How many home runs would babe Ruth hit against current pitching? Not as many? He must not have been as good as everyone says then...
PGA Championship
- Thread starter noleone99
- Start date
No matter who you wanted to win, this is one of the best final rounds we have seen in a very long time. Congrats to Brooks for holding off an extremely stacked leaderboard
It was a fun final 9 to watch yesterday - always great when a Nole comes out on top.
The coverage of Brooks seemed fine from TV but the announcers mentioned the press at the course was ALL around Tiger. Can't say I blame them, if you saw the crowds following Tiger that also translates to TV viewers. More people (casual viewers) would rather see what he's doing especially during a potential huge comeback even with the historic round behind him. I agree the top younger guys aren't scared of him, although they might not be able to handle the crowds/noise/press that follow him.
The coverage of Brooks seemed fine from TV but the announcers mentioned the press at the course was ALL around Tiger. Can't say I blame them, if you saw the crowds following Tiger that also translates to TV viewers. More people (casual viewers) would rather see what he's doing especially during a potential huge comeback even with the historic round behind him. I agree the top younger guys aren't scared of him, although they might not be able to handle the crowds/noise/press that follow him.
I get the coverage of Tiger. He had a great tournament. What I don't get is, ESPN posted about Tiger being back, but ignored Brooks winning. If you simply followed ESPN, you would almost think Tiger won. Hell, on the ticker last night, they talked about Tiger's play, then almost as an after thought, they mentioned BK winning.
These younger guys certainly don't resent the much larger purses they take home now because of Tiger's impact on golf.
Tiger always gets credit for that but I think it's not accurate in the big picture when you look at the growth of revenue in all of the professional sports. It very well could be that the PGA was just following suit. Purses certainly didn't drop during his absence.
Could just be anecdotal, but the amount Koepka won yesterday alone ($1.98 million) is more than the amount Tom Lehman won for the year as leading money winner in 1996 ($1.78 m) the year before Tiger began on the tour.
This was in Forbes in 2015 comparing what athletes earned in 1995 vs 2015.
Baseball: Cal Ripken Jr. ($10.3 million), Jon Lester ($34.1 million)
Basketball: Jordan ($43.9 million), LeBron James ($64.8 million)
Boxing: Tyson ($40 million), Mayweather ($300 million)
Football: Drew Bledsoe ($12.9 million), Ben Roethlisberger ($48.9 million)
Golf: Jack Nicklaus ($15.1 million), Phil Mickelson ($50.8 million)
Hockey: Gretzky ($22. 7 million), Crosby ($16.5 million)
Racing: Schumacher ($15 million), Lewis Hamilton ($39 million)
Soccer: Not available (less than $6.2 million), Ronaldo ($79.6 million)
Tennis: Andre Agassi ($16 million), Roger Federer ($67 million)
The basketball one includes endorsements and the golf one looks to include more than just winnings, don't know why they did that. Without Tiger, golf purses probably increase significantly, but likely not quite as much as they did imo.
Baseball: Cal Ripken Jr. ($10.3 million), Jon Lester ($34.1 million)
Basketball: Jordan ($43.9 million), LeBron James ($64.8 million)
Boxing: Tyson ($40 million), Mayweather ($300 million)
Football: Drew Bledsoe ($12.9 million), Ben Roethlisberger ($48.9 million)
Golf: Jack Nicklaus ($15.1 million), Phil Mickelson ($50.8 million)
Hockey: Gretzky ($22. 7 million), Crosby ($16.5 million)
Racing: Schumacher ($15 million), Lewis Hamilton ($39 million)
Soccer: Not available (less than $6.2 million), Ronaldo ($79.6 million)
Tennis: Andre Agassi ($16 million), Roger Federer ($67 million)
The basketball one includes endorsements and the golf one looks to include more than just winnings, don't know why they did that. Without Tiger, golf purses probably increase significantly, but likely not quite as much as they did imo.
Guys today don't roll over like the Phil, VJ, Ernie, Goose, Furyk, and the rest did...
Every player who almost won a tournament can point to a shot or two that could have made a difference. And the winner can also point to a shot or two that would have allowed them to win by a bigger margin. This was certainly true yesterday. That's how it goes.
There seems to be no question that Woods has gotten his game back to the point where he could win, and that's good for golf. But yesterday, Brooks made the shots when he had to and Tiger didn't.
There seems to be no question that Woods has gotten his game back to the point where he could win, and that's good for golf. But yesterday, Brooks made the shots when he had to and Tiger didn't.
This ^
I don't think guys are intimidated anymore. Plus guys are hitting it by Tiger with much less effort. Tiger has a violent swing again. I think it's only a matter of time before he hurts himself again.
Can Tiger win again? Of course. He's shown that lately. But he's no longer able to get in other player's heads by driving it by them. I also noticed that Tiger's iron trajectory seems to be a lot lower, and he's relying on spin to hold the green. We're not seeing him drop balls on top of pins and stick. He's doing a great job of it, but it's a skill that is more dependent on course conditions.
I think Brooks has the full respect of the players (current and former), but his personality keeps him from being a media or fan favorite. And it's his misfortune to be taking off at the same time Tiger is making a comeback.
All this will take care of itself if he keeps winning.
All this will take care of itself if he keeps winning.
On TV too.
https://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/2018/08/13/pga-championship-tv-ratings-massive/
Tiger Bump: Sunday at Bellerive earns highest TV ratings since 2009, up 69% over last year
...And better TV ratings over time of course lead to larger purses.
Because the contracts and popularity were already in place. He alone is worth about 2 full fields of quality players.
Much as Arnold palmer, he made golf cool and accessible to an entire 1.5 generations, not to mention changed the perception of golfers being athletic.
