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The sport of golf will always be bigger than one man, but, of course the announcement that Tiger Woods is taking an ‘indefinite’ break will have implications for the PGA Tour.
Commissioner Tim Finchem will understandably be worried if any major sponsorship deals are up for renewal in 2010 because Woods remains the biggest selling point in the game. Viewing figures can rise by almost 50 per cent when he is in contention on the final Sunday of a tournament and courses are packed wherever he plays.
Tiger has pulling power, he sells tickets and that’s what sponsors are looking for. In a time of financial difficulty around the world, the absence of the best player of a generation might be used by major sponsors as leverage for negotiating down the amount of money they are willing to put into the sport.
So it is a worrying time for the PGA Tour, but there is an assumption that Tiger is going to disappear off the radar for an extended period. Personally, I’m not so sure. I cannot see him missing any major championships.
I would be surprised if he is not back in time for the
He clearly needs some time to deal with this situation and to sort things out before he can return to playing.
His children are, of course, the most important thing in his life and he needs to get some balance. But he will want to return to the sport he loves and the pursuit of the greatest record in the history of the game, which is Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors. That record should rightly be Tiger’s if he is fit and focused for the rest of his career.
However, you can never guarantee that things will be smooth and trouble-free in your personal life. There will always be humps and bumps along the way during a lifetime. There will be millions of people all over the world having affairs or forming and breaking relationships right now – but we focus on Tiger because he is the most recognisable sportsman on the planet.
Sometimes life gets in the way and Tiger now needs time to sit back, reflect and review how he wants to move forward. There’s probably not many people reading this column who have a lot of sympathy for Tiger Woods, but I do.
He has been a sporting prodigy since the age of five or six and has reached a magnitude of fame comparable to Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson. That’s the level of superstar we’re talking about here. That must be almost impossible to deal with and most of us cannot imagine how hard it must be. Most professional golfers, no matter how successful, enjoy relative anonymity compared to him. He has grown up in a different way to most other people. He is somebody who has grown up only playing golf and he has never really had anything but that to focus on.
So while I am not supporting his actions and I feel enormous sympathy for the situation that Elin and their children find themselves in, I do have sympathy for Tiger as well. He and his family have asked for space and it will be up to them to determine the length of time he will be away from the sport.
Looking back on 2009, perhaps, we can see that things were going on the background for some time before it got into the media. He didn’t win a major this year and we did witness a much more irritated Tiger on the golf course.
I remember him throwing a club in
Once Tiger has got his head around this and has found some clarity I am absolutely certain he will be able to come back and play the level of golf that he played before.
Every golfer deals with births, deaths and personal issues in a different way, but there is no reason why those issues should stop you from performing at the top level.
Just look at Nick Faldo,
It won’t be a very merry Christmas in the Woods’ household this year, but the fact that you’re the world’s number one sportsman does not make you immune from life.
Tiger Woods is still the best golfer on the planet. He will come back and he will continue to add to his legend.
