PGA TOUR and the media need to recognize and promote these other golfers and give some type of balance to “The Tiger Woods Show.”
Loading ...
Are you kidding me? “The media won’t let them” be a rival? How does the media control what the players do to try and beat Tiger? It is as it always has been, Tiger against the field as no other player has consistently challenged him.
True points about rivalries like the Sox/Yankees, Duke/NC, etc making for compelling story lines. However I also think there is precedent for truly elite athletes (like Tiger) making headlines because of the interest to see how much they can beat everyone else by.
Think of Tyson in the 80s. You knew he was going to win and he never had a rival. The question was how fast the KO was going to be.
More recently look at Usain(sp?) Bolt. He’s brought more attention to track not because he could lose, but because he might beat the field by a several strides and shave a tenth off the WR.
Michael Phelps is another similar one.
It’s like the gladiators in Rome. People like the gore, it’s just more civilized now.