PGA Tour and Golf Need Tiger Woods to Be Big in 2012

Tiger Woods has not won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open. He did win six times in 2009 before tangling with that pesky fire hydrant during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Most of the 2010 and 2011 seasons were lost due to the ensuing divorce, injuries and swing changes. Still, however, he is the biggest story in golf. 

He will open his 2012 season this week in Abu Dhabi on the European Tour. It will be a strong field and will provide a barometer of the state of Tiger’s game. 

Woods' announcement that he would skip Torrey Pines and instead make his 2012 PGA Tour debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am has sent ticket sales and media pass requests for that event through the roof. This was bad for San Diego, but great for Monterey.

Tiger exhibited some signs of recapturing the old golf magic late in 2011 in Australia. He was a solid third at the Australian Open and performed well in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.  He even won the Chevron World Challenge in December, albeit it was his own limited field, invitation-only event.

Does anyone remember when tennis had a major sports presence in the United States?  Arthur Ashe, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras were the last great American tennis champions.  Along came the dominance of international tennis players and, poof, television struggled to find advertising dollars and print media coverage lost column inches.

The last few dominant players on the LPGA have been from international backgrounds. Would the LPGA struggles over the last four years have been as difficult if Michelle Wie or Morgan Pressel had won 12 events and five major championships?

European Tour members control the top four spots on the Official World Golf Rankings. Seven of the top 10 were born outside the United States. The only three American players in the top 10—Steve Stricker, Webb Simpson and Dustin Johnson—combined have ZERO major titles among them.

Health issues to his immediate family and of his own have limited Phil Mickelson, the only other American player that could make a big splash, and he has fallen to 15^th in the world.

I do applaud Phil’s effort this week in taking one for the team and supporting the Humana Challenge. After a poor first round, Mickelson eventually finished 10 under par, a full 13 shots behind the winner, Mark Wilson.

Tiger’s fist pump, confident fairway stride, Sunday red shirt and quest to win five more majors is the thing that makes television ratings soar and magazines and newspapers fly off the shelves.

Tiger needs to win, and win often, in 2012.

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