1. #1
    jjgold
    jjgold's Avatar Become A Pro!
    Join Date: 07-20-05
    Posts: 388,190
    Betpoints: 10

    Without Tiger Woods, golf is fading to gray

    Give Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and Bubba Watson all the green jackets you’d like. Tiger Woods is still the face of professional golf.
    Nielsen notes that ratings for Saturday’s round of the Masters on CBS increased 48% from the year before, while ratings for Sunday rose 26%. However, Woods’ absence in 2014 drove ratings to their lowest level since 1957 — the second year the Masters was televised. While the presence of Woods’ longtime rival Phil Mickelson also played a role, it certainly didn’t hurt the Masters to have Tiger in contention on Saturday.
    The man has won 79 PGA Tour events (second behind Sam Snead) and 14 majors (second behind Jack Nicklaus), but injuries have held him without a tournament win since 2013, when he was named PGA Player of the Year. Though he was No. 1 in the world as recently as a year ago, he’s fallen out of the Top 100 for the first time in his career and still hasn’t won a major since the 2008 U.S. Open. Revelations of marital infidelity in 2009 and 2010 have dogged him in ways that have somehow eluded other stars including the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady, who left the mother of his first child during her pregnancy for a supermodel, but Woods remains golf’s most prominent figure whether the PGA and its fans like it or not.
    Despite earning less than Mickelson last year, Woods still brought in $63 million in 2014, including $55 million from endorsements alone. That’s after Electronic ArtsEA, -1.46% dropped him in 2013 and renamed his video game for accomplished Irishman Rory McIlroy, and just before Nike attempted to pass the torch to McIlroy as well. Though certain corners of the sports and business worlds are elated by this development — using dog whistles such as “clean cut” to describe Woods’ would-be replacements and “all-American” to describe Masters winner Jordan Speith — thisisn’t how it works.
    Millennials grew up watching Tiger Woods’ near-invincible run and, when he isn’t around, they have no problem abandoning golf altogether. According to Nielsen, 63% of people who watch golf on television are 55 or older. A whopping 87% of golf viewers are over the age of 35, making golf’s audience the oldest in professional sports just ahead of Nascar (with 77% of racing viewers age 35 or older). Compared to the 45% of the NBA’s audience that’s under 35, golf looks gray and out of touch.
    To big portions of golf’s audience — and what remains of its casual viewership that’s declined from the average 15.8 million viewers for the last two days of Woods’ Masters win in 1997 to roughly 11.5 million for the most recent installment — Tiger Woods still is professional golf. Without him in 2013, the Masters drew an average of only 8.5 million viewers for its last two days of competition. Overall, Golf.com places his value to the sport at somewhere around $15 billion. That’s 22% of the $68.8 billion golf industry and roughly a quarter of the status quo that isn’t coming back if millennials and other casual fans tune out golf altogether.

    Jason Notte is a freelance writer based in Portland, Ore. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post and Esquire. Notte received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University in 1998.

  2. #2
    BIGDAY
    angelman.org
    BIGDAY's Avatar SBR PRO
    Join Date: 02-17-10
    Posts: 48,241
    Betpoints: 24854

    Fuk him.

    He quit.
    Points Awarded:

    Big Bear gave BIGDAY 2 Betpoint(s) for this post.


  3. #3
    Reload
    Winning Aint Easy
    Reload's Avatar SBR PRO
    Join Date: 03-23-08
    Posts: 12,176
    Betpoints: 14528

    They have to hope Jordan is the next Tiger. Some rivalries between the younger guys helps too.

    Phil has still got it and I'll tune in for him anytime.

  4. #4
    blackHIPPY
    THESE NIGGAS PLANKTON
    blackHIPPY's Avatar SBR PRO
    Join Date: 10-01-14
    Posts: 3,867
    Betpoints: 1610

    T Woods the God

    RIP GOLF

  5. #5
    jjgold
    jjgold's Avatar Become A Pro!
    Join Date: 07-20-05
    Posts: 388,190
    Betpoints: 10

    Time will tell

    Sports need stars to make it popular

  6. #6
    DrunkHorseplayer
    Redskins forever
    DrunkHorseplayer's Avatar Become A Pro!
    Join Date: 05-15-10
    Posts: 7,120
    Betpoints: 19443

    Golf may be gray but those gray hairs have huge cash; the so-called sport will be fine.

  7. #7
    BigBusiness
    Drug dealin money
    BigBusiness's Avatar Become A Pro!
    Join Date: 09-16-12
    Posts: 3,226
    Betpoints: 542

    It's true. The only way golf will ever reach the state it did while Tiger Woods was on top is if there is some dominate playing black dude that grew up in the hood and had stories of his struggle. (mom always cracked out, dad in prison) etc.... Stuff like that
    Last edited by BigBusiness; 04-18-15 at 11:46 AM.

  8. #8
    High3rEl3m3nt
    SBR's 7 figure Contractor
    High3rEl3m3nt's Avatar Become A Pro!
    Join Date: 09-28-10
    Posts: 8,004
    Betpoints: 4134

    Golf is experiencing a surge of interest because of all of the DFS play. DFS and sports gamblers are responsible for saving a lot of leagues' regular seasons e.g. MLB and NBA.

Top