golfrewind.com

Tiger has always held competition as his reason for playing. The money just adds to it.

It that was completely true, why doesn't Tiger play courses that he has never won at like Hilton Head or Colonial or Westchester? I would think that inside, he would want to prove he can win at every course the tour plays on an annual basis.

Why doesn't his competitive nature make him want to adjust his schedule and play those courses?

Please note that he is the best golfer in the world and maybe the best all time. I am not questioning his skills in any way. I am just questioning, why he choses not to play these courses. Your thoughts.

Tiger plays to win majors. End of story.

He sets up his schedule to try and peak 4 times a year. He seems pretty good at accomplishing that.

without looking it up, who won the '05 colonial.
without looking it up, who won the '05 masters.
exactly
he plays for the tournamentsthat he will be remembered for winning.

I don't quite buy that... without looking it up, who won the '06 Wachovia? (Tiger won the '07)
who won the '07 Arnold Palmer Invitational? (Tiger came in 22nd)
who won the '07 AT&T National? sure, it is Tiger's event to host, but your thesis is that he only play tournaments that he will be remembered for winning.

I do buy into BPC's theory that he ramps it up to get prepared for the majors and The PLAYERS (the Wachovia is right before the PLAYERS in May).

It's not just the majors, though. He plays in most of the Buick events b/c Buick has been a major sponsor of his for a long time now. He play is the increasingly mis-names World Golf events. He plays in the invitationals hosts by Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, and he plays in enough FedEx Cup events as necessary.

It's been called this before, but it really is his own Tiger Tour.

Did you know that the LPGA has a rule that every player must play every event at least once every four years? I really, really like this idea so that events that used to be somewhat major don't just disappear. Like the Canadian Open. Almost no one of any high rank plays that anymore. And, kind of like Interleague play in MLB where every city knows that the big-draw clubs will be by for a series every 6 years or so (Yankee, Cubs, etc), every host tournament knows that at least once every four years, Phil, and Vijay, and Tiger, and Furyk and all the big names will come through, and probably not all in the same year, so chances are good that every year there will be at least a few of the marquee players playing. It also would be good so that fans all across the country could see the marquee players once in a while, too.

Maybe 4 years is a little too fast, I think 5 might be better, and obviously you don't include the events that are the alternates to the really big events (like the U.S. Bank Championship that goes on the same week as The Open). But, the sad truth is that there are a lot of events that are quite simply dying, because none of the top players go out there anymore. It may not work today to try to institute that rule, because, again, Tiger has his own Tour and probably would simply decide that he didn't need the PGA Tour anymore. And, once he left, many of the top players could probably do the same. Nevertheless, I can dream about a chance that it might happen (yeah, right )

KJ Choi won the AT&T in 07
Vijay won ay Bay Hill in 07
and the '06 wachovia? tiger didnt play i dont think. dont remember who won

This makes the most sense to me, but his schedule of some events like the Buicks that he plays does prove that he has a corporate responsibility that he honors (nothing wrong with that). I think Phil does the same thing with his schedule in a different way, but with the same goal.

As for the LPGA idea, I like the idea, but the bigger players and bigger sponsors would definitely oppose this idea. I wish they could come up with a healthy compromise to head in this direction. It would be nice to see Tiger at the Colonial to see how he fares.

Many of Tiger's wins come at less than important sites, so I don't buy the win at courses he will be remembered at. I do believe he knows best on how to prepare himself for the majors and maximize his season without getting burned out. I just wonder why he does not find it as an internal challenge to prove he can win at a course like the Colonial or Hilton Head.

So a little bit of a hi-jack...

I think it's fairly obvious through television ratings and whatnot that everyone likes to see Tiger dominate the field. We all like to witness history and I'm sure most of us are pulling for him to win all 4 majors in a year.

What do you think would happen if Tiger found his next level and just continued winning? If he won every tournament he entered for 2 years straight. What would become of the sport? Would the PGA create new rules?

Actually, this isn't quite right. While every TV rating is increased with Tiger playing, him dominating the field isn't good, either. This past Sunday's ratings were down 18 percent over the 2007 event. They can't place the blame on football or anything else hugely significant in the sports world, either. I think that it is primarily because Tiger was up so many strokes. A buddy of mine said it was like watching a Patriots game after they go up 24-0 in the first quarter (this has to be the FOX exec's worst nightmare for this upcoming weekend) -- what's the point because the outcome is almost 100% assured.

