Tiger Woods, the ultimate competitor, has left golf dangling in the realm of panic. Since winning the U.S. Open Woods underwent another knee surgery and left the world of PGA golf without a face.
The entire PGA has moved to the back page of the sports section and to nothing more than the "Bottom Line" ticker of ESPN. On ESPN Radio with Scott Van Pelt, Tiger himself admitted he hasn't even been watching golf.
So I ask myself, has the departure of a single athlete ever hurt a sport this much? When Jordan walked away from basketball the first time in 1994, 98' or 2003 the league didn't seem to miss a beat, and he was basketball to say the least.
Football players usually retire on the backside of their careers, except John Elway, but the league was never really hurt when that happened. Heck, the Packers are pushing Brett Favre away.
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Baseball seems to be happy with Roger "Roid-Rage" Clemens chilling in Houston this season.
Maybe Hockey, the sport took a pretty big hit when Gretzky retired, but now they have a new pulse thanks to Sid the Kid.
Soccer is blasting out young superstars into the spotlight every year, as early as 17 years old.
But golf needs someone to be able to pick up the slack when Tiger's on sabbatical. "Lefty" could do it but since Wing-Foot he's been good for nothing but a story about falling from greatness. Sergio Garcia doesn't have the swagger, the consistency, or the confidence to fill Eldrick's shoes, even for a month or two. Even if he were to win a few tourneys all he would do is thank Tiger for not being in attendance, again.
Golf needs to do more to market its other top-tier players. Tiger's commercials alone will keep him in the limelight even if he were to never win another tournament. A prime example is the Nike spot with Tiger bouncing the golf ball on the club for 30 seconds then blasting the paint off of it; it was one of the best ever, but I bet that every player on the tour could do that.
I even saw Carson Palmer do it on YouTube. If the PGA wants its sport to excel, they need to back their golfers as Nike backs Tiger. Until then he's got that sport by the short and curly's and there's nothing they can do about it. Hope Tiger doesn't decide to retire early...
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3 months ago
Good article Gregory and you are absolutely right!
Tiger's skill on the course is just part of what makes him so popular and why the game has grown in popularity so much since he emerged.
The theatre that Woods provides is what is missed even more than his skill.
Not only does Woods make amazing shots but he does so in the most important situation to the backdrop of a few thousand strong gallery going absolutely nuts followed by anaimated first pumps, hat throwing, etc. The shots Woods makes are indeed amazing, but other players also make amazing shots, Woods provides such great entertainment while making the amazing shots. That is not to forget the fact that Woods is so good that he is always in a situation to provide himslef with the opportunity to make big shots/tournament winning shots while others are very rarely in that situation.
I think that someone like Mickelson, Anthony Kim, etc. could have stepped up and won most tournaments in Woods absence and it still wouldn't match the entertainment provided by Woods - Woods has that so-called X-Factor that other just do not whether they are making the same shots as Woods or not.
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