a Tiger-less Tour? No Problem?

Nothing too crazy here... I am a former CEO and ran a 450 million dollar company with a few thousand dedicated and valued employees taking care of 60,000 customers... so I get what Tiger has done for the purses and what the ratings do when he's not around...but if he never comes back, I would be alright with that. The game is bigger than he is despite his obviously monstrous ego .. (exemplified by the attitude of "I won't get caught").

I wrote earlier that he has brought a lot of football/basketball game influences to the game that this conservative (in many regards) guy could do without...and frankly would not miss... there are plenty of good players around that I stay away from because of all sorts of little things that amateurs do on the course that as a former professional caddie I just find inexcusable.. and I'm good with that... I have seen plenty of commentary lately about Tim Finchem's state of denial when asked about Tiger's absence. Of course sponsors and advertisers will not pay as much for a Tiger-less tour. Nor will the Networks... The Golf Channel btw deserves one more year to get their act together... as in pick the anchor who can really do the job... not one of Arnie's favorites. Dump the Goof-Balls too... no names necessary.. the on-line forums have done the list.. many times over. They also have neutered, to some degree, Johnny Miller. I enjoyed the tell it like you see it JM. After all he did shoot a final round 63 to win the US Open on a mean course... Hogan like if you ask me...love faldo but he's no Miller..and vise versa.

So Tiger will come back to a media circus.. He may win and he may be distracted but the human spirit is resilient and everything will adjust to some level less than what we had a few short months ago when the elite on tour played for close to 2 million a week at times... and a Mill every week... or maybe the economics gets cut back a little if Tiger is taken down by all this. I'll wait and see. Either way the game will be fine. The Game is Grand and will remain. Bigger than even the Greatest Player to play the game. That name, for now, remains Jack Nicklaus.