How far has Golf viewership fallen since Tiger's downfall?

[JEDI]

Tiger hasn't been relevant on the greens for years.

how much of a nose dive has golf taken?

 

[IronWing]

Somewhere between this far and that much.

 

[JEDI]

Somewhere between this far and that much.

how waggy?

 

[zerocool84]

Golf sucks

Sports where you have to be quiet while playing/watching is a shitty sport.

 

[Crono]

Never heard of it

 

[SKORPI0]

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/07/golf/tiger-woods-returns-golf-safeway-open-pga-tour/index.html
Tiger Woods: Former world No. 1 sets date for return to competitive golf

 

[Muse]

Tiger hasn't been relevant on the greens for years.

how much of a nose dive has golf taken?

You know, it wasn't that long ago when Tiger was quite relevant. He won 5 tournaments in 2013, IIRC and was named the Player of the Year.

I don't know, but I don't care if Tiger plays or not, I watch anyway. To be perfectly honest, Tiger is far from my favorite golfer to watch. His manners on the course are often offensive. He has oh so many tantrums when he hits a so-so or bad shot, that isn't inspiring to me. Hopefully, he'll have gotten over that as he tries to reestablish himself on tour.

IMO, golf hasn't nose-dived at all. There's terrific golf being played, Tiger or no Tiger. There's a really good chance that Tiger will never be among the top 5 in the world again.

 

[Muse]

Golf sucks

Sports where you have to be quiet while playing/watching is a shitty sport.

Yeah, like chess is a shitty game.

*facepalm*

 

[purbeast0]

Tiger Woods made golf "cool" which drew in so many more people to golf. Golf needs nothing MORE than Tiger Woods to return and to be competitive.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Tiger Woods made golf "cool" which drew in so many more people to golf. Golf needs nothing MORE than Tiger Woods to return and to be competitive.

No. Not even close. Golf participation has been dropping for more than a decade and most of that occurred during the time when Tiger was still relevant. Rounds played are down, golf travel is down, golf equipment sales are down, new players entering the sport are down, TV ratings are down, EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF THE GAME IS DOWN. Tastes change. Golf is fairly expensive, takes a while to play and most importantly, it's a bitch to get good at it. The vast majority of the people who try it are going to suck and they're going to suck for a long time. That's always been a problem for golf, the attrition rate is high because people are 100% inept at the start and don't have the patience to try to get better. But there were always enough players who relished the challenge, who wanted to get good rather than admit that golf kicked their ass and that they failed utterly. They kept playing because is was hard, that was the appeal. To millenials with short attention spans raised on a lifetime of participation trophies golf is simply too hard. Most won't try it and almost all that do quit after a single round or two at most.

Tiger could win 10 tournaments next year and there would be a ratings bump, but a bump would be all. Viewership was declining while he was winning and it's going to keep declining in the long run. Tiger is not going to change that.

Seems like every week there's a "state of the forums" thread wondering why participation is down. That's the new world, forums are old-timers and the idiots use Facebook and Twitter. It's got to be fast, easy and have no learning curve to appeal to newcomers now. Golf will continue a downward trend and 50 years from now it will be a niche sport because there's nothing that's going to get new players into the game until attitudes change and it becomes cool to work hard at something to get good at it.

 

[TheGardener]

Tiger Wood's decline has a lot to do with TV viewership. But participation on the golf courses has declined as well. Twenty years ago the number of golf courses were still increasing. Environmentalists were screaming from their soap boxes about how golf was damaging the environment.

Today is far different. The reality is that the economy sucks, and has since the early 00's. The middle class isn't making it. Taxes are too high. Obamacare, which has a huge tax component, leaves Gen X and Y with little disposable income. Demographics have changed as well. The result is that for the first time in US history existing courses are closing faster than new ones are being built. Many courses that remain open are finding it difficult to properly maintain the grounds with fewer members and players. In the next 10 years, we could see a thousand golf courses close down across the country.

This plays into people not being interested enough in golf to watch it on TV. Similarly baseball has been in decline for a generation, because a lot of adults haven't play baseball as a kid.