Last week Tiger Woods decided that he needed to take some time off from golf and focus on rebuilding his family. He said on his website that he would take an "indefinite leave of absence." This means that the PGA is without its biggest star for an unknown amount of time. Needless to say people are freaking out and already debating how long the PGA will last without Woods.
I personally feel like this is an over reaction and here is why:
Tiger Isn't Even That Good
So he has won 14 Majors, 2nd behind only Jack Nicklaus, and has 71 PGA Tour victories (3rd all-time) it was a huge fluke. He has to be the luckiest athlete ever. So many of his shots had no business going in and yet, due to his deal with the devil, they all went in.
How many times did he win by only 1 stroke or have other people fall apart and choke when they were paired with him on Sunday?
People often say that Tiger Woods is the Michael Jordan of golf. To them I say 'does Tiger Woods have his own brand of shoe?' and 'was Tiger Woods in Space Jam?' I didn't think so. The only reason people say that is because both of them are black and that is just racist.
The PGA Has Tonnes of Marketable Players
Have you seen Kenny Perry? That guy could get Eskimos to buy ice. He is so charismatic and charming and was forced to live in Tigers shadow. Now he can step into the spotlight and become the next great athlete to take America by storm. No doubt that in less than 3 months he will be on Wheaties boxes and have his own video game. Tiger could never accomplish that.
But it doesn't end with Kenny Perry. Don't forget about Steve Stricker, Zach Johnson, Lucas Glover, Sean O'hair, and David Toms. All of these guys are way charismatic than Tiger and are more marketable as well.
The PGA tour is fine in their hands and should see new all-time highs in sponsorships and television revenue as people didn't tune in to see Tiger they tuned in to see the real players.
Losing the "Best Player Ever" Is Always Good
Remember when Michael Jordan retired form the NBA? That couldn't have worked out any better for the NBA. People watched more basketball and the Chicago Bulls continued to win championships without him. All it proved was that Jordan was overrated and replaceable.
The PGA will have the same success. There is nothing worse for a professional sports league than having 1 guy that is totally dominant and is considered the best player ever. No one wants to watch that and no one wants to pay to go see that.
People love mediocrity and parity. Why have one person be better than everyone else when everyone can just be equally bad? All Tiger did was overshadow the other golfers and not allow their meager gifts to be seen by the fans.
More Jobs Will Be Created
Because Tiger always won he always took home the bulk of the money and left other golfers struggling to make a living. Now that he is gone other players can enjoy and share some of the spoils.
When Tiger first entered the PGA in 1996 the annual prize money was around $70 million. Now in 2009 that number has jumped to $278 million and it will no longer all go to Tiger. More people will get more money and therefore be able to spend more which will pump funds into the economy.
Now Jasper Parnevick can afford to go out to dinner which will mean jobs for waiters, chefs and valets. Not to mention more farmers to supply the food. If you think about it Tiger leaving the PGA could be what the US needs to turn the economy around.
Fuzzy Zoeller and Kelly Tilghman are sitting together somewhere smiling.
Now Golf Can Be Whites Only Again
Before Tiger Woods came around they didn't let African Americans play at Augusta National. Now he plays there every year.
Before Tiger Woods came around and broke so many barriers a woman would never dream of playing in a PGA tour event. Now Annika Sorrenstam and Michell Wei play in PGA events and spit in the face of the history of the game.
But since Woods is gone golf can return to its extremely racist roots. White men will once again reign supreme in golf and all will be right with the world.
Clearly you can see that the PGA tour doesn't need Tiger to be successful. He was an over hyped"star" that did little to generate interest in the sport and if anything caused more people to become less interested.
A new wave of players is ready to step up and take the mantle and lead the PGA into an unimagined age of prosperity where white men will once again wear their argyle socks with pride and will no longer have to censor their racist comments.
So everyone out there who wrote something about the PGA struggling because of Wood's departure needs to just calm down. The PGA will be fine and will continue to bring fans an exciting and exhilarating product every weekend.
*Wait what's that? Without Tiger Woods the PGA is going to go bankrupt and has already become more irrelevant than the WNBA?*
OK let me start again...
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