Analysis: The end of the Tiger Woods era leaves golf scrambling for a ‘savior’

Chambers Bay, the breathtaking and tradition-breaking venue for the U.S. Open, could be the star of this week’s show. But you get the feeling that won’t be good enough for golf. The sport has developed a savior fixation. It’s a risky business strategy. Since Tiger Woods’ career arc literally and figuratively crashed on Nov. 27, 2009, golf has been searching for another alpha and omega. For a few years, the central hope was that Tiger would get back to being Tiger — and he did for a spell in 2013, leading the PGA Tour in earnings and winning five tournaments, but none of those were majors, and that’s the coin of his realm. For most of the last five years, Woods has wandered in soul-searching, swing-searching purgatory, and golf has become desperate to anoint a replacement.

For years, everyone lamented Woods’ lack of a true rival — someone is always lamenting the lack of something in golf — and maybe this could be a compelling two-man act over an extended period of time.

Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde

It’s a bit silly, and it hints at a pessimism about golf’s ability to thrive without a single towering figure. The sport seems to be selling itself short. The likelihood of anyone having another run like Woods had from Augusta 1997 through Torrey Pines 2008 is slim. If that’s what golf is waiting to see happen again, it may be a really long wait. That’s why pinning its marketability on one guy is inviting trouble. Instead of targeting a savior and declaring a one-man era, it would be wiser for golf to spread the wealth and celebrate its international depth. We’ve had 21 winners in 24 PGA Tour events in 2015. A little variety is not a bad thing, writes Yahoo Sports’ Pat Forde.

Championing that variety would allow us to let things play out with the leading lights, instead of a rushed conferral of savior status.

Pat Forde

Sports US Open