Tiger Missed Putt = Major Ratings Slide

Whether it's a major championship or a regular tour event, when Tiger Woods is not winning, neither are the networks.

In this year's Masters championship, Tiger was nowhere on the leaderboard, and ratings were down 17%.

Compared with the 2002 Tiger victory at Bethpage Black in N.Y., Jim Furyk's victory in this year's United States Open inspired little viewership: a 44% drop.

And, this year's PGA championship final round had a 41% ratings slide from last year, when Tiger made a charge over the last four holes, but fell short of Rich Beem by one stroke.

Excitement like that, when Tiger is in the running for a title, is the fuel for the PGA tour ratings engine. No Tiger, no gas.

Need more proof? This year's British Open featured a victory by a rookie, no-name, former satellite tour player named Ben Curtis – a fine player, but hardly Mike Weir or Jim Furyk, two of the game's best players. So you would think that the TV ratings would have been even worse than the other three majors, right?

Wrong.

Tiger Woods was competing for the Open title, and because he was there, on TV and on the leaderboard - only two strokes behind when it was all over - ratings only declined 4%, even without a "name” winner.

So, while parity has proven to be a good thing for the NFL, and perhaps even Major League Baseball, the fans like to see stars, and they like to see them win.

This year's Buick Open - not a glamorous tour event by any means - featured a Tiger win.

Ratings were up 92% over last year.

Need we say more?

Editor's note:
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