TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Suncoast Pasco News

Golf's Addiction

The Hot Corner

ADVERTISEMENT

By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: July 19, 2008

Similar to America's addiction to oil, the PGA has an insatiable craving all its own.

Sure, the links version isn't polluting the atmosphere or cause for civil strife. Nor is it making families around the globe suffer, but it is an obsession none the less.

It's the Tiger Woods factor.

There's the 137th British Open going on in Royal Birkdale, England right now, and without Tiger, it seems more like just another PGA tour stop.

With Eldrick landlocked to the contiguous 48 because of knee reconstruction, doesn't it feel as though an asterisk will be necessary next to whoever's name that graces the Claret Jug?

Just in regards to competition, winning without besting the game's greatest really isn't winning.

A very fortunate break? Yes.

Winning? Sorry, not exactly.

Even if someone goes out and dominates the old, undulating links course this weekend, posting a 'Woodsian' 16-19-under par, it won't be enough to quell the questioning. It would be just another great four days of golf – without a Tiger breathing down his neck.

Like it or not, the PGA goes as Tiger goes. If he's in, then the public is all in, too. If he's out, then PGA and television execs are crossing their fingers for a minor miracle – or at least a John Daly meltdown.

Whether or not this is good for the game of golf is debatable. On one hand, typically never do you want to be reliant on one entity to prop up a league, company, anything. There are definitely other stars in the sport, but no one nearly as powerful as Woods in skill, name recognition or marketability. If Phil or Vijay or Ernie misses out on a tournament, it's practically an inconsequential blip. When El Tigre is absent – like this week – it dominates headlines and sends ratings tumbling downhill like an arrant approach shot creeping back toward one of the English-hillside course's cavernous bunkers.

On the flipside, a presence like Woods gives the PGA a larger-than-life figure that has rocketed golf to a whole new level of relevance. He is already arguably the greatest golfer of all time in many people's minds, and getting to watch him make a run at Jack Nicholas's career numbers can even pull non-golf fans into the fold at moments.

Until someone steps up as a legit, consistent, week in and week out threat to Woods, any tournament he opts out of will have this same, almost irrelevant tinge to it.

Baseball started back up just in time.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT