"This mutual admiration is part of something bigger"

Thanks to Tuco for noticing this Scott Soshnick column on the recent Tiger-Federrer meeting and the likelihood that it's driven by Nike as much as a bond between the two dominant forces of their sports.

This mutual admiration is part of something bigger. It isn't coincidence that both athletes happen to be represented by the same agency, International Management Group.

If Tiger and Roger were so intent on forging a friendship, why didn't the millionaires simply hop aboard private planes or, better yet, Tiger's yacht, and make it happen. And don't tell me about busy schedules.

Tiger gets what Tiger wants.

I smell a commercial.

It's the only logical conclusion for their public introduction and instant friendship, which blossomed during the U.S. Open final.

Don't Overeact!

AP's Jim Litke must have caught colleague Doug Ferguson sobbing over having to cover three days of the World Match Play without Tiger, Ernie, Retief or Furyk, because he says we shouldn't overreact to Tiger's loss to Shaun Micheel.

"The Tiger Effect" **********

Tiger, Furyk, Goosen and Els lose in the first round of the World Match Play.

So, does this impact the "Tiger Effect" economic impact?

Actually probably not, since the golf media assembled to cover Tiger just started booking weekend tee times at some of England's finest layouts. 

"The Tiger Effect" ** ***

Thanks to SteveG for this IMG err HSBC press release on the "THE TIGER EFFECT" that will be boosting the UK and Ireland economies. Note that several publications, including the Scotsman, picked up this press release and reported it as news.

Woods, who flies into London tomorrow (Tuesday) to play in the HSBC World Match Play at Wentworth before competing in the Ryder Cup and World Golf Championship, all taking place in September, will increase the golf economy in the UK & Ireland by as much as 5%.

Research carried out for HSBC by Professor Tom Cannon, Dean of Business at the University of Buckingham suggests Tiger's mere presence results in tens of thousands extra spectators, boosts radio and television coverage by at least 25 per cent, generates millions through tourism, hospitality and sponsorship, and drives people to try golf for themselves and join clubs.

Professor Tom Cannon, Dean of Business at the University of Buckingham and leading expert in sports business and finance commented: “The size and reach of the Tiger economy is remarkable.  We estimate the total value on the core golf economy to be as high as £170 million. Drawing these figures together gives an astonishing picture not only of the impact of a single, outstanding sportsman but of the growing power and influence of sport and sporting celebrity.”

With the tournament scheduled for a week before the Ryder Cup and the appearance of World Number One Tiger Woods for the first time since 1998, there has already been a 60% increase in advance ticket sales this year.

Giles Morgan, HSBC’s Head of Sports Sponsorship and Marketing commented:

“The HSBC World Match Play Championship at Wentworth is set to break its 42-year attendance record after selling an unprecedented number of advance tickets.

“Tiger Wood’s participation in the HSBC World Match Play is obviously great news for our event, but our approach to golf is as much about developing the grassroots of the sport as it is about supporting the elite game. This report indicates that Tiger's appeal goes far beyond what happens on the course and has positive economic and social impacts in the countries where he plays."

The three tournaments in three weeks could take the "Tiger Effect" to new heights as he reaches out to millions beyond the sport. HSBC’s ‘Tiger Economy’ study suggests: 

Ø      Tiger’s participation is expected to encourage an additional 60,000 spectators to attend the three major Golf tournaments generating an extra £4.2 million in ticket sales and related visitor costs such as car parking

Ø      Sponsorship and hospitality could generate an additional £3.6 million, including £500,000 in advertising spend as companies take advantage of Wood’s participation, and £500,000 in travel and accommodation generated through additional spectators

Ø      Conservative estimates suggest Tiger could inspire 700,000 golfers (club members and occasional players) to play an extra round of golf bolstering green fees by £14 million

Ø      The ‘Tiger Effect’ could see sales of Golf equipment and clothing increase by an additional £27.5 million

Ø      Media coverage of the tournaments (TV and radio) is likely to be worth £52.3 million as Tiger’s appearance continue to generate record audiences

Ø      The anticipated value of press coverage is be valued at £36 million

Update on 2006-09-12 16:05 by Geoff

** Looks like several other publications picked up this press release and spit it back out as news. You go IMG!

The Guardian, the Irish Examiner, Sporting Life and The Sunday Times all took the bait. Amazing, the USA Today did not bite. Not yet.

