Tiger Woods’ Successful Return Important to Golf

Win or lose, Tiger Woods’s return to the PGA TOUR will carry a major impact across all parts of the golf world.

In the excitement of Tiger Woods’s return to competition, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that there’s an even bigger picture than how well Woods plays this week. Woods’ game is important to a host of interested parties because he is one of the few golfers who moves the needle with fans, with consumers, with corporate executives, with PGA Tour pros and with wannabe golfers.

As recently as mid-November, the PGA Tour released information gathered from part of their fan base asking who is your favorite golfer. Tiger Woods, who hadn’t played for nearly a year, was still at the top of the list, rated as the favorite by 19% of the fans in the survey.

Next was Phil Mickelson at 14%, and after that, Jordan Spieth at 12%. Then came the late Arnold Palmer at 8% and Jack Nicklaus at 7%. Everybody else is somewhere lower on the list. That’s how much impact Woods has with a sampling of PGA Tour fans.

Though he’s suffered through personal problems, injuries, surgeries and pain-killer problems, Woods is still revered in the eyes of many.

Woods still commands the business of golf more than anybody else

His impact goes beyond a survey. When it comes to television, Woods is big business. Last year’s television ratings for the Hero World Challenge were up by 196% when Woods played for the first time in months.

There are no ratings numbers yet for this year’s event, but no doubt, at least the first day, they had to be, as President Trump would say, huge.

In an interview for Reuters, Molly Solomon of Golf Channel suggested having Tiger Woods playing in his tournament, the Hero World Challenge, will “increase their ratings by 40% by just being there.” She added that not only does he move the needle, he is the needle.

Woods’ endorsements are also important for CEOs who sponsor golf. Early in November, Angel Ilagan, CEO of Bridgestone Golf told Yahoo Finance that having the Woods endorsement for their products tells golf customers that their ball is the best one in the market.

“The payoff has already occurred for us,” Ilagan told Yahoo. “This is just added gravy for us if he plays.”

Tiger’s impact still felt by today’s top young stars

The Woods impact on the younger PGA Tour players not lost, either.

“If he hadn’t done everything he’s done, we wouldn’t have the sponsors we have. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be playing for the amount of money that we’re playing for,” Justin Thomas said to media earlier this week. “If he had 15 wins and two majors, then yeah, people wouldn’t care as much. But he has 79 and 14 majors. I mean, I’m probably just as excited to watch it as you are.”

Thomas was seven years old when Woods beat Bob May at the 2000 PGA at Vahalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I remember just being in the clubhouse when he had that putt to get into a playoff,” he recalled. He cited the time delay between the live action and the telecast of Woods’ putt dropping. “As soon as he hit it on TV, you could just hear the crowd go nuts outside.”

Jordan Spieth also recalls watching Woods as a youngster.

"“Growing up watching him kind of dominate and then idolizing and now having gone through similar situations, it makes him underrated, I think, trying to get through how difficult some of the — just the mental toughness he had is still underrated even though it’s rated pretty high. It’s rated best ever,” Spieth noted."

Social media lights up with Woods back on the course

Golfers, celebrities and other athletes jumped on the Woods bandwagon and sent tweets to Woods as he readied for his comeback.

With Woods looking, physically, like he will be able to play regularly on the PGA Tour in 2018, it is hard to imagine how many other golfers will be inspired by his play as well as by that of Thomas and Spieth.  Certainly, Woods will bring a whole new level of excitement – and tweeting — to the early part of the 2018 golf season.

Next: Tiger Woods: Winning second to health at Hero World Challenge