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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- The clerk at my hotel is rooting for a certain somebody with savoir faire, panache and charisma to light up the leaderboard this weekend.
Her place of employment has a huge financial stake in the happenings at the Players Championship, after all, and a PGA Tour understudy needs to step up and fill the void because the headliner went home.
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| At least PGA Tour honcho Tim Finchem can count on former President George H.W. Bush's attendance. (Getty Images) |
The idle chatter took place because the biggest idol in golf isn't here this week, missing the tournament for the first time as a pro after undergoing knee surgery. As a result, the hotel in question wasn't nearly full because a fleet of guests canceled reservations over the past couple of weeks, she said.
Everybody understands that world No. 1 Tiger Woods has a huge impact on TV ratings, which was borne out last weekend at the Wachovia Championship when viewer numbers were roughly half what they were when he won the same event last spring. His massive impact on purses over the arc of his career has been obvious, too.
Yet this week, at the tour's showcase event staged on the iconic course located in its very backyard, the financial Eldrick Effect has been felt like never before. Like the song lyric says, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
An econ recon was clearly in order.
Granted, all of these findings are anecdotal, utterly unscientific and entirely arguable. But from the morning we stepped onto the property this week at TPC Sawgrass, it felt like something was missing. It wasn't just the buzz that traditionally accompanies Woods, either.
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It might be the fans. Nobody is at fault for Woods' absence, of course, but golf nonetheless is getting an unanticipated lesson in Tiger microeconomics. From hotels and restaurants to tertiary folks like ticket scalpers, it's going to be a long and lean week, compared with what was expected before Woods was forced to withdraw.
As is often the case, the best gauge of fan demand can be measured via the rough-hewn guys hawking tickets on street corners outside any sports venue. The scalpers Friday morning looked equal parts desperate and bored as they took up their positions at sunrise alongside State Highway A1A, which fronts the property.
"Terrible, terrible," one scalper groused after he was roused from his position, leaning up against a restaurant sign outside an area strip mall. "Man, I can show you 50 tickets from yesterday that I couldn't sell."
Mind you, the event has been announced as a sellout and demand among the scalpers in past years has usually been steady, he said. Face value on the tickets is $75 but nobody was getting anywhere near that on the street. In the 15 years he has been hawking tickets at Sawgrass, this is the worst it has ever been, he said.
"My friend over there said, 'There's no Tiger in the woods,'" the scalper laughed, pointing at his equally bored buddy stationed across the street. "There's usually cars lined up in this here parking lot waiting for us."
It's not much better, apparently, in the restaurants themselves. In what has become an annual ritual, a foursome of golf scribes ventured to the nearby Outback Steakhouse after Thursday's first round and was surprised to find the place half-full. Usually, during tournament week, there's a lengthy wait for a table at any of the local eateries, which often import extra help to accommodate the overflow.
"It's been this way for a couple of weeks," our waitress, Kelly, said as she motioned to the mostly empty room. "We were really hoping it would turn around this week."
She attributed the falloff to higher gas prices, meaning customers have less disposable income, and the absence of an ailing Mr. Woods. He's hurting and so are they.
Then there's the hotel situation. The reason the conversation with the desk clerk took place is because I was checking out early Friday morning, after learning some guests were being gouged on the room rate. Because demand has fallen so quickly, the walkup room rate is far lower than the price many of us had reserved six months earlier. By checking back in later today, the rate will be $50 cheaper per night. Hotels are slashing rates, a sure sign that supply exceeds demand.
Tournaments that have never had Woods in the field haven't felt the impact of his absence in such stark and contrasting terms, because they don't truly know what they have been missing. The merchants in tiny, tony Ponte Vedra Beach, a sliver of a town located on a barrier island outside Jacksonville, now fully understand his financial importance.
Concrete evidence that attendance is lacking is tougher to come by. The tour does not release an actual turnstile count. A St. Johns County sheriff deputy said Friday that the number of cars in the off-site parking lot is actually greater than last year, but sensed that there were fewer people in attendance. Yet, on the course, even if the gallery figures have remained equal to past years, the vibe, minus Woods, predictably hasn't.
You can always feel the difference with your ears. Now the locals are feeling it in their wallets. It begs the question: If you paid a steep $75 for a single-day ticket and Woods couldn't play, would you still make the trip?
The body count in other quarters has signaled a resounding no. The numbers for national media in attendance speak for themselves. None of the papers from Los Angeles or Chicago are covering the so-called fifth major. Even the Miami Herald, located just six hours down Interstate 95, took a pass, as did St. Petersburg, the state's biggest newspaper. Sports strongholds like Charlotte, Dallas, Houston and Philadelphia also took a pass. Amazingly, San Diego, set to host a U.S. Open in a month, isn't here either.
As if the uncontrollable financial particulars weren't tough enough, there's a chance of thunderstorms in the forecast for the weekend, too, which might cause a few more ticket holders to blink. The weekend forecast was posted at the front desk of the hotel, actually. Nobody had the heart to mention it to the clerk, which would have been like pouring salt into the financial wound.
After all, if the cash in your register is linked to the performance of mercurial Sergio Garcia, you don't need any more daunting news.