Rabalais: Tiger-less PGA Tour will survive

• By SCOTT RABALAIS
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Jul 7, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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As much as you can get a chill in July, the word Tiger Woods gave Sunday on his recovery time from ACL surgery had to send a seismic shiver through the PGA Tour’s headquarters in typically balmy Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

“As of right now,” Woods told CBS’s Verne Lundquist in a video interview, “I don’t know, because right now, I just hope I can get up out of bed and go to the bathroom. Little things like that are a challenge.”

As insanely competitive as Woods is, the fact that he can’t point to a spot on the calendar and declare “I’ll be back” is more disturbing than the fact he was too gimpy to fly to Washington to host his AT&T National tournament, forced to do the interview with Lundquist from his home in Orlando.

Will Tiger return in January or February? In time for The Masters in April? The U.S. Open next June? Not even Woods, a man so committed he played through two — count ’em, two — stress fractures in his injured left leg to heroically win the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, is unable to say. And you know he wants to play next week in the British Open more than he wants to breathe.

While Tiger’s injuries prove he’s mortal, some want to say that his absence is a mortal blow to golf.

That, in a word, is a crock. Tiger dates to 1975, his pro career to 1996. The game dates to the 1400s. It managed to survive through a few centuries before Tiger arrived on the scene; it’ll probably struggle through without him for a few more.

One of the great shortcomings of popular culture is a lack of historical perspective. Though Tiger well may be the greatest ever, though he’s the most recognizable athlete on the planet, he isn’t golf’s first sensation.

Here’s a name: Arnold Palmer. Here’s another: Bobby Jones. And there will be a player to be named later, someone who will give the game its sizzle in the post-Tiger years to come.

No doubt, golf needs Tiger back as soon as he can fire off that left side without wincing once again. Casual fans may drift off to other sports in the interim. Television ratings will soften.

But like $4 gas is the impetus Americans need to cut their oil consumption, Tiger’s time out also has a silver lining for golf.

Just like when Jones retired in 1930 or Palmer’s career faded to twilight in the 1970s, the PGA Tour will need new stars to come out when Tiger inevitably sinks below the horizon.

Maybe one is coming into view before our eyes. Anthony Kim won the AT&T on Sunday, making him just the fourth multiple winner on tour this year. 

Kim, who idolized Woods as a boy the way Woods idolized and targeted Jack Nicklaus, could be just beginning to tap into his Tigerish potential.