Tiger’s past value is unmistakable. Much
of the money in the game now is thanks to pre-scandal Tiger and his uncanny
ability to dominate the game. Since his ignominious return to the game
following the exposure of his scandalous behavior his play has been a little,
well, scandalous itself.
However, after taking off a good chunk of
the ’11 season due to injury, Tiger appears to be back and on the hunt to
retake his stance on top of the golfing world. Since November ’11 he has done
rather well. He took third in the Australian
Open, helped the U.S. win the Presidents Cup, and won the Chevron World
Challenge at Thousand Oaks.
Tiger was well on his way to victory at
the HSBC Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi recently until the final day. After
looking like the Tiger of old was back he reverted to the version that fans
have seen the last couple years.
Even with one less-then-stellar day at
Abu Dhabi, Tiger was still able to finish in third. While that may not be the
Tiger fans once loved, it still makes for one heck of a golfer; a lot of
golfers would die to have two wins and two third place finishes under their
belts after four tournaments.
That brings the original question back
into mind—what is Tiger’s value to the game?
During his prime the game had practically
become a race for second place because Tiger was just that good. In a way, that
made the game a little dull, but thanks to Tiger playing the way he did the
game could still be exciting to watch. The way the purses have gone up since he
turned pro is proof enough of that.
When Tiger took a break from the game
there was some concern over whether it would still be as commercially viable as
it was before. There were still a number of stars taking the green, but none
with the wattage that Tiger Woods had. The only way the game could make up for
the loss of Tiger was to just have enough stars rise up to make up for the loss
of one (even one like Tiger).
Rise up they did.
Without Tiger, the game appeared to
become ultra-competitive almost overnight. Numerous players were winning
tournaments, new stars have begun to climb, and the overall competitive level
of the game raised up enough that prior to the start of the 2011 Masters, there
were seven players that stood to take over the position of the world’s No 1
golfer with a win at Augusta.
The game has done very well without Tiger
(the Tiger of old or any other version that happens to show up). So how is it
going to do with (assuming that at least a competitive version of him is back)?
Even better.
One of the great things about
professional sports is that while the viewing public—and especially fantasy
players—love to have stars to cheer for, the game gets taken to a whole other
level when there is a multitude of them. It’s no longer easy to figure out
who’s going to win.
Do you take the current No 1, Luke Donald
or do you go for the people’s favorite in young Rory McIlroy (No 2)? If you’re
looking for quality you can’t go wrong with Lee Westwood (No 3) or Martin
Kaymer (No 4), both who have spent time at No 1. Being patriotic can’t do you
wrong either if you decide to go with Americans Steve Stricker (No 5), Webb
Simpson (No 6), Dustin Johnson (No 9), or Jason Day (No 10). Can you really
leave last year’s Masters Champion out though (Charl Schwartzel, No 8)?
Or do you go with the dark horse
candidate that moved back into the top 20 after placing third at Abu Dhabi
(Tiger Woods, No 17)?
Yes, golf fans, there is nothing like
some healthy competition to make the game more fun to watch and the fantasy
game even more fun to play.
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