Saturday, July 28, 2001
Disney deal ties Tiger to ABC
for five years of Skins, prime time
NEW YORK (AP) — After making golf a
hot TV commodity, Tiger Woods is committing to play in made-for-TV
events on ABC Sports.
Woods agreed to play in four of the next
five Skins Games and a prime-time match each of the next five
years under a deal with Walt Disney Co. announced Friday.
Last month, the contract was described by
Woods' agent Mark Steinberg as a “creative golf package.”
Steinberg was unavailable for comment Friday.
Woods has played the Skins Game only twice,
finishing third in 1996 and 1997. The Thanksgiving weekend event
has been lackluster in recent years with few marquee players.
On Monday, Woods and Annika Sorenstam will
play against David Duval and Karrie Webb in the $1.7 million “Battle
at Bighorn” match-play event on ABC at 8 p.m. EDT.
It's the third such program involving Woods.
He lost to Sergio Garcia last August and beat Duval in 1999 in
the first live network telecast of a golf event in prime time.
The 2000 edition drew a 7.6 national TV
rating, and the 1999 show drew a 6.9 (each ratings point represents
about 1 million TV households). The final round of the British
Open last weekend — which started at 8 a.m., when fewer people
are watching TV — drew a 4.5 rating, 30 percent lower than
last year.
Ever since he won the 1997 Masters, Woods
has been changing the way TV shows golf. His dominance, including
four straight major championships, has lifted his sport's ratings
the way Michael Jordan lifted basketball's.
Two weeks ago, the PGA Tour agreed to TV
rights contracts worth about $850 million, an increase of nearly
50 percent from the old four-year deals.
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