Update on 2006-09-12 17:53 by Geoff

*** Reader Steve notes this wire service story where even Tiger claims to find the number surprising...

Sitting next to Woods, David Hodgkinson, the chief operating officer of HSBC - the sponsor of the World Match Play - said Woods' three-week presence would bring a huge cash injection to the British and Irish economies.

"We reckon this will put an additional 170 million pounds (US$320 million; euro250 million) of value into the economy, a growth to the golf economy of 5 percent," he said.

Woods laughed when he heard the figures.
"I don't know where they get that number," Woods said. "It is flattering to have that impact on this game of golf."

"Greatest golfer in the world and we can't even hang his picture?"

The L.A. Times' Bill Plaschke on the Navy Golf Course in Cypress where Tiger Woods grew up playing:

This is where Woods learned about playing with noise — fighter planes from the adjacent Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos took off or landed during his backswing.

And this is where Woods, who considered this his home course until he left for college, learned about the world.

Shortly before enrolling in Stanford, Woods was hitting balls off the driving range when residents of the modest adjoining neighborhood complained about a "black" kid hitting golf balls into their backyards.

There's no way it could have been Woods, because to reach those houses, one would have to hook his shots like a hacker. There were also, at the time, a couple of strange kids who were spotted on the course.

Regardless, management reacted to the complaints by throwing Woods off the premises. This, even though he had just become the youngest player to win a U.S. Amateur championship.

Although he has never acknowledged any correlation, Woods hasn't been back much since.

Looking around the aging facility, it was as if he was never there at all.

On one pro shop wall, there is one series of photos of a top golfer. It is Jack Nicklaus.

On another wall, there is one autographed photo of a golfer. It is David Toms.

There are no Woods photos, trophies, signs, memorabilia, nothing.

This year the entire facility will move into a grand new building next door, but, as of yet, there are no plans to bring Woods memorabilia into the new house.

"Greatest golfer in the world and we can't even hang his picture?" one member asks.

Gregg Smith, public affairs officer, calls it an oversight.

"We're very proud of our association with Tiger Woods…. I've never been a part of any conversations where somebody said, 'Don't put this guy's photo up there,' " he says. "I'm sure it's just something that people wanted to do, and just haven't done."

Some wonder, however, if there remains serious yardage between Woods and his golf birthplace.

Tiger's Latest Streak

Doug Ferguson considers Tiger's streak of five straight wins.

Byron Nelson won 11 straight tournaments in 1945, a streak regarded as one of the most untouchable in sports. Woods won six straight at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000, and Ben Hogan won six in a row in 1948.

Woods now takes a week off before heading to England for the HSBC World Match Play Championship, followed by the Ryder Cup. His next PGA Tour start will be the American Express Championship outside London at the end of September.

He still isn’t even halfway home to Nelson’s hallowed mark, but he surpassed Lord Byron in one category with his 53rd victory, moving into fifth place alone on the career list. Woods, who finished at 16-under 268, won for the seventh time this year. No other player has won more than twice.

Of the aforementioned streaks, Tiger's latest is the only to include two major championship wins. Of course, Ben Hogan had a four-win streak in 1953 that included three majors.

After the round, Tiger was asked about the streak and also the TPC Boston, which led to an interesting revelation.

Q. Do you ever think about 11 in a row?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah.

(Laughter.) It wasn't just 11, it was 11 in a row, 12 out of 13, 18 for the year. That will work.

