Among professional athletes for most of the early s, Woods ranked with basketball icon Michael Jordan at the top of the Q Score, which rates popularity and marketing appeal.
In , Forbes ranked Woods No. Only Oprah Winfrey was higher. Plus, he was making cultural as well as sports history. In at just 21, he stormed to a win at the Masters, shooting a record score and living up to years of hype.
That it came at Augusta National, where African-Americans hadn't been allowed to play until , put him in a special place. The attention just kept coming, with 13 other major victories -- including four straight -- and 79 total wins on tour. So to have this charismatic, young African-American-Asian-American hybrid figure bursting onto the scene made huge news.
Rick Schloss, the former longtime media director of the annual PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines in San Diego, recalled how the galleries swelled when Woods came to the tour, attracting a younger element interested in one thing: Tiger. They've got their Ugg boots on, the hats on backwards, they've got a craft beer, and they know he's cool. In , after he won four straight majors, Americans polled by Gallup named him as the nation's No. Yet Woods slipped from that perch in , when his off-the-course life turned upside down with a personal scandal that led to divorce.
He took a leave from golf for several months. He lost sponsorships. When he returned, he wasn't the same. His smile, swing and putting stroke were diminished. His last tour win came in , and he failed to reach the weekend at his only two starts in , missing the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open in late January and withdrawing due to injury from a European Tour event after one round in Dubai a week later.
He hasn't played since. Prior to that, Woods missed nearly a year and a half because of a back injury, although he did play the Hero World Challenge, an unofficial PGA Tour event that he hosts, in December.
Now 41, Woods has skipped three tournaments the Genesis Open, Honda Classic and Arnold Palmer Invitational that he typically plays each year, and his next move remains unknown. Woods hasn't given up hope of making what would surely be a dramatic return at next week's Masters. Starn, for one, is looking forward to seeing Woods back inside the ropes.
Junior Amateurs and three U. He and other celebrities from the sports and entertainment world were like magnets, attracting one another. He lived in a different, more star-studded world than golf's other top players. Woods appeared on the sidelines at NFL and basketball games.
It all brought more attention to golf and the tournaments he played. From the outset, he said, those around Woods were intent on making him more than just the best golfer of his generation. Louis Blues. But he had been on a path toward greatness from an early age, and certainly both his dad and the people around him, they were very clear that they believed Tiger Woods could be a great brand, much in the same way that Michael Jordan had been.
The first was about his commitment to golf and his road to the tour. The second, his roots and connection to a new, diverse generation. Jack Nicklaus has one equipment-related theory as to why. On Monday, Nicklaus took a number of questions from reporters in advance of his 80th birthday on Jan. As he reflected on the differences from his era to the modern game, he expressed a yearning for the gear of yesteryear. Enter Tiger Woods. Because Woods was still young but had already established a high-level pro career by the turn of the 21st century, he was in the perfect position to take advantage of the equipment revolution coming about at that same time.
According to Nicklaus, that gave him the best of both worlds: old-school shotmaking and new-school gear. Amateur Victories, posting the highest career winning percentage in the history of the tournaments 91 percent. When Tiger left Stanford at age 20 after winning Collegiate Player of the Year, he easily had the greatest amateur golf record of all time. Professional career aside, there will never be another amateur golfer nearly as accomplished as Tiger Woods.
Maybe you know this guy: Mr. I cannot support this with any empirical data, but it has certainly been my experience. Additionally, when Woods was sidelined with a knee injury in , TV ratings for golf dropped by 47 percent.
Simply put, sports fans tune in for Tiger. Additionally, consider the swelling galleries surrounding Woods at every tournament and ponder this question: Were Woods not playing, how many of those in his gallery would even be at the tournament? Do you remember in the world of PGA Tour golf?
The most notable tournament of the year was the Masters, in which Greg Norman melted down, shooting a final round 78 to hand Nick Faldo his third green jacket. Mickelson was the leading tournament winner with four victories. Norman was still the most high-profile golfer on tour, but his star was fading; his implosion at Augusta was really the death knell for the Shark. Really, in the mids there was a significant vacuum in the sport.
Additionally, golf is now an international game best players play internationally, PGA Tour is saturated with foreign players in a way that it has never been previously. The best players in the world are still primarily from Europe and the United States, but more players from more countries are joining the Tour.
Also, the game is as accessible as it has ever been to the largest number of people and youth instruction continues to trend upwards. There will never be another parallel situation in golf. What would be similar? If Manassero is the most promising young golfer in golf right now, he has only a fraction of the mythos and hype surrounding him that Tiger did.
Reebok is only a fraction of the size of Nike.
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