Can't help but to care about golf since I won the caddie scholarship. Noonan rocks.

Whoops, the Ad sellers won't like the result of this poll. Let us know if you get any offers to pull the piece, please.

Thing is Abe that golf never gets high numbers, but it gets viewership demos that are off the charts and eyeballs who will pay almost anything for the prospect of a single stroke a round improvement in their game.

Having Tiger at a golf tournament is like having a good chef at a restaurant. Of course, there's always Denny's.

Woods seems to have destroyed golf twice: first, by putting all his professional competitors in the shadows to the point where few of their names have any recognition value at all, and then by revealing his weakness of character. It must be painful for the PGA, since golf as a business is really just a reality TV show.

Professional golf, that is.

Allan,

There's plenty of criticism to be aimed at Tiger but Woods has been the biggest boom to the golf industry, ever.
How do you twist that to destroying golf?

His brainless behavior and hiatus hurt golf big time.

His return has been a media circus and now a windfall for golf.

TV ad sales had to soar when he announced his return.

As for golf itself there's nothing els like it.
Outdoors in beautiful surroundings and people of all kind can enjoy it for a lifetime.
There's a reason so many super wealthy people who can do anything they choose, choose golf. It's fun.
From kids to the elderly it's great.

I've played my whole life and years with my now gone dad. I now especially enjoy playing with my daughter and look forward to another couple decades of that.

As for Tiger, he turned into a scumbag but his golf is still phenomenal.

...And the new Nike ad (featuring the voice of Tiger's dead father) is an appalling vanity piece. But who expects better from Phil Knight anymore?

Yeah, golf is just beautiful.

Especially that golf course on the beach down near Tulum, on the "Mayan Riviera" that is going to finish off the sea turtles there.

The "Gran Bahia Principe" hotel and golf course monstrosity were built on a delicate ecosystem with very limited groundwater, which is being rapidly depleted from a limestone matrix of natural underground cisterns.

Nothing quite like seeing Mayan peasants laboring on the roadside next to a monolithic marble sign, the size of a tennis court, announcing the Gran Bahia Principe golf course.

It'll turn you off the golf culture for life, even before Tiger Woods.

I am much more interested in watching the Paris-Roubaix bike race in France on Sunday. 170 miles of racing with 70 miles of medieval cobblestones thrown in to separate the champions from the also-rans.

I hack at the game, but watching golf doesn't rock me. Especially when I know that I'll never be worthy of cleaning his clubs. However, if you really want to put me to sleep, put on soccer - even the World Cup - gads, just writing about it makes me yawn.

Woods is hohum even par today through 9. The big story this week could turn out to be Tom Watson or Freddie Couples. Watson was one stroke off of completing a miracle last year at the Open Championship. Couples is smoking hot since the first of the year. Can a 60 year old or a 50 year old pull it out against the young guns? As Ben says, golf is a sport for a lifetime. Let's hear for the old guys!

We watch only for the airplane banners with their "creative" comments to Tiger. Otherwise, no thanks.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/04/08/tiger-woods-nike-commercial-parodies

Ben,
Golf is interesting, if at all, because the outcome is uncertain. Tiger wins too much. As a result, no one cares much about the other competitors. So when something goes wrong with Tiger's knee or another body part, golf goes in the tank.

Nancy - Small reality check. Phil Knight is retired and doesn't have that much to do with the day to day of the company. Some ad agency (W+K maybe?) came up with the ad and someone in the marketing organization signed off on it.

As for golf.... a good walk ruined. Period.

#1
I tried to get the caddy scholarship, and missed out. But, on my deathbed, I will receive total consciousness, so I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

As far as Tiger Woods goes, I think of him what I think of most pro athletes. I see them as people with a skill set that can be impressive and entertaining, which is also rather useless in day to day life, and for advancing humanity. They are silly choices for role models. So I don't care one way or the other.

Is that a staid point of view? Probably. But, I wish we as a society, and especially, our kids, found as much excitement in the really important people in society. Those people not in the spotlight, who try to lead the society to a better, more meaningful path in life.

For example, I wish that our children knew as much about George Washington Carver, or Archimedes, as they do about the performers and producers involved in the modern entertainment industry.

I wish we elevated, idolized, and placed as much value financially and otherwise in currently under recognized great people like inventors, scientists, explorers, doctors, tax professors with blogs....

"As for golf.... a good walk ruined."

That's as ridiculous as saying
"As for bike riding.... a good walk ruined."