The 2-mile stretch of road
from Interstate 5 in San Diego to Torrey Pines Golf Course was bumper to bumper
about 30 minutes before Tiger Woods teed off in the first round of the Buick
Invitational.
Ticket sales were astronomical.
Officials estimated the gallery at close to 40,000 for the final round and considered
using the adjacent North Course -- where half the field played the first two
rounds -- as a parking lot.
The overnight ratings?
Only the highest for a PGA Tour event in the last 13 years.
No, this is not the Tiger
Tour.
He will not win every week,
as Mickelson proved Sunday. He will not play every week, as the Phoenix Open
found out two weeks ago and Doral will learn when the deadline comes and goes
a week from Friday.
But while Woods builds
upon short-term streaks and long-term records every time he plays, he is bringing
the rest of the PGA Tour with him.
Even Mickelson attests
to that.
Mickelson could have felt
slighted by all the attention on Woods. After all, San Diego is his hometown,
Torrey Pines like a home course. And as far as his credentials, only one other
player in his 20s -- Woods - has won more on tour.
Instead, Mickelson embraced
reality.
'The way Tiger has played
the last six events, and prior to that, has generated a lot of interest for the
game of golf," Mickelson said. "Galleries were so large this week, they couldn't
accommodate it parking-wise. And I'm a beneficiary of that."
Never mind that more people
waited to watch Woods than stayed to watch Mickelson, who built a big lead and
held off a gallant charge. After tying for the lead, Woods bogeyed two of the
next three holes to squander a chance to win his seventh straight PGA Tour start.
But the only thing he really
handed Mickelson was the size of the winner's check -- $540,000, three times
greater than when Mickelson won the Buick in 1993.
The total purse this year
will approach $158 million, most of that the result of a TV contract that was
negotiated about the time Woods first broadened golf's popularity by winning
the '97 Masters.
"I'm making more money
because Tiger is helping increase these purses," Mickelson said. "He is creating
more excitement in the game of golf. All the players are beneficiaries."
They benefit in more ways
than one, and so does golf.
While Woods has raised
interest and excitement in golf the way Arnold Palmer did 40 years ago, he is
also raising the level of everyone around him.
Mickelson said the biggest
asset from winning the Buick was confidence from knowing he had beaten the best.
Tom Lehman won the Phoenix
Open, and later said the secret behind his first victory since 1997 was not wasting
shots -- a trick he learned from playing with Woods.
Ernie Els went to the Mercedes
Championships determined to reach the standard set by Woods. He went head to
head with Woods the last two days and outplayed him from tee to green, losing
in a playoff on the second hole on a putt that has defined Woods's mystique.
"The more I play with him
in these situations, the better for myself," Els said.
He may get a chance this
week in Los Angeles. Els is the defending champion, and Woods has finished second
each of the past two years, losing in a playoff to Billy Mayfair two years ago.
But it won't be like that
every week, simply because Woods plays no more than 21 out of the 45 weeks the
tour is in session. That could lead to the only negative impact Tiger has on
the tour.
If Woods doesn't play,
does anyone care?
It is a predicament commissioner
Tim Finchem has faced before. Five years ago, the value of a tournament was judged
by the appearance of Greg Norman and Fred Couples, just as it was with Tom Watson
and Jack Nicklaus before them.
Woods played the MCI Classic
at Hilton Head last year for the first time. Small coincidence that it was the
first sellout in MCI history.
"He brings not just golf
fans and sports fans, but people who just want to see him," MCI tournament director
Steve Wilmot said.
What makes Woods's impact
different from that of Nicklaus or Palmer is the depth of talent on tour -- and
the ripple effect Woods generates.
"You don't have an incremental
advantage of the extra eyes on television, the extra tickets, which is what Tiger
brings," Finchem said today. "But he has uplifted interest in the entire sport,
and that is paying dividends.
"When you have this kind
of interest beyond our traditional audience, it can only broaden our appeal."
