Tiger Woods Out for the Year
Posted by Shannon on June 18, 2008
Tiger Woods will have season-ending surgery sometime in the coming weeks to repair his damaged left leg. Woods announced today that he had torn his ACL and had double stress fractures.
The greatest golfer to ever lace up a pair of spikes and play 18 holes ends his season winning the U.S. Open in dramatic fashion Monday. By missing the remainder of the season, Woods will miss a major for the first time in his professional career and will be unable to go for a third straight PGA Championship in August. He will also miss the Ryder Cup to be held in September in Louisville, Ky.
A normal recovery for Woods’ upcoming surgery is six to eight months. That means its possible we won’t see Tiger until possibly January’s Buick Invitational at where else … Torrey Pines, the site of Woods’ now even more impressive U.S. Open victory and a course he has never finished below a tie for 10th in his professional career.
What does Woods’ break mean for golf? For starters, ABC, TNT, and CBS, which broadcast the upcoming two majors without Woods and will have to hope that Phil Mickelson is in contention to help the ratings drop. For NBC, it means Woods will not be available for the Ryder Cup in September or the FedEx Cup playoff, two events that are held during the start of a hectic fall sports calendar.
The loss of Woods is big for a sport. Imagine in baseball if Alex Puljos or Alex Rodriguez missed the remainder of the season with injuries. In NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., can’t drive the remainder of the season. In the NFL, Peyton Manning being out for a season. The difference between golf and baseball, football and to some extent auto racing is that ratings are not solely dependent on one athlete. In golf, there is a tremendous difference in ratings for events where Woods plays and where he doesn’t. Consider The Invitational, a mainstay on the tour that is no longer competed because it could not find sponsors after Woods pulled out of the event.
Golf will be OK. Mickelson and others will win majors this season and Woods will come back next year to continue his quest at the all-time majors record of 18.
June 19, 2008 at 12:53 pm
I don’t believe we’ll see Tiger again before the Buick at Torrey Pines next January at the earliest. I wouldn’t be surprised to not see him again till next year’s Masters in April either.
Can you imagine what you could get for Masters tickets if its the first tournament Tiger is back? Holy cow. I think I’m going to buy the US Open tickets for next year and sell them because if he’s back playing by then and defending the championship you could probably get double for them out on the open market.
All the networks are crying in their soup right now. With no Tiger the ratings will drop dramatically, even for the majors. Like you said, if Mickelson is in contention it will help. The FedEx cup will be a ratings disaster because it is during a very busy sports time of the year. The Ryder Cup will probably be low as well on the ratings lists.
June 19, 2008 at 7:00 pm
The majors and the Ryder Cup will do well because these are established events. People will watch because it’s the British and PGA. Events like the WGC events and FedEx Cup will suffer the most. It’s just like Wimbledon for tennis fans. After Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras retired, there wasn’t a huge name draw for most fans. Even Roger Federer is a push for ratings.
That being said, I still believe CBS, NBC, and ABC will root for Phil Mickelson, Rocco Mediate, and company to be in the lead on the final round for some ratings blimp. The thing that would help ratings the most is Rocco turning it around and winning the Open Championships.