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Tiger Again?

© Bill Howard

In the past, I have used this space to rail against "made for TV" golf spectacles. There was another of those monstrosities on television this past Monday night. Lights? Give me a break. To be perfectly honest, I forgot all about the exhibition until I read about it in the sports section on Tuesday. Upon careful reflection, I feel this is exactly the treatment it deserved.

This time it was Tiger Woods versus Sergio Garcia head to head. Mr. Garcia was triumphant, which is a very good thing. Any opportunity for the rest of the golf world to view Tiger as mortal helps the game. One question. In your heart of hearts, did you think Tiger was "up" for the match? I thought not. His loss does nothing to diminish the fact that Tiger is in a league of his own.

Tiger Woods is without question a ratings generating monster. But for how long? When do we, the golfing public, begin to tire of his systematic annihilation of the best tournament fields our planet has to offer? If things don't change, the PGA Tour marketing slogan will have to be altered. The "These guys are good" pitch will have to be adjusted to "This guy is awfully good, unfortunately the rest of them know it."

It would not surprise me at all if the powers that be on the PGA Tour are secretly hoping for a very slow start for Tiger next year. If they're lucky, he'll opt for the ludicrous appearance fees of Europe or Australia. Perhaps someone will offer him a movie role. Hey, if Shaq can do it, I'd have to say the floodgates are open. Maybe a lucrative course design deal. Maybe the rest of the players can ante up and hire a witch doctor to give Tiger the yips. I suppose the point is that it's obvious Tiger is far better than his competition. He needs a major distraction in order to level the playing field.

If this doesn't work, the only other option is for Tiger to give strokes to the field in each event he plays next year. Off the top of my head, I'd think a shot a side for four rounds would be just about right. To sum it up, Tiger is a man among boys at this point. The rest of the tour players talk about him like Little Leaguers talk about the big strong kid who throws really hard and hits huge home runs. They are in awe, just as we are.