Without Tiger Woods, the PGA Tour will need a cast of characters who can both engage and enrage audiencesGETTY IMAGES
The PGA Tour needs to prepare for its post-Tiger Woods reality from a "straightforward perspective of fan engagement," according to a column by Eamon Lynch of GOLFWEEK. In the "dozen years since Woods won the U.S. Open on one leg and the golf industry saw its golden goose teeter perilously close to the wringer, no single player has been able to float the Tour on talent alone." There have been "periods of exceptional brilliance" -- from Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Brooks Koepka -- but none has "risen to the dominant, iconic stature Woods enjoyed." When Woods does "finally hobble into the sunset," the PGA Tour will find itself "reliant not on the performance of one, but on the personalities of many." It will "need a cast of characters to sustain audience interest, players who can both engage and enrage." The PGA Tour "needs to cast-off its girdle, to demonstrate less maternal protectiveness and more fraternal playfulness when it comes to it’s product." Bryson DeChambeau could be the "ideal prototype to meet golf's uncertain future," not because of "his performance -- though he could deliver in that respect too—but because of his personality." There also is the "trash-talking, pricklish Koepka," and a "supporting cast that includes regular cameos by the dependably infantile Sergio Garcia, the volcanic Tyrrell Hatton and the (choose your own adjective) Patrick Reed." All are "potentially valuable counterweights to the decades of marketing pabulum that has arguably cemented golf’s image as too bland and too buttoned-up" (GOLFWEEK.com, 1/23).
