Jordan Spieth has already won two majors this year, was in contention for a third, and is quickly becoming a household name.
However, no matter what Spieth accomplishes, he will never draw a crowd like Tiger Woods.
I want to clarify, this isn’t a “LeBron will never be as good as Michael Jordan†rant.
Spieth could one day be considered the best golfer of all time, but even that won’t be enough to draw non-golf fans to their televisions. Simply put; Spieth does not transcend golf.
If you go to any golf course or driving range, you’ll see dozens of Spieths, not in talent, but in physical appearance.
Young, white, preppy golfer isn’t exactly considered to be ground breaking or original.
Woods was a lot more to golf than just a great player; he was a cultural symbol of change. Woods brought people of all different races and ethnicities to the television. Spieth will never have that draw, and that’s not his fault, but it’s also something that can’t be denied.
When Tiger Woods won his first Masters in 1997, the
TV ratings skyrocketed. From 1996 to 1997, the ratings increased from 10.2 million average viewers over the final two rounds, to an astonishing and record-breaking (at the time) 15.8 million average viewers.
On just the final day of Spieth’s 2015 victory,
14 million viewers on average watched the golf prodigy bring home the green jacket (per
PGATour.com). So, even on Sunday, the most exciting day of the Masters weekend, Spieth could not draw as many viewers on average as Woods did back in 1997 on both Saturday and Sunday.
Not to mention, the final round of the 2015 Masters included Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy and Woods, albeit Woods and McIlroy were not realistically in contention. Even so, that was a pretty stacked lineup.
Arguably the four biggest names in golf were all on the course at the same time, and it still didn’t trump the excitement Woods brought back in 1997 by himself.
What most fans forget, Lee Elder made headlines in 1975 because he was the first African American just to play in the Masters (per
PGA.com). Roughly 22 years later, Woods not only won the Masters, he dominated by 12 strokes, which is still a record to this day.
Only two decades separated the first ever African American participant and the first African American winner. That’s a pretty quick turnaround for a sport as un-diverse as golf.
An African American was dominating the sport unlike anybody every has before, and people instantly became hooked. Not too long after his rise to national prominence, Woods signed endorsement deals with American Express, General Motors, General Mills, Accenture and Nike. Notice, most of those companies aren’t even related to sports.
Woods didn’t simply transcend golf, he transcended sports.
Spieth has yet to accomplish such a feat, and he probably never will. The 21-year-old prodigy can win as many major as he wants, but unless he brings something different than white male viewers/players to the golf course, he’ll never be Woods. Perhaps Spieth could date a controversial celebrity or pull a Johnny Manziel and become the bad boy of golf. This scenario is probably unlikely,
but just being a clean-cut white guy won’t be enough.
Woods brought fans of all races to their televisions whether his reputation was squeaky clean or covered in elephant feces.
No matter his reputation, Woods was still the African American, Native American, Asian, golfer with big muscles and a handsome face. It’s as if Woods was born to elevate golf. Even after a morally incriminating scandal, people still flocked to their TVs to see him dominate.
The first round of the 2010 Masters (Woods’ first Masters appearance post-scandal)
averaged 4.936 million viewers, the most ever on the first day of the Masters (at the time). No matter the crime, if Woods is on the scene, people will watch.
If Spieth truly wants to “save†golf, then he needs to be fully committed. He needs to date a Kardashian, or get busted with a large amount of narcotics. O.K., narcotics may be going too far, but the point remains the same:
He can’t draw a multi-race crowd simply by being good at golf.
