Why The PGA Tour Is More Exciting With Tiger Woods Around

Besides being well on his way to becoming the greatest player to have ever picked up a golf club, there are many other aspects of excitement Woods brings to the game other than just his incredible level of talent.

It is always exciting to watch any athlete of superior skill in any sport.  However, Woods’ amazing shots under the most intense pressure are only so exciting for the average golf fan.

What makes watching Tiger Woods more exciting than any other player has more to do with the theatre he provides than with the actual shots he executes.

When Woods drains a long eagle putt on the back-nine of the U.S. Open, he does so to the backdrop of thousands of screaming fans which he sends into a near frenzy with his animated first pumps.

Although there are many people out there who have an interest in the game of golf, as we have seen all too clearly in Woods’ absence, most of them will only tune in to watch a PGA Tour event when Woods is in the field.

The main reason for this is because when we turn on the television, we do so to be entertained, and the theatre Woods provides is entertainment that is unmatched by anyone else on the PGA Tour.

A player like Phil Mickelson is an absolute Houdini around the greens; continually pulling off one miraculous flop shot after another.  However, Mickelson is not in contention nearly as often as Woods and even when he is in contention he doesn’t draw the same massive, loud galleries that Woods does.

Watching Mickelson chip in from what would seem like an impossible lie would be like watching Many Ramirez hit a home run against the Pittsburgh Pirates in front of a stadium that is only a quarter full because it’s a Thursday afternoon game. 

Sure, watching Ramirez hit a monstrous home run is always exciting; however, it is not nearly as exciting as if he had hit that home run in September at Fenway against the Yankees in front of a packed house; it simply does not provide the same theatre, thus is not nearly as entertaining to watch.

Besides providing an unparalleled level of entertainment, Woods also brings excitement to the game through our desire to see someone actually step up and compete with him.

Tiger Woods could be compared to the Yankees of the late 90s-early 2000s or the Chicago Bulls of the early 90s.

Despite garnering criticism from everyone outside of the New York area for spending absurd amounts of money on a team full of all-stars, the New York Yankees did more to revive the game of baseball in the late 90s than any other player or team of this generation.

The Yankees brought so much attention to the game of baseball because if you were a fan, you loved them and if you were a fan of any one of the other 29 teams in the league you hated them and would anxiously tune in to see if anyone could knock the Yankees off their thrown.

If you were a Chicago Bulls fan during the early-90s, you loved the team and particularly adored Michael Jordan.  If you were a fan of any other team in the league you hated the Bulls and despised Michael Jordan. 

Similar to the attention the Yankees drew to baseball, fans from all over would tune in on Saturday afternoons to watch the NBA on NBC to see if the Knicks or Lakers could defeat Michael Jordan and the mighty Bulls.

Fans would tune in by the millions to see if any team could possibly step and challenge these dynasties and, when it didn’t happen, fans still felt entertained because when they watched Jordan drop 50 points in a NBA finals game or Derek Jeter rack up yet another clutch postseason double, they knew that they had just seen something special.

Love the Yankees, Bulls, Jordan or Jeter, or hate them, you would still have to sit back and shake your head when these players and teams came through in the clutch on yet another occasion.

Woods is providing a similar atmosphere in golf.  Many fans are anxiously waiting to see if any of these bright young stars such as Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Sergio Garcia or Rory McIlroy can step up and challenge Woods on a consistent basis.

If they do, it is that much more exciting because they would have faced off against a player who will likely go down as the greatest player in the history of the game.

If they face off against Woods and lose, you still feel entertained because you have watched yet another example of how incredibly dominant and unbeatable this man, Tiger Woods, really is.

Few golf fans would be very interested in seeing Kim beat Padraig Harrington.  Sure, Harrington is a three-time major champion, but beating Harrington would not provide anywhere near the same level of excitement as it would if Kim had stepped up to the mighty Woods and actually taken him down.

Lastly, Woods has become an almost mythical figure, similar to the way Ben Hogan was perceived in his heyday. 

Woods shows up, dominates a field of the best 155 players in the world, answers every question in a way that is so meticulous thought out and preplanned it seems as if his mind has been programmed to answer the same questions in the same way every week. 

Woods then quickly hightails out of town on his multi-million dollar gulfstream jet.

Woods is such a private man and keeps such a small inner circle that no one really knows too much about him. 

Rarely, if ever, do we actually get a glimpse into Woods true personality.  We never know where he stands on any issues of real substance or even how he really feels about his ongoing quest to win more major championships than Jack Nicklaus.

The aura of mystic surrounding Woods just makes him an even more intriguing character, which, again, adds to the excitement surrounding this athlete and has allowed him to reach almost mythical proportions following his unprecedented win at the U.S. Open on one leg.

Sure, we all know that ratings and attendance figures drop dramatically when Woods is not playing.  But, there actually is a reason behind the massive drop-off in interest when Woods is not around—it's simply not as exciting.