He creates web page and social media hits exponentially higher than any other professional golfer.įor example, The Augusta National Golf Club tweets video of the final putt made by a Masters champion moments after the ball drops in the cup. He ensures packed galleries at tournaments. Woods sends TV ratings soaring (when he was in contention at the Valspar Championship and the Arnold Palmer Invitational last year, ratings increased by triple digits). He pulls in the casual golf fan and there are sports fans who really don’t care much about golf unless it’s about Tiger.” “Some of them left the game but I think he’s going to get them back. “People got into golf because of Tiger Woods,” Ashton said. Winning the Masters got everyone else on board. Winning the Tour Championship, his first victory in five years, got the golf world excited. Last year, when Woods contended in The Players Championship and the last two majors of the season, hope soared that his game had returned to form and his back, which had undergone four surgeries, was healthy enough to hold up to age and his pursuit of history. “Golf is on the mend,” said Tom Ashton, general manager of the Jacksonville Edwin Watts store. No one is rooting harder for him than those who make their living in the golf industry - especially the retail equipment and clothing companies that have taken among the hardest hits with the double whammies of the economic downturn and Woods' major drought since 2008. It will be Woods’ first start since winning at Augusta National, and he’s the dominant storyline now that his quest for Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major championships is back in play. Open title (his eighth major) on Thursday when the PGA Championship begins its May Era at Bethpage State Park’s Black Course on Long Island in New York. Woods returns to the site of his 2002 U.S. “Tiger Woods is still the greatest thing for golf,” said Bob Mattiace, owner of Mattiace Golf. For the last 22 years, since Woods won his first major at the 1997 Masters, he has been the only barometer that counts in the golf industry. Woods won his 15th major championship, his fifth Masters and 81st PGA Tour title - and the golf industry has been trending up ever since. “People got inspired and they wanted to hit balls.” “After Tiger won, the range was mobbed,” said co-owner John Schroeder. At the Masterfit Golf Range, the only stand-alone practice facility left on the First Coast, one person after another showed up, pulled their clubs from their car trunks, bought range balls and started whacking away. 1, another development could be seen after Woods closed out the victory. “We did a record bar business that day and it was because of Tiger Woods.”Ī few miles north, just across the Duval County line on U.S. “I think there was a sense that something great was going to happen, and golfers wanted to be around other golfers when it did,” DiStefano said. Johns County course to watch the final round in the dining area and bar. Club members and frequent players flocked to the St. “But when they moved the Masters times up, almost everyone canceled because they wanted to watch the tournament.”īut something else also happened. “We had been doing very well on the weekends - a full tee sheet on Saturdays and Sundays,” DiStefano said. As a result, the CBS broadcast scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. That's because the Augusta National Golf Club announced the day before it was moving up tee times due to threatening weather late in the afternoon. The golf industry started feeling the effects of Tiger 3.0 even before the final round of last month's Masters.ĭerek DiStefano, co-owner of the Golf Club of South Hampton, was prepared for a serious hit on his tee sheet that Sunday.
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