What if Tiger had never happened?

[George Pazin]

Who is Beckham?

Spice Girl.

[Mike_Young]

That sport is ruining America....

[SB]

The construction boom had very little to do with Tiger.  It was well underway in 1997 when Tiger won his first major and was essentially over just a few years after that.  The construction boom was driven more by an increase in housing construction after the crash in the early 90's, plus an increase in the game in general that started way back in the 80's.  There may have been a brief period when developers were hoping the "Tiger Effect" would bring more golfers to the game, but the reality is that the dot-com bubble was a much bigger driver in bringing more people into golf.

[Brent Hutto]

The construction boom had very little to do with Tiger.  It was well underway in 1997 when Tiger won his first major and was essentially over just a few years after that.  The construction boom was driven more by an increase in housing construction after the crash in the early 90's, plus an increase in the game in general that started way back in the 80's.  There may have been a brief period when developers were hoping the "Tiger Effect" would bring more golfers to the game, but the reality is that the dot-com bubble was a much bigger driver in bringing more people into golf.

That's exactly my thinking. I came to the game in 1994 and the "new course per day" building boom was well underway when Tiger was still winning US Amateurs and attending Stanford.

It's not uncommon for high-profile personalities (whether in sports or politics) to be credited for things that actually happened before they arrived on the scene. It's just how collective memory (and the cult-of-personality hype machine) works.

For the PGA Tour specifically, Tiger was a rainmaker. No doubt in my mind the eyeballs he brought to professional golf enriched the Tour. And I can't really see much of that Tiger effect on the PGA Tour having spilled over for the European, Senior or LPGA tours. It was quite localized.

The actual game of golf, beyond that one mega entertainment conglomerate, would be much the same with or without Tiger. The only other massive winner beside the PGA Tour was Nike Golf.

P.S. Regarding the idea that it was Tiger who caused touring pros to start working out and place a priority on getting stronger, a friend of mine played in the 1998 PGA Championship and noticed that all the top players (including Vijay Singh) were absolute workout fiends. That trend had been in place on Tour through most of the 90's, as well. Although Tiger perhaps took it to a level beyond most of his peers.

[Nigel Islam]

I think sponsors threw money at him because of the way he was dominant. Norman was dominant player before Tiger, and he never moved the interest meter like Tiger. Love him or hate him, he was interesting.

Nigel

Can I suggest that you're looking at it from a US perspective. Americans always prefer home grown champions, quite naturally. However if you were to take Scott's question quite literally and say Phil was the top player, then do you not think ratings would go through the roof as well ? Here's a guy who frankly with his hit and miss approach is more exciting to watch than Tiger. He might not have been as dominant as Tiger was, and therefore he wouldn't have got as big a piece of the pie but the total amount of money coming in would have been the same or perhaps even more.

As I said in my earlier post, the boom in golf had everything to do with the economy, and with that people having more leisure time.

Niall

Perhaps, but I think for most of the boom Ernie was the second best player.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Scott Warren,

My apologies in advance.

I was thinking about the title of your thread in an off topic way.

What if O.J. never happened ?

We'd have been spared the indignity of watching/hearing about the Kardashians.

[Tim Johnson]

Don't have the stats handy but I believe the purses went up massively after Tiger showed up. TV ratings go down if Tiger isn't playing. Nike Golf became Nike Golf. Forget about architecture, technology would have taken care of that on it own.

Brent, you mentioned in 98 about players working out more, they had already played Tiger, they saw the writing.

Love him or hate, he is a game changer, beyond all the greats, Gretzky, Jordan, Hogan etc, Nobody has tweeked the dial like Tiger. With all the sports on TV, and TV drives all the sports, where would golf be now without Tiger, he made the new deals.

It is possible that without Tiger, these guys are flying commercial......argue all you want but when Tiger isn't playing a major, the numbers go down, what if the numbers never got up to begin with.....the PGA tour would still survive and flourish but to a lesser extant.

[Brent Hutto]

As I say, the PGA Tour benefited greatly from Tiger. He probably doubled the amount of money the PGA Tour can extract from their tournaments and TV contracts.

The PGA Tour is not "the game of golf" it is simply one very successful sports-entertainment conglomerate.

[Carl Rogers]

It is easy, lazy and wrong to observe a large complex trend and attribute it to a single factor or person.

[Craig Sweet]

We would be watching Julius Boros and Billy Casper...

[Martin Toal]

The game would have done just fine.

Wealthy golf professionals on Tour would still be wealthy, although possibly a bit less so, and they would still fly first class on commercial, a few vanity project courses would never have happened - boo hoo, fewer players would arrive at UK clubs dressed in Nike head to toe insisting on riding in carts and many young players might conduct themselves with a bit more grace and arrogance than they currently the 'step on their neck' attitude that Tiger seems to embody. The game of golf would be just fine without Nike. 

Like the drop in crime in the US and zero tolerance for minor offences*, too much may be attributed to Tiger. Correlation is not causation.



* probably only a trivial relationship exists.

[Pat Burke]

A HUGE number of kids would not have gotten access to the education and experience of
the TW Foundation.
I've been there a few times, and it is a pretty amazing program.

[Paul Gray]

A HUGE number of kids would not have gotten access to the education and experience of
the TW Foundation.
I've been there a few times, and it is a pretty amazing program.

+1

And as I just said on another thread, 'Black Guy wins The Masters' changed the landscape forever. You can't take that away from him.

[Carl Rogers]

A HUGE number of kids would not have gotten access to the education and experience of
the TW Foundation.
I've been there a few times, and it is a pretty amazing program.

+1
And as I just said on another thread, 'Black Guy wins The Masters' changed the landscape forever. You can't take that away from him.

Let's wait another 15 years to see if all of those youngsters introduced to the game, stick with the game.
TW could have had a little more humility in victory.  How long do you need to celebrate after holing a putt?

[JMEvensky]

A HUGE number of kids would not have gotten access to the education and experience of
the TW Foundation.
I've been there a few times, and it is a pretty amazing program.

+1
And as I just said on another thread, 'Black Guy wins The Masters' changed the landscape forever. You can't take that away from him.

Let's wait another 15 years to see if all of those youngsters introduced to the game, stick with the game.
TW could have had a little more humility in victory.  How long do you need to celebrate after holing a putt?

Carl, I agree that TW's full legacy is yet to be written.

But what Pat Burke wrote is undeniable-- a lot of kids,minorities in particular,have been exposed to golf who probably wouldn't but for TW's success.We can argue about TW all day long,but I don't think his contribution to junior golf can be questioned.

[Dwight Phelps]

I won't say that I wouldn't be playing golf at all, but I got my first full set in the summer of 1997 and haven't put them down since. I wasn't involved with any TW foundation stuff, but he was definitely the largest factor in me picking up the game. Very anecdotal, but take it for what it's worth. He made an otherwise apathetic-towards-golf 15 year old really look forward to spending 4+ days a week playing golf throughout the summer. And beyond.

[Pat Burke]

A HUGE number of kids would not have gotten access to the education and experience of
the TW Foundation.
I've been there a few times, and it is a pretty amazing program.

+1
And as I just said on another thread, 'Black Guy wins The Masters' changed the landscape forever. You can't take that away from him.

Let's wait another 15 years to see if all of those youngsters introduced to the game, stick with the game.
TW could have had a little more humility in victory.  How long do you need to celebrate after holing a putt?

My post said nothing of golf.  The TW Foundation, golf is just a portion of the program.  The "real world"
education is the guts of the program.  Kids are exposed to golf, and some run with it, many don't.  It's not the #1 priority
from what I witnessed there.