Right now, a few hours after the third round has been completed, the lead story on the golf page has a headline “How Tiger gave himself a chance to win the Masters.” If you want to find out who is actually leading the Masters, you actually have to do a little work.
When he was younger was Tiger Woods a great golfer? Yes, he’s already one of the best of all time. Does he have a chance to win the Master’s now? Yes. Does he have the best chance? No. Who is actually leading the Masters, and isn’t that the most important thing to be covering?
ESPN has an unhealthy obsession with Tiger Woods, just as it does with LeBron James and Duke basketball. All year, and particularly this week, IMHO Tiger Woods has been getting coverage unjustified by his performance, at the expense of people who have been golfing better than he has been. Certainly, if Tiger Woods wins the Masters after all he has been through it will be a nice story. Does it justify focusing on him at the expense of people have been actually leading the Masters (or other tournaments (this is been a problem for awhile)? No way. Every week it seems that the golf coverage is first and foremost about Tiger Woods, not about who wins. I wonder if Disney has some stake in promoting Tiger Woods, as it does with LeBron James. Clearly, it has less of a stake in promoting sports coverage that is most important to fans by traditional criteria.
ESPN pushes LeBron because ESPN - and ABC - are the NBA's primary broadcast networks. ESPN is just about all NBA all the time. As for Tiger... well, he brings in the casual viewers who normally don't give a damn about golf. Yeah, I do get tired of the Tiger Woods this, Tiger Woods that, as if there are no other players.
If Molinari wins that is a great story too - first Italian to ever win this tournament. But I suppose the broadcasters figure most Americans won’t give a damn if an Italian wins The Master’s.