Woods Apparently Isn’t Quite Ready for Prime Time

Live! From New York, it’s . . . Sorry, wrong show.

If you like golf played at night on prime-rime network television with nothing really at stake except money, then the “Battle at Bighorn” is definitely the show you’ve been waiting for.

With the last four fairways at Bighorn Golf Club in Indio lit by floodlights, Sergio Garcia beat Tiger Woods, 1-up, Monday night on ABC.

More important, here is the real score: Garcia, $1.1 million; Woods, $400,000; ABC, potentially big ratings.

The idea in this two-year-old event was to bring golf to a new audience, but it’s doubtful that’s still possible given Woods’ emergence as the biggest and most visible star in sports.

Maybe it doesn’t matter. But this time at least, the golf wasn’t that compelling, partly because Woods flew in from Ohio, got in about noon and looked like he rode in hanging onto the wheels. He said he was experiencing flu symptoms.

“I’ve had better days and I’ve had shorter days,” said Woods, who played into the dark Sunday to win the NEC Invitational at Akron, Ohio.

Meanwhile, this experiment in prime-time golf looks as if it may need a second opinion.

Since it was golf in prime time, there were some interesting problems you just don’t run across in normal tournaments. One was sheep. Not your routine, dyed-in-the-wool-sheep, mind you, but rare, Bighorn sheep.

As it turns out, the bright orange blimp sponsored by Monster.com threatened to spook the 23 sheep who live at the Bighorn Institute adjacent to the golf course. So ABC agreed to keep the blimp from flying directly over the sheep.

One crisis avoided.

There were a couple more that got worked out which nobody knew about. Both players wore microphones and both caddies wore shorts. Now, that probably doesn’t seem like much, but we’re actually talking groundbreaking stuff here.

In last year’s ‘Showdown at Sherwood,’ the first episode in this series, the PGA Tour refused to allow ABC to mike Woods and David Duval--not that Duval had anything to say anyway.

The Tour also didn’t want the caddies to wear shorts last year, although Woods’ caddie Stevie Williams proved to be the ultimate rebel and went ahead and bared his knees, daring the Tour to make an example of him.

Right, that was going to happen. If the suits at the Tour wanted to punish him, they would make him caddie for Craig Stadler.

In prime-time television golf, this serves as controversy. Or color. Or something. As for the lights, Woods said it was sort of funny playing under them. He said it was really eerie at the 18th green.

“There were six flag shadows,” he said.

Now, consider the sound. The players didn’t need the microphones. Dennis Miller forgets more stuff than these guys ever thought of saying.

You can’t blame ABC for anything. It’s not as if ABC overhyped the show, with one possible exception: In a single sentence in his opening tease, Al Michaels used “head-to-head,” “face-to-face” and “mano-a-mano.” He said them back-to-back, of course.

There’s no reason to get picky about the telecast, although it sounded and looked a lot like the Skins Game, which isn’t interesting anymore unless Woods is in it.

As for Woods’ continuing involvement in this series, it’s something the Woods Camp is considering. Mark Steinberg, who is Woods’ agent at IMG, said he is going to wait to see what the ratings are and how the event goes off before committing again. He didn’t say if he planned to check with the sheep.

The way it’s going, Woods is becoming omnipresent on television. Chances are, if you flip on the set, you’re going to see him holding up a trophy, getting ready to hold up a trophy, selling either Buicks or Nike golf balls or Wheaties, or taped highlights of all of the above.

If it makes any difference, Woods is soon going to be taking a break from tournament golf. He will probably add an event to his schedule and play next week at the Bell Canadian Open at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario, and then not play again until the Presidents Cup, Oct 19-22.

When he does come back, Woods begins a stretch of seven consecutive tournaments that includes the National Car Rental at Walt Disney World where he is the defending champion, the Tour Championship where he is the defending champion, the American Express where he is the defending champion, the Johnnie Walker in Thailand, the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in Kauai where he is the defending champion and the Williams World Challenge at Sherwood where he is the owner of the tournament.

There is something that those seven tournaments have in common. Each one is more important than the “Battle at Bighorn.” Tell that to the press corps. There were 175 media credentials passed out, which would probably be a record if anyone really cared.

Woods sounded convinced that the Bighorn experience was useful.

“When you do shows like this, it’s primarily for the growth of the game,” he said. “I’m sure we got more non-golf viewers watching. That’s only good for the game.”

Fair enough. Who’s going to argue with Tiger?

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The Breakdown

Hole-by-hole in the Battle at Bighorn match Monday between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods at the Bighorn Golf Club (par-72, 7,083 yards) at Indio. The players started on the back nine:

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Hole Par Yds Hole Outcome Running Score 1 4 429 Woods two-putted for par, Garcia’s par Woods, 1-up putt lips out 2 4 435 Garcia’s birdie putt lipped out, Woods Woods, 1-up knocked in his par putt. 3 5 531 Garcia makes 15-foot birdie putt, Woods’ All square 10-foot attempt lips out 4 4 447 Each player makes short par putt. All square 5 4 367 Woods’ par putt was conceded, Garcia Woods, 1-up missed three-footer 6 3 197 Woods’ par putt was conceded, Garcia Woods, 1-up makes his three-footer 7 5 519 Both just missed eagle attempts, birdie Woods, 1-up putts were conceded 8 3 220 Woods misses 20-foot birdie try, Garcia All square makes four-foot birdie try 9 4 449 Both missed 20-foot birdies, par putts All square were conceded 10 4 397 Woods makes 12-foot birdie putt, Garcia All square makes three-foot birdie try 11 4 434 Both missed 15-foot birdie putts, par All square putts were conceded 12 5 550 Both missed birdie putts, pars were All square conceded 13 3 227 Both missed birdie putts, pars were All square conceded 14 4 351 Garcia makes 30-foot birdie putt, All square concedes Woods’ two-footer 15 5 538 Woods’ birdie putt was conceded, Garcia All square made his 10-footer 16 3 194 Garcia makes 35-foot birdie putt, Woods Garcia, 1-up misses 12-footer 17 4 457 Both made four-foot par putts Garcia, 1-up 18 4 355 Garcia made eight-foot birdie putt to win Garcia, 1-up match

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