Woods Could Affect TV Deals

This may be one Tiger Woods “slump” that’s really serious.

When the PGA Tour coaxed a four-year, $850-million contract out of the networks and cable to televise its events, the deal was not only a 33% increase, it also was regarded as a major victory for Tim Finchem, the tour commissioner.

The deal ends after 2006, but when negotiations pick up in 2005 to come up with another agreement, chances are the discussions aren’t going to be quite as rosy for the tour this time around.

It all coincides with Woods’ well-publicized troubled swing that has kept him winless in his last 10 majors.

The weekend ratings this year have been generally flat, which is disappointing enough, but it’s doubly troubling when even the presence of Woods can’t always perk them up.

Woods has played 15 tournaments this year, or 30 weekend rounds. The ratings are down from a year ago in 17 of those 30 rounds.

For instance, at last weekend’s PGA Championship, the overnight Nielsen ratings for Saturday’s telecast on CBS were down 25%, from 4.1 to a 3.1, but the Sunday ratings were up 4%, from 4.7 to 4.9.

The prime-time “Battle at the Bridges” on ABC on Aug. 2 that featured Woods had a 3.6 final rating, the lowest in the six-year history of the event.

At ABC, the programmers have bigger fish to fry than the PGA Tour: The heavyweight NFL package is up for renewal at the same time, the contract ending in 2006.

While network insiders say the golf ratings are not alarming and appear consistent with a down marketplace, there may be a sense of urgency in nailing down the NFL package before talking golf. And what kind of landscape that leaves the sports TV marketplace at that time is unclear, especially if the NFL deal includes a Sunday package, which would clearly affect golf coverage.

The numbers tell a story, though. This year’s Masters, where Phil Mickelson won and Woods didn’t challenge, the final ratings were down 12%, from 8.3 to 7.3. The highest Masters rating ever was in 1997 when Woods won his first major title.

That’s also the story at the U.S. Open, where Woods’ 15-shot victory in 2000 at Pebble Beach had an 8.8 overnight rating, the highest-rated Open since Nielsen began tracking overnight ratings in 1975 -- until he earned a 9.3 rating for NBC in 2002 at Bethpage Black.

In the 2003 U.S. Open, the overnight was a 5.6 for Jim Furyk’s victory at Olympia Fields and it climbed to 6.3 in June when Retief Goosen won at Shinnecock. Those aren’t Tiger numbers, but when Woods isn’t dominating, he can’t always be expected to inflate the ratings.

At the British Open this year, where Woods tied for ninth, ABC’s ratings dipped 18% on Saturday and 4% on Sunday.

Woods remains the barometer for golf ratings and he’s still capable of pulling big numbers -- the Wachovia in early May was up 63.6% on CBS with Woods in the field -- but the big picture is sort of fuzzy now and needs some fine-tuning before the contract talks start again.

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He has been ranked No. 1 for a record 332 weeks -- 262 in a row -- but Woods’ days at the top may be numbered. Either Vijay Singh or Ernie Els may replace Woods this week, depending on the outcome of the NEC Invitational.

Singh is within 0.10 of a point of Woods and can become No. 1 if he finishes ahead of Woods if they’re both in the top 10, or he could tie Woods for No. 1 if they are outside the top 10.

Els could become No. 1 if he wins and Woods isn’t second by himself; or if Els is second and Woods does not finish in a two-way tie for fourth while Singh is not in a two-way tie for third; or if Els is third and Woods is worse than 15th and Singh is worse than 19th.

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Michelle Wie update: The 14-year-old from Honolulu has a sponsor’s exemption to play this week’s LPGA tournament, the Wendy’s Championship for Children in Dublin, Ohio. Paula Creamer, 17, of Pleasanton, Calif., also has a sponsor’s exemption.

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There is more than one Singh to go around, apparently, so Vijay and his son, Qass, will play together at the Office Depot Father/Son Challenge in December. Qass, 14, knows what he’s doing on the course, his father said.

“He’s already a pretty good player in his own right,” Singh said of Qass.

Hale and Steve Irwin are the defending champions in the tournament. They defeated Jack and Jack Nicklaus II by one shot. The event, jointly owned by NBC and IMG, benefits the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women in Orlando, Fla.

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The USGA made a switch in its U.S. Amateur sites, moving Pinehurst from 2007 to 2008 and awarding the 2007 tournament to the Olympic Club in San Francisco. The reason for the move is that the 2007 U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in nearby Southern Pines, N.C., and there was a scheduling overload.