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The Masters Without Tiger - Straight Talk W/ Jake

JB

JB

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Great column Jake, and I'm with you. I don't care who I just love watching it.
 
Jake that was a great article sir. I feel the same way and I'm glad I'm not the only one. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I think next year I'll make sure I'm with my dad for Masters Weekend, sounds pretty damn special.
 
Nice article, Jake. The Masters will go on without Tiger, but it is more exciting with him there. I am more disappointed that no one made a run on the back 9 on Sunday.
 
Great column Jake. I agree that Tiger moves the needle and keeps many interested in the game of golf. And the Masters. But there was plenty to be excited about this year. Great job.


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I loved the article Jake, I agree that in Augusta Tiger is not the story, all they have to do to make me happy is show as much of the golf as possible. I wish they had even more coverage.
 
I'm a Tiger fan, but an even bigger Masters fan. Watched the event in the 70's as a boy with my dad. In the 80's as a young man with my dad (ah 86 still my favorite Masters. My dad was so excited that Sunday watching Jack). I watched in 1990 for the first time after my dad passed. I watched through the 90's as husband and new father. In the 00's I watched with my kids. This was my first year watching without my son as he is away at school. The Masters is our family tradition.

Like you Jake, for me The Masters is my favorite sporting event. This year's edition was just fine without Tiger. I'm like Jeff Spicoli, would have been fun to see someone make a run at Bubba on the back 9, but that also shows how tough the course was this year and just how well Bubba played.

Tiger will be back and the story lines will be back thicker than ever when he returns. Viewers will also be back but they missed a heck of a Masters by not watching this year.

We'll have many more Masters tourneys with Tiger to watch. I can see him being competitive on that course into his early 50's much like Freddie Couples.

Good stuff Jake!
 
Greatt column Jake. I agree with you totally, as an avid fan of golf in general I dont care who is there and who isnt. This event is bigger than 1 person and will live on in popularity when hes gone someday.
 
Excellent. This is the truth. I think Tiger nowadays still may get the mailman talking but is the mailman spending money on golf? Clubs, greens fees, tickets. I say not as much as pre-9 iron gate.
 
Boom, Jake with a thought provoking and damn well written piece!

You captured many of the same thoughts that I had. Would I have enjoyed TW there and in the hunt? Yes. Did I MISS him? No

Great golf was there before TW (hello opening tee shots on Thursday) and it will be there after TW.

The Masters is the effin Masters and no one person is bigger than it.
 
Jake you've got a great talent bro! "A tradition like no other" let's face it Tiger is not going to play forever. The viewership numbers will fluctuate for what ever reason and quite frankly I don't care who is playing. The magic that is Augusta will live on. The purist in me will always watch intently and dream of pushing a peg in the ground on the hallowed grounds. It's symbolic of many things for me. The start of tge golf season. The memories of watching it on TV with my dad. Watching Arnie walk the fairways for the last time in person during a practice round. Now it's a tradition I share with my wife and son. Golf is in good hands with all rising young guns. Their name may not be Tiger but they are ready and able to carry the torch on.
 
It's the Masters and just love to watch great golf. I agree with ya Jake.
 
The Masters Without Tiger - Straight Talk W/ Jake

Very good article. It's the definite belief of a lot if golf fans. The people that don't just play golf, but live it.

With ratings at a 10 year low, it's almost too easy to point a finger at tiger's absence.
 
I agree with you 100 % on this one Jake. I've been watching the Masters since most of you were in diapers including TW. I've always enjoyed the heck out of it and I get excited as a deer in a lettuce patch waiting for the show to kick off!
 
You nailed it Jake. Great article and well written.
The Masters is my favorite sporting event as well. I took a vacation day this year just to watch the first round coverage live on Thursday.
The world of golf will go on with or without Tiger.
 
blugold said:
Very good article. It's the definite belief of a lot if golf fans. The people that don't just play golf, but live it.

With ratings at a 10 year low, it's almost too easy to point a finger at tiger's absence.
Click to expand...

Rating for the final round not the event. Adam Scott's win was 10+, TW not a factor. Phil in 2012 got a 12.0. Yes last win a 10.3 in the final round.

