Tiger Woods closed his season with a win at the Tour Championship, but Greg Norman hopes that Woods’s return to prominence doesn’t overshadow the Tour’s new wave of young stars.
Norman said in an interview with Yahoo Finance’s Sportsbook podcast that Woods’s return is good for the game, but he hopes other players still get their due.
“I hope they don’t put all their eggs in one basket again and just be all Tiger, and forget about all this other wonderful, fantastic talent,” Norman said. “I’d hate to see them get lost again in that Tiger talk.”
Norman also said that younger players aren’t scared to play against Tiger. “They didn’t grow up from 2000 to 2015 when Tiger was the dominant player. They never went toe-to-toe with him,” he said. “So they respected him and watched him, but now they’re out there doing their thing, and they’re teeing up next to Tiger, and they’re not intimidated.”
While many are quick to cite Tiger’s return as the catalyst for this year’s spike in golf’s TV ratings, Norman credits it to more than just Woods.
“TV ratings are up because of what Tiger Woods does to every other player,” he said. “It’s not just about the one player, it’s about all the supporting cast who are equal if not better than him. He’s just pulling them along.”
