Tiger Gets His Calamity Jane, Takes To Social To Share The Spoils Of Win No. 80

One of the coolest—dopiest to the kids reading out there—trophies in golf arrived at Tiger’s house and he promptly posted multiple shots of the 2018 Tour Championship’s Calamity Jane trophy.

Because the world revolves around FedEx and the gobs of money they are paying for the FedExCup, the Calamity Jane may be a 2019 casualty of the Tour Championship shifting to a handicap tournament resolving only the FedExCup.

So enjoy!

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Look what just came in the mail today. Thank you to everyone for making number 80 so special.

A post shared by Tiger Woods (@tigerwoods) on Oct 18, 2018 at 1:32pm PDT

Tiger Admits Lack Of Conditioning Caught Up With Him At The Ryder Cup

Speaking at an exhibition in Pebble Beach, Tiger Woods reflected on win No. 80, the Ryder Cup and next year’s Presidents Cup captaincy.

While his haters will gripe, I admire his willingness to admit the heat, stress and thrills of his playoff play took on him physically after not being prepared physically to play as much as he did. From Dan Kilbridge’s Golfweek story:

“It was just a cumulative effect of the entire season,” Woods said. “I was tired because I hadn’t trained for it. I hadn’t trained this entire comeback to play this much golf and on top of that deal with the heat and the fatigue and the loss of weight.”

Turns Out The Tiger Woods Foundation Is Secretly Working To Combine Art And Science To Make More Putts!

We always knew those special kids supposedly studying everything but golf at the Tiger Woods Foundation’s learning center were really just plotting to combine art and science to help Tiger make more putts.

Just look on Instagram!

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Coding with my mentee. Combine coding and a little art of green reading and you get YES!!!!!!!!!!!! #twinvitational

A post shared by Tiger Woods (@tigerwoods) on Oct 16, 2018 at 6:13pm PDT

Shark Logic: Worried "That Tiger Talk" Taking Away From The Youth He Is In Touch With

High-tech Golf Cart Purveyor, former Fox golf analyst and Living Icon Of The Brand is making the rounds to promote something and as he’s prone to do, is reminding us of his eternal youth by expressing not one, but two mildly confusing thoughts.

Dan Kilbridge sums up the thoughts for Golfweek from this Yahoo podcast with Dan Roberts where Florida’s worst hedge sheerer admitted some admiration for Tiger’s miraculous 2018 comeback but expressed concern “that Tiger talk” is overshadowing the only people who matter, the children of tomorrow.

Greg Norman:

“I think he’s done an excellent job going from where he was a year ago,” Norman said. “Massive leap, quite honestly, in 12 months. God bless him. He did everything right, stepped up to the plate and won. It’s good for him, there’s no question, it’s good for the game of golf, no question. But I hope they don’t put all their eggs in one basket again and be all Tiger and forget about all this other wonderful, fantastic talent even coming out of Korea and Japan and South Africa and Australia. Unbelievable amount of talent bubbling up around the world, and I’d hate to see them get lost again in that Tiger talk.”

If they beat him, or prove as compelling, won’t that Tiger talk subside?

This was special:

Norman said his favorite players to watch include Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth and Francesco Molinari.

“I see a really good base of great, young talent there today and a lot of those guys today (are) unintimidated by Tiger,” Norman said.

I’m going to put Norman down for not having reviewed the Tour Championship tape.

Norman’s thoughts on ratings seemed to contradict his above stated views.

“TV ratings are up because of what Tiger Woods does to every other player,” Norman said. “It’s not just about the one player, it’s about all the supporting cast who are equal if not better than him. He’s just pulling them along to make them more standout.”

So yes ratings are flat or up, a victory in the currrent sports market, because of Tiger even when he doesn’t play. By this logic, then Tiger is bringing more notoriety to the others and this is a negative how, exactly?

Sam Snead On Golf's Mount Rushmore? Tiger Says So

I noticed a few were surprised at Tiger putting himself on golf’s Mount Rushmore but with 14 majors and the all-time PGA Tour wins mark in sight, I’m confident he’s safe.

But Sam Snead over Palmer, Hogan and Hagen?

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Tiger Woods gives his ultimate Mount Rushmore of golf and it’s 🔥🔥🔥

A post shared by Ryder Cup USA (@rydercupusa) on Sep 25, 2018 at 10:52am PDT

5.1: Tiger Delivers 206% Increase In Tour Championship Final Round Rating

Big numbers!

