Golf's Search for a New Tiger Woods Seems Desperate

How bout some non Tiger tainted love?

Rory McIlroy put on a show this past weekend at the U.S. Open, winning the tournament by 8 strokes and setting a new record with a 268 total.  It was an impressive way to win your first major.  McIlroy has a great swing that makes driving the ball 300 plus yards down the middle of a fairway seem easy.  He follows that up with an impressive short game.  Add on top of all this that he is extremely likable.  He is young, charismatic, and friendly,  he smiles constantly, and seems genuinely respectful of both the game and the fans.  McIlroy is everything you would want in a super star, there is only one problem, he isn't a superstar yet.


Not to say Rory McIlroy won't be the next Tiger Woods or Arnold Palmer, but it is a long way from a sure thing.  Tiger became Tiger because he consistently outworked the rest of the field to the point that he was dominating in every tournament.  Tiger wasn't crowned the dominate player in golf his first year on the tour.  He won the Masters in 1997 with a 9 shot lead.  But for much of 1997 he was just a middle of the pack golfer.  His hard work and focus really started paying off in 1999 and 2000 when he began to dominate.   In 1999 Tiger had 8 tournament wins, something that hadn't been done since the 1970s.  It was his complete dominance, the fact that Tiger was in the final group every week, and most of those weeks he was the winner. McIlroy's performance was impressive, but it is a long way from making him a dominate player in the game of golf.

This weekend during the tournament, and through out the last few days, the talking heads and supposed experts in golf have talked ad nauseam about if McIlroy is the next Tiger Woods:

"If you are going to talk about someone challenging Jack's record, there's your man." - Padraig Harrington 

"McIlroy has as much game as Tiger, maybe more." - Luke Donald



"Rory's swing looks as good as Tiger's did when he was in his prime, when he was swinging his best" - Steve Stricker.

The problem with these statements is that they seem desperate.  We should be celebrating McIlroy's great  win this past weekend, not focusing on Tiger Woods. Tiger didn't invent the game of golf, no doubt his popularity was a boon to the sport, but it doesn't make or break the game.  This search for the new Tiger is taking the focus away from great golf.  Instead of showing footage of Tiger overlayed with McIlroy, just show footage of McIlroy's amazing win.  Just him, the winner, no Tiger necessary.  Of course the talking heads get thier paycheck from the T.V. networks and viewership of golf has been suffering.   Golf viewership has dropped almost 60% since the 2008 season, the last time Tiger was Tiger.   You have to acknowledge that you aren't seeing many golf stars advertising for non golf related products.  Seems without Tiger the advertisers would rather go to a star from another sport.

Through all of this maybe the solution isn't a new Tiger. Maybe the solution is finding several new stars, or showing the game for what makes it great.  Tiger Woods brought new intrest into golf, but that intrest seems to have faded with Tiger Woods.  Perhaps more subtle intrest based on the game, instead of a star, is better in the long run. I don't know if Rory McIlroy will be the next Tiger Woods.  But I do know that I enjoy watching Rory McIlroy be Rory McIlroy, perhaps we should let him.


I golf like Charles Barkley



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