How Good is Tiger Woods for Golf?

We all know that Tiger Woods is arguably the most dominant player in any form of athletic competion today. Obviously, golf isn't as physically demanding of a sport as tennis (Roger Federer) or football (LaDanian Tomlinson, aka TheDanian Tomlinson) but Woods' successes cannot be over looked.

More so is what he has done for the game of golf. More kids are playing golf than ever before. He has made stars out of his competitors. The sponsorships are greater and more lucrative.

Some would say that more people are watching golf than ever before as well. That might be, but ponder this.

The FedEx cup is this weekend; a playoff style championship of the top 144 players based on a point system accumulated this year. Each week during this playoff players amass point totals from not only their points from the week's play but with a fraction of the total they collected before the season, with a number of people getting cut out each week. So, if say, Tiger Woods has more points than anyone else going into the event, he can't win the Cup without playing in any of the events if four no namers win out.

The point system is in a word - confusing. But it's not really that tough to understand and it also isn't much different than "The Chase" in Nascar. If Nascar fans get it...come on golfers. Then again, Nascar fans don't do anything besides watch the SPEED Channel. Whatever.

I think this is a great opportunity for golf. The PGA Championship is the last major of the year and golf really dies down after it. Golf is really based around the majors and once they're over, so too is the season in the eyes of the fans. But with another big event coming on board, it should keep the season going up to The Player's Championship.

How, one might ask, can this fail? Simple. Tiger Woods isn't playing this weekend. Because of what Tiger has done to the sport, if he doesn't play it becomes a giant disappointment. People don't come. A source close to the FedEx Cup has told No Owens Sports that they expect to lose about 30,000 tickets over the four day event this weekend that would have been sold if Tiger decided to play this week. Tiger, however, claims that he's tired and major championships are a very grueling and exhausting experience. Something tells me Tiger is in better shape than current leader Rory Sabbatini.

Tiger Woods' job is to play golf. Unfortunately he has become so big, so rich, and to be honest so, good, that he has developed the luxury of playing at his leisure. Tiger does do a lot in his off time: aside from the commercials and golf course designing, he spends millions of dollars and hours of his time working with charitable organizations such as St. Jude Children's Hospital.

Thirty years ago, Jack Nicklaus would be grinding his teeth waiting for this opportunity to get in a new style of winning. Because Tiger "only wants to win majors" he doesn't care really about the FedEx Cup. He should care about what he is doing to golf. If Tiger doesn't play, the media doesn't care. If the media doesn't care, the people don't care. If the people don't care, the game of golf doesn't do as well as it could.

Golf has become so centered around one person that it is controlled by his actions. I mean, Tiger will probably somehow win this FedEx cup without even playing in the first event and then the Cup will be an even greater downer because a guy who didn't play in all the tournaments won. But you can't punish him. Who's going to tell Tiger no? Who's going to tell Tiger he has to do something? The only person who can tell Tiger what to do is Phil Knight, and when he's giving $100 Million to the Oregon Ducks, Knight is just thinking about how great of an investment he's made in Woods.

So where does this leave us? Right in the middle. As much as Tiger does for golf, his absence kills a week of it. Think about 12-15 years ago. Who was the biggest name in golf? Greg Norman? Fred Couples? Tom Watson? Davis Love? Pending injuries, most likely Freddy's back, they always played and there was never one guy who was the biggest. It was always fun. But Tiger has too much power in the game. Overall he's great for the game. He's brought a fan base that would still be watching soccer to golf. Some weeks, his prestige hurts golf by his absence. And his absence has the potential of killing the FedEx Cup. Not if my source has anything to say about it.