Lol, it's a tournament hosted by Tiger, to benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation, on a golf course partially owned by Tiger, with Tiger playing in a competitive tournament for the first time in quite some time.
Tiger is back!
- Thread starter isu_ce
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You too? Dammit, he's even taken over this thread about Tiger.
Yeah you are right, they shouldn't cover him at all. They have no idea how to get viewers...
He doesn't really have an equal in affecting viewership for a sport that otherwise goes largely unnoticed. To be fair to your other examples, it's considerably tougher to impact a team sport, though.
While I was considering possible parallels, I tried to think of seldom-watched individual sports like tennis, bowling and Olympic sports. Tennis has had some superstars, but I don't know that any of them has necessarily made someone that doesn't normally watch tennis to all of a sudden start watching it. I've tuned into watch Lance Armstrong (yeah, I know) and Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps compete when I otherwise wouldn't give their sports much notice, but Tiger still leads them all by a pretty significant amount.
Edit: I'd add that a horse threatening the Triple Crown also garners additional attention for a sport, but it's usually just for one season.
I was told sex helps a bad back. Tiger is proof. His game went to hell when he stopped banging those prostitutes.
It isn't quite apples to apples since your examples were all team sports. But if we're talking individual sports, I think Agassi usually drew more viewers for Grand Slam matches back in his prime. And you have Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt for track and field, and Michael Phelps for swimming. I suppose you'd throw Conor McGregor in there for UFC as well. Those are the recent examples I can think of. Lance Armstrong helped make cycling more mainstream, but I don;t know if more people were tuning in to watch the Tour de France.
Yes Golf Channel being overly excited about the most popular golfer in the last 25 years being back and playing well is totally embarrassing. Not like Tiger directly impacts their viewership or anything.
If nothing else, what Tiger has done through 27 holes is very impressive. Hope he can maintain it.
I just can't believe the distance he has. I would have bet a good sum of money he wouldn't ever hit it this far again, let alone in the first one back. Who knows if it means anything but I think this has been as good as anyone could have hoped.
Not too shabby on the golf course, either
It’s way better than I had ever imagined. It’s pretty incredible really. Long and straight? And swinging with that ball speed? Ridiculous.