Tiger Woods Singlehandedly Drives Buick Open Ratings

It's a simple formula, really: when Tiger Woods plays, ratings are high; when he doesn't, they aren't. Last year, when Woods called it a season after the U.S. Open, the British Open and PGA Championship ratings were predictably abysmal, despite great golf and even better story lines (Padraig Harrington repeating as Open champion, and winning back-to-back majors at the PGA).

The 2009 British Open was worse; Tiger missed the cut and viewers went elsewhere for their weekend programming. And the latest proof that Woods is the PGA Tour: the Buick Open saw its ratings increase by 167 percent over a year ago.

One-hundred sixty-seven percent.

In fact, according to the Associated Press, CBS's Sunday telecast of Woods' fourth victory of the year was the highest final-round rating for the Buick Open since 2006. Incidentally, that was the last time Tiger won the event. Maybe there's a correlation.

I understand that some fans could get by with fewer shots of Tiger's mug plastered on their teevees, especially when he's not on the first few pages of the leaderboard. But these same folks must also understand that with no Tiger, there's no PGA Tour.

And only Woods could carry the Buick Open on his back. Michael Letzig, Tiger's final-round playing partner, came into the week ranked 200th in the world, the highest among players within a few shots of the lead on Sunday. So, basically, it was the World No. 1 and a bunch of other guys. And despite the lack of drama or big names, ratings still nearly tripled.