I don't think Zwick is saying Tiger didn't help golf, he's saying that Arnold Palmer laid the groundwork so that Tiger would have an opportunity to help golf. And that Palmer, at least thus far, has done more than anyone else for the game.

My opinion: Arnold Palmer is kind of like a combination of all the great basketball players before Jordan, who made the league initially popular and set the stage for what a star could do for the game. Tiger Woods is Jordan, in that he was/is a phenomenal player who came around at the perfect time, and took the game's popularity to new levels by reaping the benefits of those that came before him.

Whoever said golf wasn't about business? Arnie MADE it about business.

This is like saying that slavery would never have became illegal without Abraham Lincoln.

Society wrote: This is like saying that slavery would never have became illegal without Abraham Lincoln.

No.. it is saying Tiger hasn't done anything for the game besides win and be popular though. Kinda like Jack.

ZWICK 4 PREZ wrote:

Society wrote: This is like saying that slavery would never have became illegal without Abraham Lincoln.

No.. it is saying Tiger hasn't done anything for the game besides win and be popular though. Kinda like Jack.

Really!? You are a clueless.

I'm skeptical. I will give him the benifit of the doubt right now and wish him luck with his family.
Time will tell.

So Zwick, the Tiger Woods Foundation, and everything that he puts money into counts for nothing?

Listen, upon further readings online, I will agree with you that Palmer did more than Nicklaus and Player, and I will also acknowledge he put a lot of his own money on the line the help open the country's eyes to golf, but....

That doesn't mean you can automatically discredit Tiger, my issue with you is that you're not giving him enough credit.

I was a little ignorant of Palmer's impact before I read more online, but I stand by my opinion that Tiger has done a lot more than you're giving him credit for.

Is it just me or are Zwick and lhslep playing semantics in this argument?

Zwick: Arnold Palmer did a lot for the sport of golf.
lhslep134: Tiger Woods did a lot too.
Zwick: But not as much as Palmer.
lshlep134: He still did a lot.
Unnecessary argument ensues.

Back to the topic, I don't buy the apology. But I also don't think he needed to make one. I feel that this apology was a last-ditch attempt to save a free-falling career in entertainment/sports. Time will tell if it worked on the American public but, to be honest, I don't think it did. His impact on the game as an athlete will always be respected but his image as a celebrity/pop culture icon/role model has taken a huge hit. At this point celebrity/public image outweighs athletic ability.

Does anybody remember the interview with Mike Tyson and Robin Givins when they prescribed prescribed anti-depressent(sp) drugs to Mike that totally mellowed him out? I don't know if Tiger was on any but it sure reminded me of Tyson.

I study image repair in one of my PR classes. Some of him has to be sincere, simply because he and his wife are trying to get back together. Say they do stay together; Tiger can never cheat on her again, because if he is caught, his image will be irreparably damaged. America is forgiving, but not twice. So if he really wanted to just keep getting laid without the threat of his image crashing down for good, he would get divorced and there would be no issue (sorta like Michael Jordan).

About purses: http://www.golfblogger.com/index.php/golf/comments/analyzing_increase_in_pga_tour_purses/

I highly doubt that Arnie is the reason that golf purses increased 300 percent from 1997-2007. I love Arnie, but he is not the reason. The reason was that there was a guy that was a minority dominating the hell out of his sport. The turning point was when Nike signed with Tiger and created Nike Golf, which made golf much more mainstream. Where golf was an old person's sport (even during Arnie's time), it was being taken over by a youth revolution. The fact that his popularity spanned all demographics is just astounding.

Tiger woods had the highest public approval rating of any public figure (and I mean all people) in the history of the polling (somewhere near 90%). None of what I am talking about is due to Arnie. Arnie was fantastic, and advanced the game very well, but he hadn't played golf seriously in 20+ years. Most of the "Tiger" golf fans probably couldn't even tell you who he is or why he is famous, and it was these extra people that brought the big money and sponsors to golf (mainly Nike).

You are a smart engineer Zwick, but I think you need to take the blinders off of your Tiger hatred for one second to look at the PR, business, and economics of this situation. I know you are set in your ways about old golfers being superior, and I get that. I have that complex when it comes to music.

