TIME Magazine recently listed Tiger Woods as one of the year's most influential people. PGAis happy to have Tiger in the tank
No kidding.
After all, it was Tigermania that enabled the PGA Tour to aggressively offer - and sell - a television package worth $160 million. Its impact was felt here with a tour shake-up that washed out the United Airlines Hawaiian Open and rolled it up on Maui's shoreline with the renamed Lincoln-Mercury Kapalua Open.
And, as part of the package deal, the Mercedes Championships - featuring defending champion Tiger Woods, who else? - will be played here, the two events launching the 1999 golf season.
Obviously, it all happened because of Tiger. TV ratings have soared, resulting in the lucrative package, according to his International Management Group agent.
Clearly, everybody wants a piece of Tiger, who has turned down more than 100 endorsement offers since turning pro. For now, he is content with getting $40 million from Nike and $20 million from Titleist.
Not surprisingly, this week's PGA Tour event - the GTE Byron Nelson Classic - has been sold out with a record 150,000 spectator badges being gobbled up. And 350 media credentials have been issued. Obviously, everybody has been suffering from Tiger withdrawal because he took a spring break after his Masters victory.
Tiger Woods is to golf what Michael Jordan is to basketball. Maybe more so, according to a recent survey.
Those polled said that they would rather pay more to carry Tiger's bag than to spend a night in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House. He even surpassed Jordan. More said they would rather play a round of golf with Tiger than a pick-up basketball game with Jordan.
THERE'S no question that the 21-year-old phenom will impact every golf tournament he plays in, virtually assuring a sellout every time. We're spoiled. Any tournament without Tiger Woods just doesn't cut it anymore.
But is Tiger bigger than the PGA Tour? We'll find out during the PGA Grand Slam of Golf Nov. 18-19 at the Poipu Bay Resort on Kauai in November.
The event is limited to only the winners of golf's four majors. Having won the first, the Masters, and just about the favorite to win the other three, Woods figures to show up, right? Not necessarily. He has a commitment to play in a Nike-sponsored event in Japan at the same time.
"But you would think," says Mark Rolfing, who secured the PGA Tour event for Kapalua that will replace the Hawaiian Open in 1999, "that the USGA would make sure Tiger shows up for its event and not the one in Japan." But who knows?
Not to mention that it wouldn't look good for Tiger or Nike to pass up an American event for one in Japan.
By the way, Time's montage cover photo of Woods in that issue was taken by a former Honolulan, J.D. Cuban, who now works out of Los Angeles. Pointing it out was his proud father, former Roosevelt all-star quarterback Danny Cuban.
MEANWHILE, No one will ever mistake Tiger's game with that of Riley Wallace, University of Hawaii men's basketball coach. Wallace will be playing this weekend with 30 other coaches in a golf benefit hosted by Nolan Richardson of Arkansas.
It figures to be a wild time, according to Wallace, because pro golfers - get this - Fuzzy Zoeller and John Daly, a Razorback, will be there. One of the sponsors is Tyson Chicken but I'm sure Fuzzy and Riley won't touch that with a long putter.
It won't be all fun and golf. Riley will get the honor of presenting an airline ticket to a young woman, a beneficiary of one of the tournament's charities, "Expect a Miracle." Her dying wish? A trip to Hawaii.