For Immediate Release:

TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL ROUND BECOMES HIGHEST-RATED FEDEXCUP

PLAYOFFS TELECAST EVER AS TIGER WOODS WINS FOR FIRST TIME IN FIVE YEARS

5.21 Overnight Rating Becomes Highest-Rated PGA TOUR Telecast of 2018 

18.4 Million Minutes Streamed on Sunday (+561% YoY); Most-Streamed

NBC Sports Sunday Golf Round Ever (Excluding Majors) 

ORLANDO, Fla., (Sept. 24, 2018) – NBC Sports Group’s final round coverage of the TOUR Championship on Sunday (3:00-6:15 p.m. ET) earned a 5.21 Overnight rating, as Tiger Woods claimed his 80th career victory, and his first in five years. The telecast is up 206% vs. 2017 (1.70).  It also becomes the highest-rated telecast in the history of the FedExCup Playoffs (2007-’18) and the highest-rated PGA TOUR telecast in 2018 (excluding majors). Coverage peaked from 5:30-6p (7.19) as Woods finished his round and as Justin Rose was being crowned the FedExCup champion, only trailing the peaks for The Masters (11.03) and PGA Championship (8.28) in 2018. The extended coverage window (1:30-6:15 p.m. ET) posted at 4.35 Overnight rating, which is the highest-rated TOUR Championship telecast on record (2000-’18)

“Tiger Woods’ win at the TOUR Championship was an unforgettable event in golf,” said Mike McCarley, President, Golf, NBC Sports Group. “The massive gallery following Tiger up the 18th fairway was matched by record viewership across NBC Sports’ platforms. Golf is experiencing a surge in momentum with Tiger and the young stars of the Tiger-inspired generation atop leaderboards. We look forward to this momentum continuing this week at the Ryder Cup.”

Sunday’s Final Round saw 18.4 million minutes streamed across NBC Sports Digital platforms (+561% year-over-year), and becomes the most-streamed NBC Sports’ Sunday round (excluding majors) on record (2013-’18).

Sunday’s lead-in coverage on Golf Channel (Noon-1:30p) also earned a .74 Overnight rating to become the highest Sunday lead-in telecast of the TOUR Championship ever (2007-’18).

Tiger Wins His 80th PGA Tour Title, Completes A Comeback For The Ages

By most measures, Tiger’s comeback is one of the finest in sports history. In golf terms, there’s always Hogan and his six majors after getting hit by a bus, but nonetheless, second best in this category is just fine.

Either way, who cares where this comeback really ranks. We as sports fans get to ride along for a few more years of history.

Bob Harig opened his ESPN.com story, as did AP’s Paul Newberry in this piece, with the coronation scene at East Lake’s 18th.

Steve DiMeglio opens his USA Today story with Tiger’s confident arrival to the course. Lebron in a Tom Ford, it wasn’t. But as he notes, the old confidence is back.

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No sleeves. Sunday drip. 🔴⚫️ #LiveUnderPar

A post shared by PGA TOUR (@pgatour) on Sep 23, 2018 at 9:16am PDT

Tiger was the biggest story in sports Sunday, as he should be, writes ESPN.com’s Ian O’Connor.

David Dusek with the emotions and the numbers behind Tiger’s over 1800 days outside a winner’s circle.

Rex Hoggard at GolfChannel.com says that as wonderful as Tiger’s return win seems, it may now just be one of many fine days in a career that once again has room to add incredible feats.

Cameron Morfit at PGATour.com sums up a great day and also features quotes from caddie Joe LaCava.

Tiger talked with Scott Van Pelt on Sportscenter and sounded pretty spent from the energy and emotions required to win again.

The final round highlights from PGA Tour Entertainment:

Does Tiger Have To Win The Tour Championship To Make The Comeback "Complete"?

A couple of stories on Tiger’s three-stroke lead heading into the Tour Championship final round left me uneasy. After all, should he wake up not feeling it, shoot 72 to someone else’s great round, there will be declarations that he’s never going to be the same golfer we knew.

To be clear, he’s never going to be the same golfer we knew but he’s certainly been close enough of late to give us hope for a legitimate chase of the all-time majors record over the next five years.

But as Dan Kilbridge notes in this review of the comeback, it’s incredible how far Woods has come and also how much his putter—not the often scrutinized ballstriking—has made the difference this year. Or prevented victory.

There will, however, be pressure today given his status as the greatest frontrunner the sport has ever seen, as Bob Harig notes for ESPN.com:

Woods has been money with third-round leads, especially of 3 shots or more. He has never failed to deliver, 32 times going on to victory when holding this wide of a margin.

