The Rome report

Last week, the world’s most dominant athlete, Tiger Woods, announced he would be returning to play in this week’s WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. Woods’ announcement also marked the PGA Tour’s return to popularity.

Woods has been out since winning the U.S. Open with a ruptured ACL in his left knee and two stress fractures in his left tibia. After winning The U.S. Open, Woods had surgery to fix the ailments.

It was thought that Woods might not return to the tour until The Masters in April.

There was only one person happier than Woods about his return to the PGA Tour: PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem.

It has been no secret or surprise that the interest in the Tour went down while Woods was down.

Finchem before has said the Tour is more than Woods, but numbers speak for themselves-When Woods is not playing in any particular event, the viewership for that event decreases.

Whether Finchem wants to believe it, Tiger Woods is the PGA Tour. Finchem and the tour need Woods more than Woods need the tour.

Woods is the only athlete that is bigger than his tour.

The NBA could survive without LeBron James or Kobe Bryant because there are other stars like Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.

MLB could survive without any particular players because you have historic franchises like the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. MLB also has a steroid problem which keeps them in the news.

The NFL does not hitch its wagon to any player in the league. The NFL prefers to market its teams more than its individual stars.

Take away Woods from the PGA Tour and there is definite feeling that something is missing.

I like other players like Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson, but they cannot carry the PGA Tour the way Woods does. They do not garner the same interest from people who are not necessarily fans of golf.

Woods is much like boxer Oscar De La Hoya. They are probably the only two athletes on the planet who draw people into their respective sports who do not regularly watch their sports.

Woods’ popularity has even made more money for other golfers on the tour.

More people watch golf when Woods is playing and that means more advertisers. More advertisers mean more prize money in everyone’s pockets.

Woods is so popular that sometimes he is paid to participate in a golf tournament. The people that run these tournaments know they will make that money back because more people will show up to watch or watch on TV because of Woods.

There was more interest in Woods’ recovery from knee surgery than there was in the PGA Tour while he was gone. That will change with his return this week.

Welcome back, Tiger. I am happy, the fans are happy and more than anyone, Tim Finchem is happy.