A Competitive Tiger Woods is Both Good and Bad for the Sport of Golf

When Mike Tyson defeated Larry Holmes in 1988, after the fight, Tyson said that it was great to have the name Larry Holmes on Tyson’s boxing resume. However, Tyson also added that if the Larry Holmes that he had just faced was the Larry Holmes who, in his prime, had dominated the Heavyweight division, then Tyson felt that Holmes would have easily defeated him.

Many PGA golfers probably felt the same way during the many injury comebacks of Tiger Woods. For these golfers, winning a tournament with Tiger Woods in the field probably looked good on paper, but since it was no longer the great Tiger Woods, then the victory probably didn’t mean as much. Unfortunately, the old Tiger seems to be back on his game, and now, the rest of men’s pro golf might be able to enjoy their victories over Tiger more than in the last few years.  

The best and worst thing that could happen to men’s pro golf was Tiger Woods winning the 2018 Tour Championship and then winning the 2019 Masters. These victories came against the best of the best golfers in the world, and in defeating them, Tiger showed that he was among the best of the best in the world. This is good for golf because now, more casual fans will tune in to PGA golf, at least when Tiger is in the field, because there will be a belief that he might win the tournament. Where it is bad for golf is that Tiger winning again might make it more difficult for other golfers to win tournaments, but it will also make the victories much more satisfying.

No one will expect Tiger to win, or be the favorite every week, but having a competitive Tiger competing in tournaments, and ranked in the Top-10 in the world rankings, helps every other golfer on the tour. Now, when someone other than Tiger wins a tournament with Tiger in the field, they will not have to apologize for winning, as Tyson did in ’88, feeling that the victory is worth less because the win came over a shell of what the man used to be.