Not so much the absence of tiger but who was in position to win on Sunday and how much action occurred on back 9
 
blugold said:
Very good article. It's the definite belief of a lot if golf fans. The people that don't just play golf, but live it.

With ratings at a 10 year low, it's almost too easy to point a finger at tiger's absence.
Click to expand...

without TW and no phil and no real drama on the back 9 it kind of lacked for me. i think we have been spoiled the last 3 years or so with the finishes.
 
For me, it is simple - Players come and go, but the Masters will always be the Masters, regardless of who is playing

I can understand a lot of the talk about people saying it wouldn't be the same without TW, but what will those same people have to say when Tiger retires from the sport....? Every once in a while you will have players like TW who dominate the game, but that doesn't mean it won't be the same if they aren't playing. Yes, he brings the casual person in, but no one player is bigger than the game/event itself, and I think that applies to any sport, not just golf
 
I think there are two sides to this argument, and THP is well represented in one of them. Did your die hard golf fans watch? Of course they did. Did the ones with Tiger-fatigue enjoy that they didn't have to see the man climb into and fall out of contention? Of course they did. The networks know they have us hooked, heck, we're their 2.0 rating for the Shell Houston Open, Valero Texas Open, etc. The difference is that a group of sport fans watch the Masters who don't consume golf coverage daily...well, they usually do. Ratings were down 30-40% every day from last year, and were the lowest numbers in 10 years. Even the 2004 numbers (and several years in between that still got higher ratings than the 2014 version) were impacted because the Masters fell on Easter weekend. Maybe Tiger is just one of several factors in play with those rating drops, but he is the definite change from every prior tournament since 1995.

For a sport that desperately need eyeballs on the sets with the hopes that those casual fans will pick up clubs and "Go Play", to say that the PGA Tour and golf in general do not NEED Tiger playing is a bit ridiculous to me. Will the tour survive the absence and eventual retirement of Sir Eldrick, of course it will, but it will take a huge hit unless it has the next American superstar in place, but even that will only soften the blow.

Did I watch the wall-to-wall Masters coverage? Absolutely. Will I stop asking and answering my own questions? Eventually. Did I feel like something was missing last week from the greatest event of the golf calendar? I absolutely did.
 
Love the Straight Talk articles so far. Totally agree with you Jake. Doesn't matter who's there. The Masters still has a big lure to it like no other tournament.
 
Tadashi70 said:
Rating for the final round not the event. Adam Scott's win was 10+, TW not a factor. Phil in 2012 got a 12.0. Yes last win a 10.3 in the final round.

Not so much the absence of tiger but who was in position to win on Sunday and how much action occurred on back 9
Click to expand...

This might be a bigger indicator that Bubba isn't quite at megastar level. Whether or not we agree, golf is a very much a star driven sport.
 
I got lost in my reply and forgot to say that even though I disagree with some of it, that was really well written Jake.

I'll add one more statistic...the comparison between the 2013 and 2014 Masters threads here on THP

2013 Thread - 3899 Posts
2014 Thread - 2676 Posts (to date)

Coincidentally...a 31% drop in conversation.
 
Back when I was in late teens and early twenties I would watch the Masters before I had ever played golf. I played all the sports in high school and loved anything when it came to sports. Hell I watched tennis and didn't have a clue how they scored the game. They'd say love and I'd think love who? They'd say fault and I'm thinking now who's fault is it? I still watched the match all the way down to the wire. I finally picked up on the terminology and it was even more fun. I think the general sports fan who has athletic stuff in their blood will watch a mud wrestling contest over a home building show etc.
 
Wait, Tiger didn't play this year??? Great article, Jake, and I agree with you about how awesome the Masters was this year. Bubba can flat out play some good golf.
 
Love the article Jake!

I thought it was a really boring final round, but it didn't really have anything to do with Tiger or even the fact Bubba won. Just that the result was sort of decided so early on. I'm used to the last few Masters where each time I said, "This is best Masters I've ever seen." A lot of that had to do with the miraculous shots and putts dropped on the back nine. I watched the ending, but it just didn't have that climactic thing going for me.
 
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