GOLF: Woods is making golf a game unlike any other

Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, is one of the more picturesque places in the United States. It’s a pleasant mix of small town charm with major shops as a tourist attraction. And this week, Hilton Head Island hosts a golf tournament. Just an ordinary, 72-hole battle that, quite honestly, not too many people care about.

Because the one golfer people do care about is not there. Whether it was a Grand Slam or a Tiger Slam or whatever, Tiger Woods is repositioning golf among the visibility board of sports. If he’s in the tournament, you make lots of money. If he’s taking the week off, you better pray for fans.

Woods is, probably, the most famous active athlete in the world today. There are others, to be sure, but who really has the worldwide appeal he does? Even the British go wild over him, for God’s sakes — the only thing they get more excited about than Woods is mad cow disease. It’s the natural evolution of the super sportstar at work. First, there was Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, then Mickey Mantle and the great baseball idols of yore. Muhammed Ali took the worldwide mantle to a new level, then Jordan went higher, now Woods is taking it another step.

The explosion of Woods’ onto the sporting scene in the last year poses a number of paradoxical emotions into the PGA Tour. They have the most marketable athlete in the world, one of the few known by his first name alone. A personality that dominates over the entire tour and lifts it to new heights by his presence alone.

The PGA Tour can now market itself to new demographics, new areas that haven’t been touched by the little white ball as of yet. Whenver its next television contract runs out, what person would take the odds that a increase of epochical proportions will be awarded to the Tour by its highest bidder?

And at the same time, the problem lies in the quiet — just how do you market a tournament without Woods? The difference, financially, between a Tiger tournament and Tiger-less tournament has to be huge. Woods has also shown his independence from the tour — remember his little fit thrown during the offseason about the Tour taking advantage of his popularity?

For example, Hilton Head. Davis Love III is there, Vijay Singh is there, Greg Norman and other name golfers are there. Do you care about what happens at this week’s tournament? Everyone did at the Masters, which admittedly is because even undead vampires not yet killed by Buffy Somers care about the Masters. But during a normal tournament, having Tiger means having the world watching your course. Not having Tiger means not having the ratings soar through the skies.

David Duval was right on Sunday when he said it was like competing against Nicklaus, who did not always win. Sunday at the Masters was certainly made more dramatic by the charge that Duval made, the staying power of Phil Mickelson. But for one reason or another, both Duval and Mickelson faded while Woods flourished.

Duval and Mickelson are both fine players. They represent the PGA Tour well. They are crowd favorites and people enjoy seeing them win, which they have both done many times over. But neither has won a major tournament. They share the dreaded monikor "Best Player Never to Have Won a Major."

Neither Duval or Mickelson might ever win a major. Not because they don’t deserve to, because that is the opposite of true. But because Woods is there. Woods may be the Jordan to Duval’s Charles Barkley, Mickelson’s Karl Malone. Both fine players. Neither champions, due to one person’s presence.

Tiger Woods showed a flair for the dramatic on the final hole of the Masters, hitting a birdie to make no mistake as to who was going to be the winner. The ability of a champion is what he showed, coming up and making moments that last in the memories of millions.

Woods has towered above golf and now, in many ways, the symbol of the game. Whether or not that is good for the PGA Tour in the end, it does not matter. What matters is that through all the worry of who would take over Jordan’s mantle, one has been found. Just not in the sport of pro basketball.