Will Tiger Woods’ dramatic comeback help sell golf cars? Perhaps it’s too early to say – but some sections of the golf world are already reaping quantifiable benefits from a champion’s return.
Want additional proof that the “Tiger Boom” is real, and that the game of golf in general is on stable footing? Look no further than the surge of visits to GOLF.com, which had already been growing steadily in the first quarter of 2019, then simply exploded with a record-breaking traffic day as Tiger Woods completed his historic comeback at the 2019 Masters.
On the final day of this year’s Masters, when it was clear Tiger would be in contention, web traffic to GOLF.com quadrupled from the first day of the event and more than doubled from the final day of the 2018 Masters. GOLF.com’s previous highest-ever traffic day was the Monday after the 2018 Masters, and GOLF.com surpassed that record by a whopping 80% on the Sunday of the 2019 Masters.
Traffic on GOLF.com spiked most remarkably just as Tiger took the lead and was playing his final holes (approximately 2 pm ET), as hundreds of thousands of new visitors swarmed the GOLF.com site for information.
As the most recognizable URL in the sport, the newly revamped GOLF.com is likely one of the most accurate gauges of the health of the sport over time. For the first quarter of 2019, total visitors to GOLF.com were up 36% from a year ago. This is the result of a number of things – GOLF.com debuted a redesigned website in February, which is more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing than ever; the GOLF.com team has implemented stronger editorial, SEO and social media practices; and GOLF.com’s print counterpart, GOLF Magazine, unveiled a hugely successful redesign, which debuted with the February issue.
GOLF Magazine and the GOLF.com website were purchased in 2018 by golf entrepreneur Howard Milstein who – through his 8AM Golf brand – also owns the Nicklaus Companies (in partnership with legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus), brand-agnostic club-fitter True Spec Golf and GolfLogix, which is the most downloaded app in golf.
“The Tiger Boom is real,” said Jason Adel, CEO of GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. “We will continue to closely monitor this boost for the game of golf as we move towards the next major, the PGA Championship at Bethpage in May. But more importantly than anything, GOLF.com is more set up for success than ever because of the investments that have been made in our digital platform, which means we’re able to capitalize on historic moments more effectively than ever.”
The Tiger Boom first became evident as much as a year before his epic Masters win. NBC Sports Group says the final round of the 2018 Valspar Championship earned a 5.11 overnight rating, up 190 percent over the previous year and the highest-rated PGA Tour broadcast since Woods won The Players Championship in 2013. That doesn’t include the majors.
Woods, returning from a fourth back surgery, was one shot out of the lead going into the final round. He had a 40-foot birdie attempt on the 18th hole to force a playoff with Paul Casey and came up short.
Golf Channel’s two-hour window before the NBC telecast Sunday earned a 1.65 rating, its highest-rated coverage for the lead-in window since it began in 2009.
