Brett Favre managed to get himself back in the news after reports that organizations that paid him to be a “spokesman” were accused of fraud for not using Mississippi state grants for their intended purpose. Favre isn’t being accused of any crimes, just for being dumb. You would think that if he still has an agent, he would be properly advised about such “mistakes.” But at least he hasn’t said anything too cringe-worthy lately about his support of Donald Trump.
Of course, being “ignored” altogether isn’t any fun either (just ask Aaron Rodgers), especially for an entire sport, which could be said about the state of professional golf these days. It must mean something when the only reason the national news media paid any mind to The Masters golf tournament this year—when it is supposed to be the major golfing event of the year—was the reemergence of Tiger Woods after a serious leg injury following another drunk driving episode. Woods’ appearance at the Masters shocked many, and many more were “shocked” when he made the cut and played all 72 holes, although after starting with a one-under-par 71, finished with a pair of 78 rounds and 47th out of 52 participants who made the cut.
Not surprisingly, Woods was the “show” as crowds on the course followed him everywhere and cheered regardless of what he did. Woods even claimed that just finishing 72 holes was one of his “greatest” golfing achievements. It certainly did bring in interest from viewers; although the weekend CBS numbers are not in yet, ESPN is reporting that Thursday and Friday ratings hit the roof as reports were that Woods not only showed up, but was playing surprising well, perhaps a repeat of his 2019 comeback before the weekend “slump.”
When Woods was on the downside of his career, there were those who insisted that there was enough “great” talent out there to keep the ratings good times going. The “successors” of the Woods hype machine were supposed to be the likes of Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy—the “hotshot” young guns bringing in the viewers. The problem is that despite the fact that they have 25 years of professional play between them, they “only” have a combined 32 PGA tour wins and 7 major championships; Woods has 82 career PGA tour wins and 15 majors in the same number of years.
We are told that it is “unfair” to judge others’ achievements by Tiger’s standards, but new “stars” are definitely not bringing in the “casual” U.S. viewer who wants to see “greatness” in action such as Woods provided. After all, most golfers (Arnold Palmer and Lee Trevino were exceptions in earlier times) are just seen as the privileged “country club” types, and Woods was seen as an “outsider” who beat the privileged types at their own “game.” People liked seeing that.
Sports Media Watch tells us that since 1995, the television ratings of the final round of the Masters in 1997 and 2001—both won by Woods—were 14.1 and 13.3 respectively, by far the highest for the tournament. As a story in the Associated Press reported after the 2001 Masters, "As it was in 1997, this further proves that when it comes to Tiger Woods and The Masters, people have a keen interest in wanting to witness history," said CBS Sports president Sean McManus at the time. Seven of the eight highest rated PGA Championships were tournaments that Woods either won or placed second. Same for the top-three of the U.S. Open, and the 2000 British Open—a tournament which typically gets a television rating barely above a 3 in the U.S.—had a record 6.4 rating when Woods won it in 2000.
Of course outside the major championships, for the non-diehard golf enthusiast Woods was often the only reason to watch golf on the weekend, especially if he was in contention. Today Woods isn’t quite in playing shape yet, or likely will ever be. Although he committed to play in the upcoming British Open, he says that he will “never” play a full schedule again, which probably means that the Tiger “bump” probably won’t be much more than a mole hill in the scheme of things for golf.
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