Can Tiger Woods return to his role as 'influencer' for game of golf?
His rise in the sport led to an increase in participation in Canada
Tiger Woods's impact on the game of golf is almost immeasurable.
When he first emerged on the scene in the 1990s, till when injuries and scandal took him away from the game in 2009 and again in 2015, few athletes have generated so much interest in their sport.
Most people likely have a friend or acquaintance who took up the game seriously or simply gave golf a try because of Woods.
"He didn't move the needle, he was the needle," Dan Pino, director of communications for Golf Canada, said on the eve of the first round of the Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga., where Woods has won four times. "He created so much interest and enthusiasm in the game."
Surge in rounds played
In Canada, Woods's almost unparalleled success coincided with a massive surge in the number of rounds played, golf equipment purchased and golf courses built.
"From 1997 to about 2005 there were a lot of people who came to the game who were new to the sport, who were enticed by the excitement of Tiger Woods and everything he brought to the game," said Robert Thompson, one of Canada's foremost golf journalists. "You had a star that transcended the sport, that made people watch golf who otherwise wouldn't."
"The buzz was tremendous and what it created for really the next 15 years [was] you had the most popular athlete in any sport, the most well-known in all of sports, was in our sport," said Jeff Calderwood, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association of Canada.
Then about a decade ago, Woods began to fade from the game, driven to the sidelines by marital scandal and debilitating back injuries, which limited his ability to play at a high level.
Calderwood said Woods's sudden departure left the industry in flux.
"There was some contraction after he faded, but he had a great impact on broadening the cultural and age diversity," Calderwood said. "He was breaking down barriers, he was making golf cool and it faded."
There's no doubt Woods's retreat had a significant impact on the game's growth. However, it's just one of the factors that cut into the game's popularity in Canada.
Calderwood said that from the late 1990s through 2008, there were more than 70 million rounds played in Canada every year. That number dipped below 59 million in 2014, before a slow recovery in the years since. Calderwood said as golf's popularity surged, many courses were built to meet demand that couldn't be sustained.
"Most markets in Canada built a few more courses than they needed. Every year was more than year before," Calderwood said.
"You had the Tiger effect [and Canada's] Mike Weir winning the Masters in 2003. Those influencers drove the amount of golf being played, people kept building golf courses and it couldn't go on forever. At some point, you reach a ceiling."
Course closures
Since 2015, 51 courses across the country have closed, according to Golf Canada.
Thompson said in recent years many old private courses within larger cities are thriving again, but courses on the peripheries of urban areas, where the land has become lucrative, are under increasing pressure for redevelopment..
"There was this notion that everybody is going to play golf. They built golf courses to sell real estate," Thompson said. "Then once the real estate is sold, nobody wants the golf course if it's not commercially successful on it's own.
"A lot of it has to with price of real estate. For example, you have 175 acres that are now worth more than any viable golf business could ever make. [But] it doesn't mean the business wasn't making money."
Woods's absence from the game also coincided with a recession in the Canadian economy, which is never a good thing for the game of golf. Also, many people who had flocked to the game realized it was actually pretty hard.
"A lot of people found the game time-consuming, very difficult and it has a culture that for some people is hard to penetrate. And it can be expensive," Thompson said.
"You put all of these things together and I think some were like, 'This is great,' but most were like, 'To get really good at this I will have to spend a lot of time, a fair bit of money and I may never get there.'"
Despite these factors, it appears the health of the game in Canada is on the rise. More rounds were played in 2017 than the year before. And last year, more than 5.7 million Canadians played golf at least once, more than any other sport.
The resurgence comes as one of the sport's great influencers begins his own comeback.
For a while, it looked like a debilitating back injury would permanently sideline Woods. It was painful to even watch the former world No. 1 swing a club.
But after four surgeries and full year away from the game, it appears Woods is back. Two recent top-10 finishes have Woods excited about what's possible at this year's Masters.
Woods now an elder statesman
"It's been a tough road," Woods told reporters this week. "I've described a little bit of it: the pain of just sitting there and the amount of times that I've fallen because my leg didn't work; or I just had to lay on the ground for extended periods of times. Those are some really dark, dark times."
Woods is back at Augusta this time as one of the game's elder statesmen, aware of the tremendous impact he has had on the game.
"I'm still getting used to that part because I don't feel like it's been that long that I've been out here and competing and playing. I know it's gone by super fast," Woods said. "A lot of these kids ... some of their first memories are of when I won my last major championship [in 2008.] That's what's crazy."
Pino said Woods is already having a huge impact. Events that he has played in this year have seen a surge in attendance, television ratings and sponsorship interest
"You hear about these stories of golf courses recently that are full of people on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, of members and golfers tuning in to watch the broadcast," Pino said. "Golf at the highest level brings people together. Tiger Woods had that impact and is again having that impact.
"The depth of talent in golf has probably never been stronger, the field is deeper than it ever was, but there is this excitement around this global icon. "