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Tiger Woods tees off early - Source: Reuters -
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With his extraordinary gift for near-perfect timing, Tiger Woods
announced his return to the winner's circle with a sensational
victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando on
Monday.
In only his third tournament back since reconstructive knee
surgery, the American world number one overhauled a five-stroke
deficit to triumph by a shot, giving golf and sport in general a
much-needed boost.
Woods's eight-month absence dealt golf a major blow, especially at
a time when the global financial crisis had begun to take a firm
hold.
He shut down his 2008 campaign immediately after winning the U.S.
Open in June and a Tiger-less golf world automatically led to
plunging television ratings.
For many people, Tiger Woods is golf and he has almost
single-handedly ushered in an era of multi-million dollar
endorsements and lucrative appearance money since turning
professional in 1996.
His Afro-American-Asian background has spread the sport to an
audience far beyond its traditional image of male, white and
middle-class and he has become the world's best known and most
marketable athlete.
Golf, in his absence, began to resemble the fairytale ball without
Cinderella and his long-awaited return at last month's
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship was celebrated by the PGA
Tour with huge relief and joy.
Vintage Fashion
Just two events later, Woods clinched his 66th Tour title in
vintage fashion by holing a 16-foot birdie putt at the last and all
eyes will be on the game's leading player when he bids for a fifth
green jacket at next month's US Masters.
"We need him back and we're all excited to have him back," said
American world number two Phil Mickelson, a double winner on the
2008 PGA Tour.
"It's evident the game needs him.
"The economy has been struggling, the sponsors have been struggling
and to have him back is so critical for the sport."
However, the return of an in-form Tiger does not mean all is now
well within the golfing world.
Because of the deteriorating global economic landscape, the PGA
Tour faces an uncertain future with turmoil in the auto and
financial services sectors leaving the sport vulnerable to the loss
of marketing and advertising dollars.
Eleven of the Tour's title sponsors come from the financial sector
and many of these contracts are up for renewal after the 2010
season.
Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York
University, said: "I almost think it will become a two-tier golf
tour - the tournaments Tiger plays and sponsorship on them and then
the events Tiger doesn't play.
"He's the world's most recognisable athlete and the most important
person in that regard ...... (but) in a global recession even his
power is reduced."
Tiger's Impact
Yet golf clearly benefits with the return of the 14-times major
champion and Boland got a taste of Tiger's impact while dining in a
restaurant on Sunday (US time) evening.
"Dozens of people were surrounding a television there in the bar,"
he said.
"I thought they were looking at basketball but no, they were
looking at Tiger winning a tournament whose name I can't even
remember. That's significant.
"The tour last year got a taste of life without Tiger and they
didn't like it very much. This is an era where sponsors are pulling
out.
"To have the most recognised personality back on top of the
leaderboard for a number of rounds is connecting those sponsors to
a broader public via television and puts the winds back in the
sales of sponsors who are doing golf tournaments."
There are some, though, for whom Woods has become bigger than the
game itself, and this they deplore. His detractors bemoan the
plethora of Tiger headlines in newspapers whenever he tees it up in
a tournament, regardless of how he plays.
With Woods competing, the media gather like moths around a candle
fame. In contrast, a tournament without Woods is almost viewed as a
non-event.
No one can argue, however, that when Woods wins titles in
Tiger-like style, producing moments of magic almost on demand when
they matter most, he provides golfing theatre beyond the reach of
his rivals.
