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Tiger Woods' 2008 season ended promptly after he peg-legged his way around Torrey Pines to win the U.S. Open. He had reconstructive knee surgery and didn't return to the PGA Tour until this February. Predictably, television ratings plummeted, even with Padraig Harrington successfully defending his British Open title before winning the PGA Championship a month later.
Good news: Woods missed only his fifth professional cut at Turnberry last week, but ratings for ABC's final-round coverage was up from the year before. Bad news (via Sports Business Daily via Sports Media Watch):
"The 3.9 overnight is the second-lowest for the final round of the British Open since at least '98. Despite the relatively low number, this marks the first time since Tiger Woods' victory in '05 that ratings have increased for final round coverage of the event."
That's sort of surprising since 59-year-old Tom Watson was a wobbly-kneed eight-footer away from pulling off the most improbable major championship victory in golf history. But maybe the difference between fans who religiously watch the biggest tournaments -- no matter who is leading -- and people who tune in just to see what Tiger is doing is decidedly large. So when Woods is on a flight back to the States, those viewers find other ways to spend their Sunday mornings.
More fun facts:
"To put the 3.9 in perspective, the men's final at Wimbledon drew a 4.2 overnight earlier this month. Additionally, the 3.9 for the British Open is lower than the overnights for several non-major PGA events this year, including the Arnold Palmer Invitational (4.9), AT&T National (4.6) and Players Championship (4.1)."
The three non-major golf tournaments listed? Tiger was in contention on Sunday for all of them, winning twice.
As a viewer (even one who loves Tiger), it can get tedious to have television cameras reflexively trained on Woods whenever he's on the course, but that's the deal: Tiger equals eyeballs, and eyeballs equals ratings.
Want more proof? Turnberry's third-round coverage drew a 2.4 overnight rating, down 14 percent from last year's 2.8. Just a guess, but that's a function of Tiger missing the cut; last year, viewers knew Woods wasn't playing the British Open a month in advance and planned accordingly ... by not watching. That didn't happen till Saturday this time around.
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