Q. You don't even play 18, do you?

(Laughter.)

TIGER WOODS: Good point.

(Laughter.)

Q. Kind of along those lines, where do you see Byron's record, the 11 in a row, as it relates to UCLA or some of the other or some of the other great streaks in sports?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it's part of the streak that it's probably the streak that I've, he had to have so many things go right first of all. In this day and age and the competition, to win 11 in a row would almost be unheard of. What Byron accomplished, that right there goes down to probably one of the greatest years in the history of our sport. Consistency I mean you got to have one bad week somewhere. He never did. His bad week was a win, I guess. So it's I mean it's truly amazing. I know that there were a lot of different circumstances. It was one of those, the field's weren't as strong, it was one of the war years, but still, I just think that what Byron accomplished there goes down as one of the greatest streaks in all of sport. I don't know what DiMaggio's record, I see that being broken more so than winning 11 golf tournaments.

And... 

Q. I know it's early in your career to be thinking about golf course design at this point, but did you see anything out on the course today that you particularly liked, disliked, that if that day ever comes when you start designing courses regularly that you would like to incorporate into what you do?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I have my ideas, yes. And we're going to, obviously, I don't know if anyone knows, we're going to make some changes again this year for the next event, for next year's event. So yeah, I'm going to tray and help out with that, give my opinion and they can utilize it or not. But I am getting into golf course design business here probably pretty soon. So it's something that I'm very excited about to be creative and design a piece of property that people will want to go play. It's going to be challenging, but also be fun.

So that part is really enjoyable to me, because I play golf courses now, I played all around the world, I've seen so many different type of golf courses and the types of styles that I have my own opinion on how the game should be played. And hopefully you get pieces of property which you can make that happen.

Those would be his most definitive comments to date about getting into course design. He has previously said in the next 3-4 years, but this sounds like he may have a project in the works. 

"Golf is a power game"

The September 4 issue of SI opens with the traditional "Scorecard" piece, this time with Alan Shipnuck writing about the emergence of golf as a "power game." He then lays out the perks headaches coming with the power shift.

Golf is a power game, a point driven home by a recent confluence of events in Ohio that rocked a sport that has always been resistant to change. In Springfield on Aug. 22, the Ohio Golf Association held a tournament in which competitors were compelled to use identical balls that had been engineered to fly roughly 10% shorter than the average rock. (dead-ball golf is what headline writers at The Columbus Dispatch called the attempt to put the toothpaste back into the tube.) Then, in Akron last week, Tiger Woods took time out from winning his fourth straight tournament, the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, to stump for the implementation of performance-enhancing drug testing in professional golf. It was a public rebuke to PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, who has staked out a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil position on steroids.

And after considering the recent events and Tiger's feelings on the matter, Shipnuck reminds us that Woods pushed for a pro-active stance on driver testing. And of course not mentioned here but equally as important to the topic at hand, Woods has advocated changing the spin rate of balls.

On the OGA event, Shipnuck writes:

It was an open-minded band of volunteers that showed up when the OGA staged its one-ball tournament, bringing to life an idea that for years has been kicked around by everyone from Jack Nicklaus to recently retired Masters chairman Hootie Johnson, who grew weary of annually having to tear up his golf course to keep pace with advances in equipment. (Augusta National has grown more than 500 yards, to 7,445, since Woods's overpowering victory in 1997.) OGA president Hugh E. Wall III said that maintaining the relevance of older, shorter courses in his jurisdiction was the primary motivation for testing the restricted-flight ball. "[We have] great courses, but many don't have the resources or the real estate to expand to 7,400 yards," Wall told GolfWorld. "[We want] our member clubs to see there may be another option ... other than bulldozers."

