Tiger Giving Telecasts A 60% Boost These Days

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Matthew Futterman files a WSJ look at the state of Tiger and big business.

Down the piece a bit, and after considering what the sport faced in 2008-09, Futterman looks at the Tiger-fueled recovery and includes this on 2012 and 2013 television ratings:

CBS has seen television viewership for golf rise steadily. Audiences for final-round coverage of tour events averaged 3.5 million in 2012, 46% higher than in 2010. So far this year, an average of 4.1 million viewers have watched final-round coverage of the network's three tournament broadcasts. NBC's audiences grew to 3.4 million viewers last year, from 2.3 million in 2010.

Mr. Woods's participation in tournaments still has a big effect—but not as big as it once did. In 2012, his participation in a final round boosted viewership by 60%, compared with 118% in 2009.

"This is Tiger's 'I'm back and I never changed and you have to like me anyway.'"

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Here I thought Nike was to blame for the "Winning takes care of everything" messaging after Tiger's Bay Hill win.

Rick Reilly says no way and that Tiger controls everything. More important though, with this column Reilly moves ahead of John Feinstein in the permanent-scowl-from-Steiny race, well-paid writer's division.

My son writes for a big Chicago ad firm. He says every sentence, every word, every syllable is stared at, considered, rewritten, discussed and torn apart. For months. Every conceivable message that one phrase could send to the public is pored over, analyzed and tested. It has to be. If they put out an inadvertent message the client didn't intend, everybody's fired. Don't you watch "Mad Men"?

Oh, they knew what they were doing. And they meant every level you can read into it. Tiger and the creatives and the suits must've looked at all the options, ignored the pesky moral implications and said, "Just do it."

This is Tiger's "I'm back and I never changed and you have to like me anyway." This is his deodorant and he's quite sure we'll all shrug and agree.

Can you imagine how little he thinks of us?

Tiger: "We wanted to limit the 'stalkarazzi'"

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Interesting thinking by Tiger and Lindsey Vonn in releasing the Lifetime movie publicity photos.

Bob Harig reports:

"It's very simple. We're very happy where we're at, but also we wanted to limit the 'stalkarazzi' and all those sleazy websites that are out there following us," Woods said Wednesday at the Bay Hill Club, where he will play in the Arnold Palmer Invitational starting Thursday. "I've had situations where it's been very dangerous for my kids and the extent they'll go to. We basically devalued the first photos.

"Unfortunately, that's just the way it is in our society right now, and we felt like it was the best thing to do. I'm very happy about it."

Flashback: When Lindsey Mocked Tiger

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Thanks to reader John from sending in this Time item from three years ago where Sean Gregory of Time quoted new Tiger Facebook friend Lindsey Vonn uttering less than nice things about her future beau.

And like millions of Americans, Vonn can't help poking fun at Woods' staged event. When a member of her Vonn-tourage tells her that Woods gave a few friends hugs after ending his statement, she cracks, "They're like, 'Yeah, you're awesome, you go have that sex.' " The room breaks into a laugh. Then she describes a skit she would want to perform if asked to host Saturday Night Live: picture Vonn at Woods' podium, blue backdrop and all. "There's something you don't know about me," Vonn says in a faux solemn, apologetic voice. "Tiger, you're like my idol, and I too have a sex problem." More laughter. "That would be freaking funny."

Meanwhile the Deadspin Photoshop contest has turned in some real gems interspersed with plenty of Perkins references and other so-so efforts. It's kind of an odd slideshow window, but just be aware of the arrows on the left and right of the images at the bottom of the post to navigate the hundred or so entries.

My favorite:

Tiger And Lindsey Announce On Facebook They're Dating, Have Slightly Awkward Photos To Prove It

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Thanks to reader Irwin for passing along Tiger's Woods Facebook announcement that he and Lindsey Vonn are dating.

And now leave them alone:

This season has been great so far and I'm happy with my wins at Torrey and Doral. Something nice that's happened off the course was meeting Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey and I have been friends for some time, but over the last few months we have become very close and are now dating. We thank you for your support and for respecting our privacy. We want to continue our relationship, privately, as an ordinary couple and continue to compete as athletes.

Interesting PR tactic by the power couple and quite different for Tiger, but clearly the other ways they've tackled news of his personal life haven't worked. So why not?

Though I'm not sure if these were the photos I would have chosen. But hey, that's why they pay Steiny and Glenn Greenspan the big bucks!

Just a little too Step Brothers movie postery for me:


Tiger: The Ultimate Horse For A Course

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Bob Harig dissects Tiger's remarkable track record at a select group of courses, including his last five victories: Bay Hill, Memorial, Congressional, Torrey Pines and Doral.

And it is true that 40 of Woods' 76 PGA Tour victories have come at seven courses: Torrey Pines (8), Firestone (7), Bay Hill (7), Muirfield Village (5), Cog Hill (5), Augusta National (4) and Doral (4).

At those venues alone, his victory total is just one fewer than that of Phil Mickelson, one more than Tom Watson, six more than Vijay Singh.

A video segment accompanies the story:

Tiger Still Has Skeptics Files!

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Following Tiger Woods's second win of 2013 and just a month before the Masters, it's hardly a surprise that many are back on the bandwagon.

Derek Lawrenson in the Daily Mail wasn't so impressed:

Reading some of the reports coming out of America on Monday they might just as well skip the tournament part of the Masters next month and head straight to the green-jacket ceremony.

But they ignored one vital fact. Tiger won’t win the Masters playing like he did at Doral. Or rather, he won’t win driving the ball like he did at Doral.

Add Ron Sirak to that list too.

The thing about bandwagons is that they are moving targets. Jumping on and off comes with its share of risk. Right now, the Tiger Woods bandwagon, light of load in recent years, is once again buckling under the weight of its cargo.