But this is simple econ: PGA Tour events in which Woods competed in 2003 attracted 65 percent higher ratings. Those numbers increased when Woods was in contention. 65% higher ratings= increase in demand for advertising. Once the opportunity cost of advertising on the tour became worth it (enough people were watching, because of Tiger--stat above), the advertising came pouring in, and new sponsors wanted in to a sport that was growing in popularity. The increased viewership brought on almost entirely by Tiger led directly to the huge increase in sponsors, and they had to compete with each other, raising the amount of money they were putting in the pool. The real value of every golfer went up due to Tiger, because of pure exposure, and the sponsors realized this value and upped the purses accordingly.

The telling stat is this- adjusted for inflation, the PGA tour purses grew almost 200% in ten years, a number eclipsed only by NASCAR and the value of the NCAA tournament.

I would love to see your argument with factual evidence on why Arnie increased the tournament purses so much from 97-2007. I am completely open to the idea, but I looked around for some arguments and couldn't find any. Not to say he couldn't have done what Tiger did had he come later too, TV and advertising money wasn't what it is now when he was playing, so it is actually very hard to make any real argument about his contributions.

Plus ESPN has a vested interest in bashing it because they weren't invited to the party so they could ask how many women he slept with. All media acts this way if they are snubbed from an event, it happens in politics all the time.

The statement itself was exactly what everyone expected. Of course it was scripted; Tiger has hired a firm to repair his image (the same one that dealt with Kobe, and Mark Mcgwire). It is a first step; he isn't gonna come out and answer questions yet, because that could lead to PR suicide. It may seem insincere, etc. but there is precedented ground to image repair, and he is following it. The public apology is first.

dtdtim wrote: At this point celebrity/public image outweighs athletic ability.

No, it doesn't. And it won't with Tiger until he's in his 50's.

This whole situation in his personal life will be taken care of; either he and Elin stay together, or they get divorced and move on. Either way, when Tiger returns to golf, all he has to do is start winning again and the rest will follow, married or divorced it won't matter. And that is solely on his athletic ability, not his public image. That's how he got so famous/popular/rich, and that's all he'll need to do again. As someone said above, look at Michael Jordan, and all the crap that happened during his career. Still remembered for his basketball, and being one of the best ever.

However this situation works out, by next year (at the latest IMO) Tiger will be back on a golf course kicking some ass, and there will be tons of TV cameras and people there watching. And it's not the end of the world that some of his sponsors have dropped him. If he starts winning again, he'll have the opportunity to pick up new sponsors. You watch.

I thought the best parts were when he talked about letting down the foundation his dad and him started, and the parents that pointed to him as a role model. I actually think if he'd have just said those two things it would have been a lot better. He could have gone with something like, "I've already apologized privately to my family and friends, now I'd like to address people I haven't been able to talk to," and then gone on to the foundation and parents thing.

I've also heard him ripped on for saying how he thought he played by different rules than everyone else, but I thought that was a solid part as well. Almost every famous person feels that way, he just admitted it.

Overall, he came across sounding robotic though. Even the parts where he seemed to get choked up seemed like he was just doing that for effect.

This entire thing should have been handled differently. Immediately after this all came out he should have issued a statement similar to the one I outlined above, and then gone back to his normal life. Played his normal golf schedule, attended his normal events, even gone to a few Orlando Magic games with a (male) friend. By staying silent and hidden he let the press create and drive the direction of the story.

ohiotiger33 wrote:

I highly doubt that Arnie is the reason that golf purses increased 300 percent from 1997-2007. I love Arnie, but he is not the reason. The reason was that there was a guy that was a minority dominating the hell out of his sport. The turning point was when Nike signed with Tiger and created Nike Golf, which made golf much more mainstream. Where golf was an old person's sport (even during Arnie's time), it was being taken over by a youth revolution. The fact that his popularity spanned all demographics is just astounding.

Tiger woods had the highest public approval rating of any public figure (and I mean all people) in the history of the polling (somewhere near 90%). None of what I am talking about is due to Arnie. Arnie was fantastic, and advanced the game very well, but he hadn't played golf seriously in 20+ years. Most of the "Tiger" golf fans probably couldn't even tell you who he is or why he is famous, and it was these extra people that brought the big money and sponsors to golf (mainly Nike).

You are a smart engineer Zwick, but I think you need to take the blinders off of your Tiger hatred for one second to look at the PR, business, and economics of this situation. I know you are set in your ways about old golfers being superior, and I get that. I have that complex when it comes to music.

I'm not saying Arnie is the reason purses increased from 1997 to present, I'm saying Arnie is the reason there's any money in golf PERIOD.