I've already touched on this before, but this is my weekly entry for 790 The Zone. I wanted to share it here as well.
So Tiger Woods is out for the year with his knee injury and won’t return to Majors action until the Masters in 2009. Television executives all across the country are crying in their beers, but I say, “STOP!” This may be just what the PGA needs. The tour is now pretty much required to push its other stars and MAYBE Tiger can finally get some competition now.
Now that Tiger is out, perhaps Phil Mickelson will assert himself and win both the British and the PGA Championship. He seems to shrink whenever head to head with Tiger, but if he can win these two sans Tiger, maybe come Augusta, he can stand up to Woods. Or, maybe Sergio will step up and realize his potential. I wrote last year that he needed to step up (and grow a mustache) to give the tour a legitimate bad guy. If he captures his first major, there is a chance America can have a foreigner to boo, and thus pull harder for Tiger come Ryder Cup time. One of the Down Under Fraternity could step forward as Stuart Appleby, Adam Scott or Geoff Ogilvy seem ready to break out, and Ogilvy already has one major on his resume.
But the PGA desperately needs some one to take the mantle of best player now that Tiger is out for a while. The WWF/WWE has had this happen in recent years and the wrestling business seemingly goes on without a beat, in some cases gets better. When Stone Cold Steve Austin was injured with a “broken neck” and had to miss an extended period of time, Vince McMahon just plugged in The Rock and HHH into the title picture and the Monday Night RAW ratings went through the roof. When Stone Cold came back, he was met with two young established guns and the ratings exploded. Those two might have eventually made it, but because they were thrust into a role at that time when the company needed them, they became huge stars. That could be Phil and Sergio right there.
Then The Rock decided to leave the squared circle for life in Hollywood and once again the WWF was forced to go to the well for more talent. Again the bucket came up full. This time Randy Orton and Batista stepped up (Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy perhaps?) and the business didn’t miss a beat. Also, to whomever wins the majors, maybe DURING the winner’s acceptance speech, the video board behind him can cut to a shot of Woods saying something like, “Hey Adam Scott! Congrats on the win, but you’ve never beaten ME in a major! So enjoy this ‘Major’ win, (he can even do the quotation marks with his hands while coating the statement with biting sarcasm) and we’ll see how you do when I come back.” That is classic WWE stuff and could be classic PGA stuff. Tell me THAT wouldn’t lead SportsCenter!
Bottom line, the WWF/WWE was able to plug in new stars and that is what the PGA should try and do. The tour has plenty of stars outside of Tiger in Phil and Ernie Els and Vijay Singh, so why not market them? The smaller tournaments will be hurting, but they always were because Tiger never went to them anyways. The Majors will still have viewers because they always do, but the ratings won’t be as high because Tiger isn’t around, UNLESS the tour goes out and promotes the heck out of its “other stars.”
And for all of the down numbers the tour and TV has this year, if some one DOES step up and win, imagine the ratings when Tiger returns and takes on the person that possibly stole all of his thunder while Woods was out. CBS is licking its chops at the thought of those numbers for the 2009 Masters. For what golf gives up now, they will certainly make up next year, assuming some one can step up!
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