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Too Much Tiger?

© Bill Howard

Suite101 now has a golf section. I am to be the editor. I've looked at a ridiculous number of golf related websites in order to provide you with a handful of links. Bouncing around on the Internet in search of quality has taught me the following: First, and foremost, the major golf news websites have achieved Tiger Woods saturation. Second, the Internet as a whole lacks an historical perspective on golf. Third, there is some interesting stuff out there on the Internet if you are willing to poke around in the corners.

Tiger Woods has just concluded one of the more dominant tour seasons in recent memory. He's a fine player. Unfortunately, the major golf websites are assuming you don't care about much else. Every mainstream golf site has at least a couple of Tiger features. In addition, Tiger tribute pages and chats abound. If you still haven't had enough of Mr. Woods there is plenty out there to slake your thirst. If you have been involved in golf for a while, you know that all the personal profiles on the Internet won't tell you as much about him as a few head to head battles next year. I have nothing but admiration for Tiger's skills as a player. He's just chewing up a hideous amount of space on the web.

Which brings me to my second point. A Yahoo search for golf +"Tiger Woods" returned 23,656 web page matches. Lycos gave me 20,189. Alta Vista came up with 62,707. Northern Light provided 64,532. For purposes of comparison, let's stick with Yahoo. Tiger Woods' 23656 page matches are more than the matches found for Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Bobby Jones, Gary Player, Walter Hagen, Henry Cotton, Tom Watson, Bobby Locke, Byron Nelson, Mickey Wright, Roberto DeVicenzo, Patty Berg, Nancy Lopez, and Lee Trevino combined. Yes, Tiger is tremendously skilled, very popular, and highly marketable, but something is definitely out of whack here. I can't help but think that in light of the above a book on the history of golf would be the perfect holiday gift for any young player.

The third thing that dawned on me as I dashed about in golf cyberspace is that there's some fascinating stuff on the Internet if you are patient. There are sites that help a player with statistical breakdowns, lots of golf humor, golf collectible sites, used club sites, college golf team sites, and photo galleries. The list goes on and on. A few of the more entertaining discoveries are listed in "Off The Beaten Path". I'll find more and list them

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