Dealing With A Golf World Without Tiger

Will the world end without Tiger? If you are the commissioner of the PGA you probably think so right about now. If you have been living under a rock today and missed the news, Tiger Woods will miss the rest of the season because he needs reconstructive knee surgery. Not that he needed, but he totally added to his legend this weekend – it turns out that he was not only playing with a torn ligament in his knee, but his leg had been fractured in two places when he was preparing for the tournament, yet he didn’t tell anyone and went out and won. It’s not a wonder he was wincing in pain from time to time.

This will change the dynamics of betting on golf until the big man returns next year. When I heard the news here are the few things that first ran through my mind.

1. Man, is Phil Mickelson ever a pansy. He had a sore wrist last year and the way he carried on you’d think that his arm had been ripped off by a crocodile. He was terrible and he milked it for all it’s worth. Tiger had and injury that was at least as bad for a golfer to deal with, and all he did was play 91 holes to win a major. It’s not a wonder that Phil can’t hold Tiger’s towel.

2. This could be a great thing for golf bettors. Public interest will fall off significantly without the biggest drawing card in sports. That should mean that the lines will be softer and there can be more mistakes to exploit. That being said, the one problem is that the odds of the favorites who aren’t named after big cats will be lower than we have become used to because there won’t be a heavy favorite sucking up the cash.

3. Things are going to be wide open, and it will take a shift in mentality to pick winners. Up until now, the bigger golf tournaments have involved just one major decision – are you with Tiger or are you against him? Now it will take more work and a more legitimate handicapping effort. In other words, we actually have to work now.