Thus every competitor at Windy Knoll Golf Club received a dozen balls with an OGA logo and a side stamp of CHAMPIONS 08222306 (the name of the tournament and its dates). All other details about the ball were supposed to be top secret, but by tournament's end word had leaked that it was manufactured by Volvik, an obscure Korean company. (A U.S. manufacturer examined the OGA ball for SI and reports that it was a three-piece, dual-core construction with a Surlyn cover and 446 dimples.) These instant collector's items left most players pining for their regular ball. Derek Carney of Dublin, Ohio, typified the conflicted attitude: He agreed that something has to be done to protect older courses but said that he didn't like the OGA ball "because it doesn't benefit me."

Oddly, such a selfish attitude in other sports would be laughed, but in golf, such an attitude is seen differently. Shipnuck explains:

Such grumbling merely previews the howls of protest that would accompany any efforts to roll back the ball on the PGA Tour, where players have spent years using launch monitors and computers to find optimal combinations of balls, shafts and clubheads. The irony of the OGA event is that it is PGA Tour pros who threaten to make a mockery of classic courses. Yet bifurcation is a dirty word in golf. Differing rules for pros and amateurs would destroy the business model of the $4 billion equipment industry, which is built on stars like Woods being paid handsomely to peddle their gear to weekend hackers.

Golf is still grappling with the ramifications of the boom-boom ethos that has redefined the game, but the almighty buck remains the sport's most influential force. When it comes to reigning in the power game, steroid testing will be an easier sell than dead-ball golf. Especially when Woods is the salesman.

Shipnuck on Tiger's Drop

With his latest column on who's hot and who's not, Alan Shipnuck joins John Hawkins (here) in calling the Tiger Woods relief-from-the-clubhouse drop ridiculous:

How in the world does a player jack a ball onto the roof of the clubhouse and not incur a penalty? Tiger's sweetheart ruling at Firestone was the most ridiculous thing I've seen on a golf course since -- who else? -- Woods got a dozen of his buddies to roll a boulder, er, loose impediment out of his way in Phoenix in '99.

More importantly, I think we've found the bridge to bring these two talented golf writers together for the future We just can't have them feuding. No, no.

So Much For The Big Five

From guest contributor Steve Elling comes this note:

Eyeing the updated world rankings today. It says that Tiger has padded his lead over #2 Mickelson to a record margin since the ranking methodology was tweaked a couple of years ago.

Small wonder.

Tiger has seven wins worldwide in 2006 -- matching the total of the rest of the top 10 in the rankings COMBINED.

Scott, Goosen, Els and Garcia (all ranked in the top eight) have contributed zero.

Ogilvy and Phil have two wins apiece.

Tiger On Winning His B Game

After struggling over the weekend and winning, Tiger Woods was asked:

Q. Do you feel like you just won a pretty prestigious tournament with your B game?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I was not hitting it all that well the last two days. I was kind of struggling. I was just trying to piece it together somehow, somehow just piece it together. I was putting well today, but I just couldn't give myself any looks at it. Then when I did, I was missing putts.

But I was just trying to get it around somehow and keep myself in the ballgame. If I got to double digits, I thought I could win it at either 11 or 12, and 10 or 11 would have been a playoff. If I could just get to those numbers somehow, forget what everyone else was doing, just get to those numbers, I'd be all right. I got to 11 and just didn't stay there. 10 ended up being the playoff number.

And we didn't get a "right in front of you," just an "in front of you."

Q. What is it with Akron and this course that's really been so special?

TIGER WOODS: Well, I love this golf course. As I said earlier, we don't get a chance to play this type of course very often. The new, modern golf courses never look like this. You never have a piece of property where there are no homes on it. It's just a golf course.

So from that standpoint, it's a treat to be able to play a tree lined golf course that's straight forward in front of you, and we saw what happened yesterday when it got hard and fast, that any round that was in the high to mid 60s, you would vault up the board. Most Tour events that's not the case. You shoot low scores just to try and keep pace.

This golf course, if it got hard, dry and fast, nobody would ever be in double digits.