The ideal goal is to have Tiger in the field, and he's at least competitive going in the final round. Leading is good if not by too many, and if he's "on the hunt" that might be the best of all. People like to watch some intrigue and see if he can make up 3, 4, 5 strokes on Sunday. But, blowouts aren't good, as evidenced by this past weekend.

Not all of us,there are golfers out there who are not tiger fans in any shape manner or form some of us would prefer a competiton as opposed to a procession

Sigh.

So you basically restated the intent of the post without actually answering the post itself. Yes I made a generality/assumption that people want Tiger to win. I guess I'll stick to facts...

I like to see Tiger win each week. I'm hoping he wins all 4 majors this week. Heck, I'd like to see him win every event this year. But it's a short-sighted desire in that if he does reach total and complete domination it will make the sport boring to watch. So....

Do you think if that were to occur (that Tiger wins them all for 2 years), would the viewer base fall drastically and would the PGA tour do anything?

I'll make sure to only post facts which have been cross checked with 4 encyclopedias and the local boy scouts from now on....

I'm sorry, jseigle, but your statement about "it's fairly obvious through television ratings and whatnot that everyone likes to see Tiger dominate the field." was wrong, at least this past weekend. No need to get snippy with me just because I called you on it.

And, in that way, I was answering your question -- viewership is/was down. Like I said, people like to see intrigue, and intrigue isn't who is going to come in second only 12 strokes behind the guy who won everything. If Tiger wins every week viewership would be way down. He's no longer a novelty, and if the result is basically a given at the beginning, what's the point in watching? Sure, the die hard fans would stick with it, but that was only 6.2 million people in the US this past weekend. That low of a number is why there are soooooo many commercials on golf today, it is not doing well in the TV race.

What could the TOUR do? kick Tiger off? institute handicaps? What new rules could they put in? Go back to balata and persimmon? I suspect that would only help Tiger more since he supposedly practices with them fairly often. Tiger has made the TOUR what it is today -- prize funds many multiples of what they were just 15 years ago. The TV ratings when Tiger was just starting were awesome, but like I said, the novelty has worn off. Viewership from the casual fan is almost nil.

Again, from this past weekend. On the major networks in the US, NBA basketball (Cavaliers-Lakers) was the only other major sporting event airing at the same time. And, they had a very long break in the middle of the game because the roof of the Staples Center sprung a leak. There was every reason to click over in the middle of the hoops game to check out the golf -- and it just didn't happen.

Ratings on almost every tournament is down over the last few years. The only tournaments that do well on any individual year is when Tiger is competitive at the end of the tournament. Maybe expectations of the TOUR were too high in the first place. Golf just isn't going to become a "Big X" sport in the US (X = 3 right now, football, baseball, basketball. It used to be 4 with hockey, but I'm not sure that's true today after the strike. X might even really only be 2 today with some of the NBA ratings as poor as they are... though NASCAR might really be poised to replace it). Golf is always going to be a niche sport, and if they thought Tiger was going to propel golf into the same sphere as the Big X, they really overestimated.

Golf will always have it's peaks -- The Masters, both Opens, and that's just about it. It is not unlike many other sports. College Basketball has its peak with March Madness, otherwise it's ratings are generally pretty poor. In the US, Tennis has the US Open and Wimbledon and that's about it.

Golf should be happy it isn't in the lower tier niche sports, really. Soccer doesn't really have a yearly event that gets people to watch. Boxing or MMA doesn't have popular events anymore. College football has it's season and bowl games, but generally, unless it is your team playing, viewership isn't great. It doesn't have a March Madness-like event that focuses everyone's attention. The BCS bowls only focus people's attention to the problems with the BCS system.

So, again, what can the TOUR do? I don't think anything can be done. If it gets that easy for Tiger, I suspect he'll retire. He'll get bored like the TV viewers got bored. Especially if he does pull off a Grand Slam or eclipses Jack's record for majors. What more does he have to play for? It isn't money (like all the way back to the OP said). Prizes on the TOUR will go down, and the TOUR will go back to being the niche sport it always has been.

I respect Tiger and his game but I don't like to watch boring golf where he has a big lead but you still see him on everyhole. I agree that it appears that he can pretty much tell the tour what to do though I have no info that thats the case. That said, I figure that Tiger is smart enough to realize that though he is the game right now he can't let his potential power get out of hand and wound/kill the golden goose. That would hurt his legacy and pretty much thats about all he plays for these days. He's that good.

I was thinking Trevor Immelman won the '06 Wachovia, but Jim Furyk won and Trevor Immelman came in second.

I don't think I helped at all...