tagged: Golf, PGA, sabbatical, Tiger Woods

R.I.P. PGA Tour?

Posted by Emmett Jones in Fringe Sports

The only golf you’ll see Tiger Woods doing anytime soon

So, its official.  Tiger Woods has decided to take an indefinite break from the game of golf.  That sound you hear in the background is PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem slowly crying himself to sleep.

It may be the elephant in the room, but everyone knows that the PGA Tour is in trouble.

There is no other sport in the world that is so reliant on one person than the PGA is on Tiger Woods.  You take a single player away from football or hockey…baseball or basketball…soccer…MMA…sure, those sports take a hit, but they don’t see the kind of dropoff the PGA Tour is going to see during Tiger’s indefinite leave.  A year ago, when Tiger was injured, Nielsen compared the ratings of tournaments with and without Tiger.  The results are actually astounding,

The average household rating/share for the 2007-08 tournaments played by Tiger was 3.3/8. The same tournaments played without the injured Tiger in 2008-09 averaged 1.7/4. An estimated average of 4.6 million viewers tuned in to those tournaments played by Tiger, compared to 2.4 million the following year, a drop of almost 47%.

For the record, Tiger won last year’s Accenture Match Play Championship in front of an average 4.2 million TV viewers tuned to NBC.

The “Tiger Effect” extends beyond TV ratings; it has an impact on web traffic, as well. When Tiger amazed fans with his victory at the U.S. Open last June, it was also a victory for the PGA Tour’s Web site, which drew its highest audience of the year that month, with 1.6 million unique visitors. In fact, the average monthly PGA Tour Web traffic for April through June was 24 percent higher than in the following three months, after Tiger’s departure from the tour. (via Nielsen Wire)

Ouch.

I don’t want to say that the PGA had all of their eggs in one basket, but well…yeah.  But, what now?  Part of the reason for the dilemma is Tiger Woods’ other-worldly play; his feats make the casual fan want to watch golf.  The PGA saw viewership cut in half when Tiger was injured for a definite time period.  Now? Tiger is out for an indefinite amount of time, and the question of “whether or not the casual fan will care about golf during his absence or even once he returns” has to be on the minds of many a golf analyst.

In the meantime? The phenomenon is that the “Tiger-Effect” is not a secret.  PGA Tour sponsors know about it too.  They know that Tiger is a huge draw.  They also know he’s not playing, and that may very well effect the amount of money the tour sees during Tiger’s absence,

Although Woods is not solely responsible for the economic growth of the tour, he is given much of the credit for the quadrupling of prize money since he joined it — from $70 million in 1996 to $278 million in 2009. Most of the larger purses directly result from higher revenue from title sponsors, and the PGA Tour is in the midst of negotiating new deals with the sponsors of a dozen events that will expire by the end of 2010. Therefore, uncertainty about his availability will have a negative impact on the negotiations. (via NYT)

Sure, the sponsors know, as well as Tim Finchem, that Tiger will return.  But, if for some reason he hasn’t returned by the end of 2010, are they really going to pump “Tiger-Money” into the PGA Tour while Tiger Woods isn’t golfing? It is highly unlikely.

The PGA is in desperate need of a reason for the casual fan to watch golf.  Since the “black, clean-cut, dominate golfer” card has already been played, it will be very interesting to see what the PGA uses during Tiger’s sabbatical to try and reel in, not only minority fans, but just the casual golf fan in general.

If Tiger’s injury last year is any indication, the PGA has a lot of work to do.