Check out Tiger's stats from Firestone:

_{Driving Distance Avg       343.4       357.5       334.3       296.9       -    333.0
    Fairways Hit                 71.4%     57.1%     50.0%     50.0%      -     57.1%
    Fairway Opportunities     14         14             14          14           -     56
    Longest Drive                 385       394           393        316         -     394
    GIR                               77.8%     83.3%      38.9%     72.2%     -     68.1%}

Hawkins Hits The Roof

John Hawkins calls Tiger's free loading dock relief drop an embarrassment and asks...

Since when did the clubhouse and parking lot become part of the golf course? I’m no rules aficionado, but I’ve always thought that any shot that leaves the field of play is considered out of bounds.

BTW, did anyone actually see the ball turned over to Steve Williams or Tiger, as Bill Kratzert said on TV?

"'If people are speculating about golf, let's get it over now.'"

Thomas Bonk files a front (sports) page story on Tiger's call for drug testing, with several interesting quotes. Starting with Tiger's agent, Mark Steinberg:

"There's a lot out there right now, with BALCO, the cycling and the sprinters, so what he's saying is, 'Start with golf, start with me. I'm clean and I think the sport's clean,' " Steinberg said Friday.

" 'If people are speculating about golf, let's get it over now.' "

And some experts weigh in:

Added Charles Yesalis, professor emeritus at Penn State and an expert in performance-enhancing drugs and sports, "Anyone who doesn't say it's a can of worms or that it's a time bomb that is going to explode in your face is nuts. "Given what [baseball Commissioner] Bud Selig went through with his stupidity, with the way he handled it, golf, before it gets hauled into court, should start with something. That's what the smart money would do.

"I've heard every excuse, every rationale you could ever think of, and to listen to the spin of the holier-than-thous — the spin people always point their finger in every direction other than the right one — is misguided.

"With a ton of money involved in golf, there's talk of beta blockers, low doses of human growth hormone, and if you already have the 10th of a 10th of a 10th of a percentage of the public that is good enough to play the PGA Tour, then you take that guy and add 10 pounds of muscle, are you telling me the ball won't go farther?"

And, in response to Finchem's position: 

"Although the 'Chariots of Fire' model is interesting, that's not the world we live in," John Hoberman, an expert on drugs in sports at the University of Texas, said Friday.

Because there is no PGA Tour list of illegal performance-enhancing substances, drugs such as beta blockers, which have a tranquilizing effect on users, could find their way into golf, according to Hoberman.

"The real threat to golf, with all hell breaking out in baseball because of steroids, are the drugs that would probably be more useful, say the beta blockers, for calmness, self-control, lack of anxiety, steady hands, attention and focus, all qualities that would seem useful in putting," he said Friday.

Bonk On Tiger's Preparation

Thomas Bonk looks at Tiger's success and in particular, some of the things that make him special.

Woods' preparation for such a scene of chaos begins quietly enough when he arrives at the course, typically about an hour and 15 minutes before the final round. He starts with his putting drill with the two tees and when he shifts to the driving range, he spends 30 to 40 minutes, beginning with a sand wedge and moving from the higher-lofted clubs to the lower-lofted clubs in his bag. Then he returns to the putting green for a final warmup before going to the first tee.

It is Williams' duty to bring a copy of the pin sheets to Woods at the driving range, showing the precise location of the pins on each green. Woods studies them, then practices as if he is hitting toward each pin, allowing him to decide what kind of shots to hit to every green while he's still on the range. This preparation method is unique to Woods.

His last shot on the driving range is the first shot he'll hit at the first tee. On Sunday, he rocketed a five-wood at the range, duplicated the shot at the first tee and was off and running.

Tiger In Full

Included below is the full exchange where Tiger Woods took a new stance on drug testing in golf, but before that, check out this Rally Killer of the Year candidate. Apparently Tiger has changed his schedule and is going to take the chartered jet to Ireland with his teammates Monday and Tuesday.

