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Sports Watch
THIS time it's CBS, not NBC, claiming that it's must-see TV. Whenever Tiger Woods is on television, playing in any golf tournament, that is. More so, if it's a major championship. Valhalla appropriate enough
The world's most talked-about athlete will try to make golf history -- again. This time in the PGA Championship beginning today at Valhalla.
Aptly named, don't you think? A golfing god and Valhalla, the great hall of the gods in Norse legend.
Didn't Earl Woods once say that his son would be more famous than Christ or Gandhi?
Well, Tiger's sure on his way there. He even made the cover of Time Magazine.
We're not just talking about Golf Week or even Sports Illustrated. But Time Magazine. I don't recall even Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer making Time's cover.
That's how much of a magnetic crossover person Tiger is.
"The casual sports audience and the non-sports audience is excited by Tiger Woods on a number of levels," said Neil Pilson, former CBS Sports president.
"His dignity, his style, his civility to the media and his competitors, his youth, his charisma, his good looks. There's no question he ranks with Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan as the four greatest athletes of the last 50-to-100 years. He's a public figure now beyond golf and sports. He's a crossover personality."
That's why the PGA Championship this weekend is must-see TV, even if Tiger wins or doesn't. And, if he's running away from the field, which isn't unexpected, the TV audience will still be glued to the set.
Especially, if he sets yet another record.
For one thing, Woods could be the first since Ben Hogan in 1953 to win three majors in a single season. Hogan never tried for all four, skipping the PGA Championship that year because it was a week after the British Open.
Already the youngest to achieve a career grand slam, Woods can become the first to hold the records for all four majors should he shoot better than 17-under-par this week.
A PGA Championship record is well within reach for Woods -- the seven-stroke margin of victory by Jack Nicklaus in the 1980 tournament at Oak Hill.
And, by winning Sunday, Woods would become the first back-to-back winner since the PGA Championship changed from a match-play to a stroke-play format in 1958.
CLEARLY, Tiger's compiling a resume in golf that might never be surpassed, unless an injury or some tragedy shortens an already remarkable career.
Believe me, we are all privileged to be watching a living legend in our time.
Tiger's the guy everybody wants to see, the guy everybody's talking about. And television viewers can't get enough of him.
He's must-see TV and the whole storyline of the PGA Championship.
Of course, the Valhalla track designed by Nicklaus can't compare as a world-class venue such as Augusta, Pebble Beach or St. Andrews -- sites of the other three 2000 majors.
David Duval, who withdrew because of a bad back, wasn't charitable in his comment about the 14-year-old course.
He was quoted as saying, "I think Valhalla is a perfectly nice golf course -- for a Nike Tour event."
It doesn't have the history as some of the storied courses which have hosted the PGA Championship, such as Winged Foot, Riviera or Medinah where Woods won last year.
But with Tiger in the field, poised on making even more history, Valhalla seems an appropriate enough setting.