Woods' overall record of 53-4 on the PGA Tour with at least a tie for the lead is mind-blowing itself. Imagine getting to this position 57 times. 

But Tiger has also seemingly peaked in the third rounds in 2018, opening up the possibility that he’s not as sharp today and gets passed. That would be a shame given how perfect of a final bow a win at East Lake would put on his steady 2018 comeback. But there also needs to be some perspective that he’s still coming back and has also far exceeded expectations given where his game was a few years ago.

Thankfully It's Still 2018: Tiger Opens Tour Championship With 65, Tied For Lead

Golfweek’s David Dusek has the details of Tiger’s first round at East Lake in five years and it was a beauty.

“This was by far better than the 62 at Aronimink,” Woods said, referring to his opening round at the BMW Championship two weeks ago. “Conditions were soft there. It’s hard to get the ball close here. There’s so much chase in it. If you drive the ball in the rough, you know you can’t get the ball close.”

If this were 2019 and Tiger came into the Tour Championship/FedExCup finale 20th in the standings, things would have been different after round one given the new “strokes-based” handicap system announced this week. As Joel Beall notes for GolfDigest.com, “thank the golf gods the system doesn't come to fruition until next fall.”

Beall posts the full top 8 and Tiger would be five back of Justin Rose after one round.

Of more note for those wanting to consider how the system will work for the Cup leaders, there is Bryson DeChambeau—winner of two playoff events and the FedExCup leader—already three back following an opening 71.

What To Make Of The Mixed PGA Tour Playoff Ratings News?

Maybe the numbers do not matter with the PGA Tour Playoffs(C) moving to a late-August finish in 2019. Or perhaps a couple of golf-loving Nielsen viewers took the family to the Catskills Northern Trust Open weekend. 

Either way, with Tiger Woods lingering around and getting lots of coverage, the Northern Trust saw a drop in ratings while Labor Day's final Dell Technologies saw a nice boost from Woods. 

From Paulsen at Sports Media Watch:

Final round coverage of the PGA Tour Northern Trust, the first event of the PGA Tour playoffs, earned a 1.9 rating and 2.75 million viewers on CBS Sunday — down 10% in ratings and 12% in viewership from last year (2.1, 3.14M) but up a tick and 5% respectively from 2016 (1.8, 2.63M).

The news was better for Monday's final round at the TPC Boston, where a 2.1 rating was up 8% from 2017 on Tiger's back. The Monday coverage also faced little competition, again making it an attractive coverage day for some other tour to jump on now that the PGA Tour is abandoning Labor Day Monday's going forward. 

Paulsen also updates his Woods Effect numbers from the season with the Northern Trust being just the second tournament to not see an increase. Lead-in numbers are included for Golf Channel and those are also huge, with the 1.34 million average audience for Sunday's coverage. 

Tiger Shoots 62 Day After Skipping Pro-Am...

A permanent lifetime exemption from pro-ams is in order, no?

From Ryan Lavner's GolfChannel.com item after Tiger Woods opened the BMW Championship with a 62, tying Rory McIlroy for the lead and continuing to progress in his return from back surgery.

“I needed it,” he said Thursday. “I really did. I’ve played a lot of golf in the last six weeks, and I needed a day off to recover and make sure I was fresh today.”

To pass the time Wednesday, Woods said he went to the gym, received treatment and watched “a lot” of U.S. Open tennis. He felt even better about his decision when the temperatures soared over 90 degrees, and Hideki Matsuyama and a couple of caddies had to pull out of the pro-am because of heat exhaustion.

Of course there was also the Scotty Cameron coming off the 60-day DL that might have helped, too, as Tiger noted after the round. 

AT&T Betting Big On Golf Beyond "The Match" Or Just Making Their Best Possible Synergy Play?

Lost in the details and griping over pay-per-view of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson the day after Thanksgiving may be the role of the main backer: AT&T.

From Mike Murphy's MarketWatch.com item:

AT&T said it will distribute live pay-per-view coverage on a number of its platforms, including DirecTV, AT&T U-verse and sports streaming site B/R Live. The company said the match will also be available on other on-demand platforms, and a rebroadcast will air on the TNT network. The pay-per-view price was not announced.

In a statement, AT&T said the two will be able to make side challenges: “Woods and Mickelson will selectively make side-challenges against one another during the match. For instance, Woods or Mickelson could raise the stakes by challenging the other to a long-drive, closest-to-the-pin or similar competition during a hole as they play their match, with money being donated to the winning golfer’s charity of choice.”

