Even if Tiger Woods doesn’t pocket the $10 million bonus for winning the FedEx Cup, they should give it to him anyway. He is carrying this thing.
The power of Tiger was revealed again Monday when the TV ratings came out for the BMW Championship. Sunday’s final round did a 3.2 national rating on NBC; one national ratings point is worth more than 1 million households.
That wasn’t as high as the 4.0 NBC had done for the last round of the previous FedEx Cup event, the Deutsche Bank Championship. But that tournament didn’t have to go up against the NFL, and it had the drawing power of Woods battling Phil Mickelson down the stretch.
Still, Sunday’s 3.2 rating was significantly higher than the 2.1 for the final round of the first playoff tournament, The Barclays, in which Mickelson was in contention with Woods sitting out.
For the final 30 minutes, the BMW did a 5.0 national rating, a decent number considering the competition.
Locally, the Bears obviously ruled, doing a 26.9 rating on WFLD-Ch. 32; one local ratings point is worth 34,550 households. But at the same time, golf ranked second in the market from 3-5 p.m. with a 4.2 rating. The tournament actually picked up viewers down stretch, peaking at a 6.9 rating in the final 15 minutes.
Woods, obviously, was the draw on television as he was on the course, accounting for the big crowds at Cog Hill over the weekend. Try to imagine where the FedEx Cup would be without him.
That thought must make PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem wake up in a cold sweat.
But Finchem should be happy with the way the FedEx Cup is performing. For all the complaining about the format and Woods and Mickelson each skipping an event, it has produced three of the year’s most compelling tournaments at a time when golf usually is an afterthought.
The finale, the Tour Championship, could come down to Woods and Mickelson battling for the $10 million (deferred, of course). The NFL might rule, but people will watch that battle too.
Farewell
I must admit it was a bit depressing driving away from Cog Hill on Sunday, knowing that no PGA Tour event would be played in the area for another two years. A few of us joked that we should set up a few seats and a television in Cog Hill’s parking lot and watch the 2008 BMW in St. Louis from there.
Much has been made about the BMW being rotated out of Chicago every other year. However, there really wasn’t a choice next year. With Cog Hill unavailable due to impending renovations, the Western Golf Association lacked a facility that was capable of playing host to or wanted to play host to a PGA Tour event. So the move to Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis is somewhat understandable.
If it was a one-time thing, the WGA probably could have sold that to fans.
The travesty comes in 2010, when the tournament will be at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis. The idea that we’ll have only one BMW here in the next three years is a slap in the face to Chicago golf.
Given all the uproar, my hunch is the tournament will be mostly rooted in Chicago in the next decade. However, it still will take the occasional journey outside the area.
Greening up
Conditions are apparently improving on the heat-stressed greens at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, site of the Tour Championship. Golfers will be able to play restricted practice rounds Tuesday and Wednesday. Three greens will be closed: Nos. 2, 13 and 15.
The pro-am remains canceled. However, the players will be required to conduct a question-and-answer session and a clinic with their pro-am teams. You can only imagine how much Woods, Mickelson and the others are looking forward to that.
Getting ready
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Jerry Rich is taking a large contingent to the Solheim Cup in Sweden. The crew is gearing up for the 2009 matches between the U.S. and European women that will be held at Rich’s Rich Harvest Farms course in Sugar Grove.
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