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 ...
We won the lottery the year before last and went to one of the practice rounds. I took about 200 pictures of the course and the players. Got pictures of Tiger and Jack Nicklaus. It was just terrific. Then the most disappointing thing happened...my camera went missing as we were leaving the course. It wasn't turned in and no one found it. I was just sick.
We are back in the lottery again, but people wait years to win, and some never do. I didn't care about the camera so much as I did the pictures. That might have been a once in a lifetime experience. And never again to get Jack at the Master's.
Exactly right!
I'd still go with Trevino in that case.... he's the quintessential "money" player....look at his head to head with Jack... got a good sense of humor also.
That's because it's one of the top half dozen or so courses in the country, but the greens fees are about one-tenth of what you would pay at a place like the Number 2 Course at Pinehurst, or Pebble Beach (those two courses are at least "semi-public" most other top courses are totally private).
Norman lost credibility with me when he showed up with his cowboy hat and long hair. To this day, my favorite Masters Sunday was when he blew his big lead and lost to Nick Faldo.
I should have said perform at a very high level of performance consistently.
Unlike other sports that have salaries.
I think it just may the end of a "bubble" that Tiger helped create.
His rise sparked an increase in viewers and popularity, and more golf venues seemed to obtain "celebrity" status and live coverage during that rise (seems to me). Now all that rise has begun to spread the viewers and ad-revenue out over what seems to me wider media golf coverage. So maybe a golf "bubble" is ending, that's all, as the popularity and potential viewers retreat to more historic levels.
In addition it seems that the current crop of commentators are pretty bush league, especially some of the ex-players. It's like they never had a bad shot in their career.
Between the two it keeps me from watching as much as I would otherwise.
Well, that was the media template when Tiger turned pro, but sadly for them, Tiger refused to play the race card even when that jerk Fuzzy dealt him a royal flush.
What amazed me was that he turned pro and immediately dominated the field like no one had done since Byron Nelson during the talent short war years. Apparently the pros who followed Tiger as an amateur were not at all surprised. They knew how good he was.
But for all of his talent, I don't think he has has near the impact on the game as Palmer had in the 50s. The vast majority of people who follow Tiger around the course are people who would be following someone else if Tiger weren't there. Arnie brought an entirely new legion of golf fans out.
Tiger spent the first half of this year in a slump getting over his father's illness and subsequent death. He then came roaring back the second half of the season (except for the Ryder). If he has some early wins next season (especially if he wins the Masters), the whole thing will just be a forgotten blip.
Not to pick on you, but you don't know too much about professional golf. Players, in effect, have salaries in the form of sponsorships that pay them to wear certain logo'd clothing, and carry/play brand name equipment, etc.
Just like any other job, they must perform, or they lose their sponsor, or worse, their PGA card to qualify them for the tour events.
That's the concept. In reality, golf is a game played mostly by men who are gentlemen anywhere but on the golf course. The gentleman on the course is the exception, but always a pleasure to have in your foursome.
In gymnastics that happened in 1972 when Olga Korbut competed at Munich. There was an explosion in the interest of the sport that Nadia Comenici and Mary Lou Retton enjoyed but did not cause.
Tiger is a unique talent, and I love to watch him, but there was golf in my house when I grew up and that came from Arnie and Jack.
Gymanstics was an ignored sport before Olga...now the networks, especially during the Olympics, stay with gymnastics hoping to find another Olga. It will not happen. She was once in a lifetime.
Foursomes at one course in NJ would have one of their group spend the night so they could get on. My husband would go as a single and get there about 7am and could always play.
This was a public course. Don't you think it depends on how many public courses are available? NJ built a lot of new courses since then so spending the night is probably not needed now.
Here in the South new courses are popping up all over the place.
On the PGA Tour, the 125th worst (good for a one year tour card) will make over $500,000. Shoot par every round on The Tour (a pro has no handicap) and you will be a millionaire.
yitbos
I'm with you,if Tiger is in the mix on Sunday I'll watch,otherwise I watch Nascar.
Sounds right! (Shooting par every round on the tour, though, would be in the top 10)
Norman is right about one thing: the new technology has given people with average athletic ability hope. My eighteen hole score went from 100 on my good days to 89. Titanium clubs heads with graphite shafts make a huge difference.
I bought Callaway Big Bertha irons, they are set with weights that almost force the golfer to hit the ball straight, and to get it up in the air.
The clubs companies are producing today are awesome.
You'll have to admit that golf on the networks does have some of the classiest (best?) commercials you'll see.
yitbos
I played today on a very tight course and never used a single driver. If the fairways are tree lined and there is water and traps which are in play with a driver, why use it and get in trouble? I'd rather be 25 yards shorter and be in play.
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