Tiger Woods' "Indefinite" Leave: What It Really Means for Golf

Tiger Woods typically begins his season on Jan. 28 at the San Diego Open (formerly known as the Buick Invitational before Buick clunked out last year).

So, it’s no surprise that despite the 2010 PGA Tour season kicking off this week in Kapalua, Hawaii, national television networks won’t even begin covering the PGA Tour until the San Diego Open in late January.

What does this tell us?

Well, despite all the optimistic attempts to convince ourselves that the PGA Tour will be just fine without Tiger Woods, it’s abundantly clear that Woods almost single handedly represents the health of the PGA Tour.

And like the American health care system, if you happen to get very sick, you’re in big, big trouble.

Here are some quick Nielsen Television Ratings that demonstrate exactly what happens to a Tiger-less PGA Tour.

When Woods was out in late 2008 and early 2009 due to his knee injury:

• Viewership at the AT&T National was down 45.2% on Sunday

• Viewership at the PGA Championship was down 57.6% on Sunday

• Despite 53-year-old Greg Norman holding the lead with just nine holes left to play at the 2008 British Open, viewership was still down almost 15% on Sunday.

• Viewership for the Buick Invitational was down 57.4% in total

• Viewership at the BMW Championship was down 65% on Saturday and 61.5% on Sunday

• Viewership at the Tour Championship was down 61.6% on Saturday and 48.4% on Sunday

Gate attendance at events Woods normally attends was also down anywhere between 30 percent and 50 percent in late '08 and early '09.

Now, golf is bigger than one man. It always has been.

Believe it or not, other great players have come and gone long before Woods was even a glimmer in Earl Woods' eye.

Walter Hagen retired, and the game of golf continued.

Bobby Jones walked away from the game at 28-years-old, and golf continued.

Byron Nelson bought a ranch and walked away from the game right smack in the middle of his prime, and golf continued.

Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus all retired, yet the game of golf continued.

We’d be foolish and very short-sighted to think that Woods' absence will now bring down a game that has been played since the Scots were whacking featheries along the seaside links in the early 1600’s.

That being said, it doesn’t mean that Woods' absence won’t have a drastic effect in the short-term.

You see, when Woods hit the professional scene in late 1996, he opened up the game of golf to a brand new audience.

Millions upon millions of people who previously had no interest in the game of golf began tuning in to watch Woods, which is of course a good thing, but is also precisely where the problem lies.

Based on the television and attendance ratings in late '08 and early '09, it’s safe to say that at least 50 percent of people who tune in to golf do so only to watch Woods.

That more or less means that Woods draws at least 50 percent more viewers and patrons to a golf tournament when he is present.

That also means that when he’s out on his “indefinite” leave from the game, we can expect at least 50 percent fewer viewers and patrons at golf tournaments.

And there’s not a darn thing that Rory McIlroy, Ryo Ishikawa or Rickie Fowler can do about that—until one of them wins a dozen majors or so.

Unless Tom Watson makes another miraculous run at the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews, there’s only one man that can have some form of impact on the television ratings, and that’s Phil Mickelson.

But, even if Mickelson contends at the majors, he might sway the rating by 10 percent at most, which means we’d still be 40 percent short of where we’d be if Woods were in the field.

If we never see Woods again, there will still be a PGA Tour 10, 20 and 30 years from now, and weekend hackers will be smacking around Pro-v47 golf balls in the year 2060.

The game will go on—maybe with far fewer sponsors and lower purses—but it will go on.

However, let’s not turn a blind eye to the writing clearly displayed on the wall.

While Tiger Woods is out on his “indefinite” leave, the game of golf could suffer dramatically—at least in the short-term.