Posted on 10/11/2006 11:52:00 AM PDT by wagglebee
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Technology, money and Tiger Woods are hurting golf, according to two-time British Open winner Greg Norman.
The Australian, who is playing in this week's Spanish Senior Open, said Tuesday that golf will be in major trouble if the U.S. PGA Tour doesn't manage the sport more carefully. "With fewer and fewer people watching golf in America, the sport has become stagnant," Norman said.
Some U.S. tour events this year reportedly saw significant declines in American television viewership from 2005, such as a 56 percent drop for the Bob Hope Classic, a 50 percent decline for the season-opening Mercedes Championship and a 37.5 percent drop for the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.
Some analysts have said that Woods being in contention is a major factor in ratings, such as the 22 percent increase in August for the final round of his U.S. PGA Championship victory, but ratings when he successfully defended his title at Doral were still off by 16 percent.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
Tiger's in his prime, and when he's 'on' he's darn near unbeatable. Golf courses are being Tiger-proofed as a testament to his prowess.
Wait until Tiger's natural skills fade a bit & his play becomes a little bit inconsistant. Then interest will spark when he does play well. Same thing happened with all the Greats. People will play to see the Old Guy re-live his youth. Plus Tiger will be setting new career records for Major Wins.
One thing Tiger has done is adjusted his stroke in anticipation of his natural skill fading. That takes courage. If he hadn't done that not once but twice, how many majors would he have?
Interesting. As for me, I usually don't watch Golf unless Tiger is in contention. If he ain't playing, I usually don't watch. Before Tiger, I never watched.
Part of that decency standard would be to do away with your gutter profanity that is part of your vocabulary whether in public or private. Tiger fails on this.
Shark is a multi-millionaire businessman in Australia and much of the world. I don't know if he even continues to play golf because I no longer follow the boringest "sport" in the world. But, I think he makes some valid points.
When it comes to money, Tiger isn't close to Norman's level.
When you are done with cleaning up Tiger's act, I guess you will have to bring the President to task. I don't think he measures up to your standards either.
I saw an interesting discussion on Tiger. They said that if Tiger has the lead in the final round, it's over. OTOH, he has seldom closed a gap on the final day when he entered trailing. Not sure what that says about the level of Tiger's competition, or Tiger himself.
I don't know if that is true. Tiger is worth a whole lot of money.
He sure is but Norman has been in the business end of life far longer than Tiger has and very successful at it.
Yes, I did some preliminary research. Norman is worth about $230 to $300 million dollars. Tiger is worth 1 billion dollars.
One of the big problems are the commentators. They fawn over Tiger so lavishly, you hardly know anyone else is in the game. It does get tiresome. Tiger is a great champion, but he's not the only game in town.
In baseball that's the difference between pitching & just throwing. The mental aspect of his game as always been his strong-point.
See post 112. Norman was worth $700 million but last year had to take some losses, leaving him with a worth of about $300 million.
That is so very true. And the guy is so mentally tough. I l ike that about him as well. I a huge Tiger fan.
Post Script......................
He already wins most of the fed x events.
I think the opposite. I think that they are hard on him and expect perfection in every shot. BTW, great screen name...great lady.
It's not for FedEx events. It's a chase according to points for events for the season, similar to the Nextel Cup for NASCAR.
Tiger wants to win the big one. This cup will be the big one. It's all a competitive guy like him could desire, but he has to play to win.
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