Investors and executives at TNT and CBS are popping corks and lighting stogies, already feeling the approaching windfall and smelling the money.
The two networks own the television rights to this week's PGA Championship, and they're about to become beneficiaries of the Tiger Effect.
The Tiger Effect is the most powerful force in golf and perhaps the most potent in sports. It always was capable of lifting golf from the periphery of the global marquee to the top, but it's even more influential now that Tiger Woods is equal parts athlete and tabloid caricature.
So strong has the Tiger Effect become, it can provide his former caddie with a center-stage platform.
After four months away and nine months since losing his No. 1 world ranking, Woods returned to the tour last week at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He never mounted a serious challenge, changed putters like underwear, finished dead last in driving accuracy -- and still his presence thickened the air.
Adam Scott won the tournament, but the Tiger Effect was the buzz. Because Woods' ex-caddie, Steve Williams, spent the week carrying bags for Scott.
Williams' feelings are bruised because after 12 years of devotion and loyalty, he was fired last month by Woods. Whether the decision was cruel or just can be debated. In either case, it was Tiger's prerogative. Besides, Williams isn't the first loyal employee to be ditched by his boss, perhaps without compassion, and he won't be the last.
Mouth wide open and eyes bright with glee, Williams dived toward the spotlight created by Tiger's return. The caddie grinned and gloated in the glow of Scott's triumph, saying the victory was the "most satisfying" win of his 33-year caddying career, and that it concluded the "greatest week" of his life.
He was delightfully dismissive of the glorious past with Tiger, of all the embraces they shared during the 72 wins, including 13 majors they -- and I use this phrase loosely -- "accomplished together." Maybe this is a case of Stevie wanting to be a star. And since he couldn't be a star, he got close to the star. And when he has been removed from the star's inner circle, he lashed out toward the star. Williams' reaction, on a bitterly emotional level, makes sense.
"I had a lot of anger in me about what happened, and it all came out," Williams conceded Monday, 24 hours after his initial comments.
But the star often remains the star, even when tarnished. And that's Tiger. Still.
Even though hasn't won a tournament in almost two years and hasn't won a major in more than three, his presence still takes the drama to a level beyond that anyone else can reach. Despite his personal life erupting, spewing hot scandal and salacious details all over the globe, Tiger remains firmly entrenched as the biggest attraction walking the course.
He has lost his family, lost his carefully conceived image, lost many of his endorsements and lost the invincibility that once defined his golf game. He is on a desperate search to rediscover it.
Where once we presumed Woods would surpass Jack Nicklaus and become the all-time leader in majors victories, we now have reason to doubt. We now have an appreciable degree of suspense. We have more reasons to root either way, for or against.
All of which makes Tiger more compelling. It's all part of the Tiger Effect. Will he embarrass himself? Can he make The Comeback? How will fans respond? How will the other golfers respond?
And now there is this: What does his former caddie think?
Tiger still has a grip on golf, on sports fans and on casual observers. He is, in the wake of his indiscretions reaching the public, an ever more polarizing figure. Curiosity and interest still bend toward him, which is why Williams, the martyred, was serenaded by the sympathetic gallery at Firestone and why the caddie received so much air time.
The pure golf news was that Scott won the tournament. The subplot, ripe for exploitation, was that Woods finished well to the rear of the golfer employing his old caddie. The juicy tabloid fodder was the old caddie's preening cattiness.
It makes for a natural drama at the PGA Championship in suburban Atlanta, where oddmakers have Woods at 15-1, just ahead of Phil Mickelson (20-1) and, of course, Scott (20-1).
For those who care about matters trivialized by the Tiger Effect, Rory McIlroy (8-1) has been installed as the favorite.
The involved TV executives certainly don't care who is favored, don't care who wins. Though they would like to see Tiger in contention, it warms them to know he is, once again, money.
Monte Poole - Mercury News.com
The two networks own the television rights to this week's PGA Championship, and they're about to become beneficiaries of the Tiger Effect.
The Tiger Effect is the most powerful force in golf and perhaps the most potent in sports. It always was capable of lifting golf from the periphery of the global marquee to the top, but it's even more influential now that Tiger Woods is equal parts athlete and tabloid caricature.
So strong has the Tiger Effect become, it can provide his former caddie with a center-stage platform.
After four months away and nine months since losing his No. 1 world ranking, Woods returned to the tour last week at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He never mounted a serious challenge, changed putters like underwear, finished dead last in driving accuracy -- and still his presence thickened the air.
Adam Scott won the tournament, but the Tiger Effect was the buzz. Because Woods' ex-caddie, Steve Williams, spent the week carrying bags for Scott.
Williams' feelings are bruised because after 12 years of devotion and loyalty, he was fired last month by Woods. Whether the decision was cruel or just can be debated. In either case, it was Tiger's prerogative. Besides, Williams isn't the first loyal employee to be ditched by his boss, perhaps without compassion, and he won't be the last.
Mouth wide open and eyes bright with glee, Williams dived toward the spotlight created by Tiger's return. The caddie grinned and gloated in the glow of Scott's triumph, saying the victory was the "most satisfying" win of his 33-year caddying career, and that it concluded the "greatest week" of his life.
He was delightfully dismissive of the glorious past with Tiger, of all the embraces they shared during the 72 wins, including 13 majors they -- and I use this phrase loosely -- "accomplished together." Maybe this is a case of Stevie wanting to be a star. And since he couldn't be a star, he got close to the star. And when he has been removed from the star's inner circle, he lashed out toward the star. Williams' reaction, on a bitterly emotional level, makes sense.
"I had a lot of anger in me about what happened, and it all came out," Williams conceded Monday, 24 hours after his initial comments.
But the star often remains the star, even when tarnished. And that's Tiger. Still.
Even though hasn't won a tournament in almost two years and hasn't won a major in more than three, his presence still takes the drama to a level beyond that anyone else can reach. Despite his personal life erupting, spewing hot scandal and salacious details all over the globe, Tiger remains firmly entrenched as the biggest attraction walking the course.
He has lost his family, lost his carefully conceived image, lost many of his endorsements and lost the invincibility that once defined his golf game. He is on a desperate search to rediscover it.
Where once we presumed Woods would surpass Jack Nicklaus and become the all-time leader in majors victories, we now have reason to doubt. We now have an appreciable degree of suspense. We have more reasons to root either way, for or against.
All of which makes Tiger more compelling. It's all part of the Tiger Effect. Will he embarrass himself? Can he make The Comeback? How will fans respond? How will the other golfers respond?
And now there is this: What does his former caddie think?
Tiger still has a grip on golf, on sports fans and on casual observers. He is, in the wake of his indiscretions reaching the public, an ever more polarizing figure. Curiosity and interest still bend toward him, which is why Williams, the martyred, was serenaded by the sympathetic gallery at Firestone and why the caddie received so much air time.
The pure golf news was that Scott won the tournament. The subplot, ripe for exploitation, was that Woods finished well to the rear of the golfer employing his old caddie. The juicy tabloid fodder was the old caddie's preening cattiness.
It makes for a natural drama at the PGA Championship in suburban Atlanta, where oddmakers have Woods at 15-1, just ahead of Phil Mickelson (20-1) and, of course, Scott (20-1).
For those who care about matters trivialized by the Tiger Effect, Rory McIlroy (8-1) has been installed as the favorite.
The involved TV executives certainly don't care who is favored, don't care who wins. Though they would like to see Tiger in contention, it warms them to know he is, once again, money.
Monte Poole - Mercury News.com