While long focused on sponsoring tournaments and providing bonus coverage on its more recent acquisition, DirecTV, this is the first major play by AT&T on the golf content side. With CEO Randall Stephenson on the PGA Tour Policy Board, could their role in the match and use of TNT as the broadcasting brand to deliver the coverage--despite consistently loathsome reviews of their PGA Championship effort--give folks the impression AT&T is getting in the golf business. 

Or, is this all a way to justify their recent mergers by bringing together too many AT&T properties under the AT&T umbrella: DirecTV, TNT, Bleacher Report, HBO and AT&T U-Verse?

Time will tell, but a big PGA Championship bid does not seem too far fetched. Certainly bidding on some PGA Tour events for 2022 and beyond seems plausible. One question remains and probably always will go unanswered: what does Stephenson do when these matters come up before the PGA Tour Policy Board? 

Tiger V. Phil On November 23rd: Pay Per View Price May Be Shockingly Inexpensive

I'm growing increasingly excited about Tiger v. Phil, which ESPN.com's Bob Harig says will be Friday, November 23rd at Shadow Creek and on pay-per-view.

The winner-takes-all $9 million was a compromise to keep the $10 million FedExCup first prize the top one in golf. However, in return it sounds like the PGA Tour has signed off on some blatant gambling elements, like presses or side bets that will have a charitable component. There may also be a heavy Las Vegas, in-match betting element that would have made Commissioner Moonbeam freak out, but which could lay the foundation for the future of fan betting. 

As for the timing, late afternoon/prime time streaming seems to be the goal:

Although a time for the event was not announced, Mickelson said he hoped for a prime-time finish in the East and perhaps even playing the final few holes in Las Vegas under the lights.

Love the lights, love the holiday weekend play and my sources are saying the streaming price will not be substantial. Some--other than millennials who like to share passwords--will find dirt cheap, in the $5 to $15 range, $20 likely the top end depending on how you access. The goal is to make this available via as many options as possible, not to launch and promote one entity. 

Yes, TNT will be announcing, which means Ernie Johnson welcoming us in a PGA Championship Thursday flashback. But as our poll last month showed, 22% of you were willing to pay in that price range. 

Ryder Cup: Tiger And Furyk Talk About Tiger Woods

Pretty funny to imagine Tiger Woods shifting to third person mode to assess his potential as a Captain's pick, though why we are pretending it's a serious discussion at this point is beyond me.

Ryan Lavner with the best revelation from Tiger's press gathering Tuesday at Ridgewood CC in advance of the Northern Trust:

“I’m one of the guys on the short list, and sometimes I have to pull myself out of there and talk about myself in the third person, which is a little odd.”

Does Tiger Need To Develop A More Controlled Game, Or Is He Already Doing So?

Golf Channel's Jaime Diaz pens an interesting look at the evolution of Tiger Woods' driving and feels we may be seeing a change in driving philosophy. Diaz argues that Woods should commit to a stronger pursuit of accuracy over distance in the face of a Brooks Koepka world, but I'd gently disagree that in the last few months the decline in clubhead and ball speed suggests he's already transitioned to an emphasis on rhythm and shot-shaping over yardage. 

As always, I'd encourage a full reading for context. But in the interest of discussion and before Diaz makes that case, I thought this was interesting:

But those numbers started to decline, in part because Woods never really quite felt as comfortable with oversized titanium heads and lightweight shafts as he had with a smaller metal head and heavier steel shaft.

Regarding Tiger's shifting approach:

In his post-round interview on Sunday, he twice – unprompted – pointed out that there is a level of drivers above him – not only longer, but straighter.

“He’s a tough guy to beat when he’s hitting it 340 in the air,” Woods said of Koepka. “Three-twenty in the air is like a chip shot. And so that’s the new game … Dustin’s done it now, Rory’s doing it … Those guys, if they’re driving it well, they have such a huge advantage because of the carry.”

It was a rare concession from Woods. In former days, if another player was better than he was at some part of the game – be it distance control with short irons, bunker play, lag putting – he would quietly make that strength a target to match or exceed.

The more distressing question for the game--given its history of older, more accurate players maintaining relevancy against young long hitters?

Whether giving up some power for accuracy is feasible given the extreme distances we're seeing. I believe so on a baked Carnoustie or Old Course, and maybe if Augusta National were firmer and faster, but otherwise it's hard to see the current emphasis on power providing us age and style-diverse leaderboards. 

Thankfully for Tiger's fans, his "short" drives are still long enough to compete. For now.