Q. Are you going to the K Club?

TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I'm going. We're all going together. I had to reschedule a couple things.

Q. When are you coming back?

TIGER WOODS: Wednesday morning. I get back Wednesday morning here.

Q. What's the puppy's name?

TIGER WOODS: Yogi, like Yogi Bear. He looks more like Yogi Bear.

Q. What kind?

TIGER WOODS: It's a Labradoodle.

Back to golf (laughter).

Q. Obviously you thought it was important enough to reschedule things to go next week. What was the thinking behind that?

TIGER WOODS: I've seen The K Club enough, but just to be with the guys. We're going there as a team and going there just to hang out and relax and play a little golf. Most of the guys haven't played the golf course very much, and if I can help out at all, I can hopefully, and maybe pass on a few tidbits that I've learned over the years of playing there.

Do we have a winner? Certainly a rally killer of the year finalist! And the exchange on drug testing, unfortunatey, minus the questions.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: There are a lot of things I've shifted since I've been on Tour, a lot of things. That's just one of them.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: I think certainly it can be in the future, and I think we should be proactive instead of reactive, and I think that we should just like the driver situation, we were reactive there instead of proactive.

I just think that we should be ahead of it and keep our sport as pure as can be. This is a great sport and it's always been clean.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: Have a program in place before guys are actually doing well, know who's doing it, and then create a program. I think that would be reactive.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: I'd be in favor of that, no doubt about that. I would be in favor of that, yes. I don't know if we could get that implemented in time. It's fine with me.

Q. (Inaudible)?

TIGER WOODS: It depends on what it is because each sport kind of takes a few things off of it, and some sports are pretty strict about what they can take. They can't even take aspirin. I don't know how that would work.

Tiger On Drug Testing: "Tomorrow would be fine with me."

Whoa Nellie! Tiger Woods says...

Tiger Woods said he would like to see testing on the PGA Tour for performance-enhancing drugs as soon as possible to make sure golf remains clean.

"I don't know when we could get that implemented," Woods said. "Tomorrow would be fine with me."

Woods did not say he thought anyone was using steroids, but said it could be a problem in the future.

"I think we should be proactive instead of reactive," he said. "I just think we should be ahead of it and keep our sport as pure as can be. This is a great sport, and it's always been clean."

Woods' comments came one day after PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said he saw no need for drug testing in golf without evidence that any players are using steroids.

Woods compared the situation to the PGA Tour testing thin-faced drivers that exceeded regulations for the trampoline effect, known as the coefficient of restitution (COR). He suggested in 2003 that some players were using hot drivers. By the following year, tour officials had a tool that measured COR, although drivers were not tested unless another player asked.

"Just like the driver situation, we were reactive there instead of proactive," Woods said.

This is quite a shift for Woods, who was asked (by yours truly) about this subject last year at the Target World Challenge. 

Q. There was a story in Golf World last week about performance enhancing drugs and steroids in golf and the possibility of it. Do you think there is a possibility that players are using anything and should there be perhaps a Tour policy or testing on that, either steroids or any kind of enhancing drug?

TIGER WOODS: There's always a possibility. Unless you're tested, there's always going to be a shadow of doubt on any sport. I don't see anyone out there who I would think would have finds of it, but who's to say there aren't. We don't know. We don't see any guys out there, 6 5, 240, 250, in shape, cut up, all ripped up. We don't have guys out there like that.

Q. Are you in favor of testing or do you think that's something that should be treated with a little more study?

TIGER WOODS: I think we should study it a little bit more before we get into something like that. Obviously it's a path that where do you draw the line? Do you do it on the PGA Tour nationwide but don't do it on any other tours leading up to that, or all professional golf.

Obviously there is a lot to it than just, okay, there's mandatory testing. Where does it start? Who does it? Who is in control of it? What are the substances that you're looking for. In the Olympics you can't take aspirin. A lot of guys live on aspirin out here.