Life Without Tiger

On Thursday, September 29th, over 100 professional golfers from the PGA tour will tee-off for the first round of the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The tournament is held at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, and up until 2004 was a 5-round affair. The past three winners were Johnathan Byrd, Martin Laird, and Marc Turnesa, all of whom are little-known current or former PGA members. The purse, at $4.4 million, is the fifth-lowest of the 46 PGA events in 2011, and is often won by lesser-known players because of the lack of top-golfer attendance, despite the charitable cause.
What is so significant about this event? Back in 1996, it was the first PGA tournament won by Rookie of the Year Tiger Woods. Tiger may be remembered for bursting onto the scene with his 1997 Masters victory, but 1996 was his actual rookie season on the PGA tour, when he finished 22nd as an amateur at the British Open, but eventually would win 2 PGA events, the Las Vegas Invitational (as it was called at the time), and the Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic. The LV Invitational was the first of Tiger's now 71-PGA wins, ranking third all-time, but his accomplishments are not the focus of this piece. The 10-time PGA Player of the Year and winner of 14 PGA Majors hasn't won a PGA event since 2009, nor has he won a Major since the 2008 US Open. Amid his marriage scandals, injuries, and becoming trashed in the court of public opinion, the once-heralded Tiger has been through the wringer, and the void of his presence has opened the PGA up for a multitude of lesser-known golfers to step into the spotlight.
Since Padraig Harrington won back-to-back Majors at the end of 2008, no PGA member has more than one Major win. Twelve different golfers have won the last 12 Majors, including 9 first-time Major winners. Many fans of professional golf would argue that Tiger's lack of participation has drastically hurt the sport, as TV ratings have dipped, and the competition has been "diluted". But I believe the Tiger-free hiatus has been good for the game, as well as the plethora of golfers that have won in Tiger's absence.
Take this weekend's British Open into account. 42-year old Darren Clarke, who turned pro in 1990 when Tiger was just 14 years of age, won his first Major in 54 career appearances. Clarke almost skipped the event when ESPN offered him a gig as an on-air commentator, but opted to give the event one more shot. He had finished 44th, 52nd, and was cut in his previous three British Open appearances, yet the Northern-Irish father of two held steady through the final round, and staved off a charging Phil Mickelson to take home his first Major victory. It was an inspirational win for not only Clarke, who lost his wife of 10 years to breast cancer in 2006, but to all golfers on the tour without a Major victory. Clarke put his name in the books on his 20th British Open try, and effectively raised his world ranking from 111th to 30th thanks to his -5 victory at Royal St. George's.