Images of Mickelson embracing his wife Amy in a joyous yet tearful hug Sunday went worldwide on television, internet and print at the conclusion of the Masters, which was Mickelson's first major in four years. The photograph was worth at least the proverbial thousand words given the battle Amy is fighting against breast cancer and how the illness has shaped much of what her golfer husband has done or not done on the PGA Tour over the past year.
It was an emotional moment for Lefty and his family.
It also couldn't have painted a starker contrast between Mickelson as a poster boy husband and his rival Tiger Woods, who used the Masters to return to the PGA Tour after a five-month absence triggered by his bizarre car accident November 27th, 2009 and the sex scandal that followed.
The juxtaposition of Mickelson against Woods was not lost in all of the buzz surrounding Tiger's much-anticipated comeback.
The two diametrically-opposed storylines were one of the reasons why the 2010 Masters became the third most-watched golf event in U.S. television ratings history. At a rating of 12 and a share of 25, this year's tournament ranked behind only Woods' first Masters win in 1997 (15.8 and 32) and his second title at Augusta in 2001 (12.9 and 27). Not only did the television numbers grow by 36% over 2009 on CBS in the United States, they were up 74% on Global Television in Canada, with 1.8 million Canadians watching Sunday's final round.
Numbers like that and a 43% increase on ESPN in the U.S. and audience numbers on TSN in Canada that were 76% north of the previous Masters record do not happen on the strength of hard core golf fans alone. They are fueled by so-called "soft users", ranging from sports fans who only watch headline-making golf to non-sports fans drawn by other factors (in this case the comeback of Woods and the compelling family story surrounding Mickelson).
For all the anxiety felt inside the golf industry over the past few months as its cash cow struggled through a messy media firestorm and messier public relations, could it be that the Woods scandal will only prove to be a boost for the PGA Tour?
Is it possible that the bubble bursting on the public image of Tiger Woods will have many of us finding both him and his major rivals on the tour more interesting than we did a year ago, rather than less compelling?
The early returns on the television ratings for the 2010 Masters, along with the record internet page views and online traffic around the tournament, appear to suggest exactly that.
www.TheSportMarket.biz
The Sport Market on TEAM 1040 and teamradio.ca
Saturdays 9 a.m. to 12 noon PT
Facebook.com/TheSportMarket and Twitter.com/TheSportMarket
No comments:
Post a Comment