UPDATE: Tiger Saving Golf

This is an update to the blog I published after Tiger's heroics on 18 last night. In a paragraph down at the bottom and a subsequent blog last month, I made the case for Tiger Wood's return being the return of golf as one of the most viewed sports in the world.

Well after his breath-taking win yesterday, overcoming a 5 shot deficit and winning for the first time in nine months, all added up to major television ratings, according to this ESPN.com article. According to the article, the Bay Hills tournament provided the largest overnight television ratings for golf since the U.S. Open last year, coincidentally Tiger's last victory on the PGA Tour.

"NBC Sports said the final round drew a 4.9 overnight rating with a 10 share. According to Nielsen Media Research, that's the highest rating of any golf tournament since the U.S. Open in June. Woods won that tournament in a playoff."

What is even more amazing is that during that time period there were two more major golf tournaments. There are 4 major tournaments in golf every year, the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship.

"The Bay Hill rating was up 23 percent from last year and attracted more viewers than the British Open and PGA Championship last year when Woods did not play because of knee surgery."

This further proves that without Tiger, the PGA will suffer until it can find a comparable player. Woods has reinvented golf's popularity and can be credited for almost all of golf's success in the past decade, pulling in millions of viewers each tournament and encouraging many more to take up golf. Now I am clearly talking about golf within the United States, as many other countries have their own heroes where Tiger is still a large icon. The question is, how will the PGA market its tournaments once Tiger is gone? How will the PGA make up for the ratings and lost revenue once Tiger decides to hang up his golf spikes for sandals?

These are questions that PGA marketers should be thinking about now, looking for that next great talent that could one day take over as the PGA's main draw. That was the problem when Tiger took a leave of absence almost a year ago for knee surgery: the PGA didn't have a player that they could sell to get people to watch. They tried with young fireballer Anthony Kim and attempted to revive Phil Mickelson's popularity, but there wasn't a following like Tiger's.

Just look at the crowds following Woods all day long and tell me when on the tour last season that happened without him in that group. Never. The fact of the matter is is that golf needs Tiger here in the U.S. Without Woods, golf in the U.S. will falter and screech to a halt, without that player to idolize and fall in love with. I also believe that is the reason that soccer has never taken off in this country as it has in others and that is because we don't have a national hero to watch and follow as he takes on competitiors around the world.

So my question to you is, how will the PGA survive when Tiger Woods decides to call it a career? Where will those advertising dollars come from? With what we've seen in how much Tiger affects the ratings every single tournament and can single handedly be responsible for keeping the PGA afloat during these economic times, it's hard to imagine a replacement ever coming along who can have the impact he has had this sport. On any sport for that matter.