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Message: [QUOTE="ucmiami2, post: 5342110, member: 13062"] I think it was actual Tiger that changed the perception of golf and drove a huge surge in both fans and money into professional golf. Golf was cool, it was talked about 'monday morning around the water cooler' - he was ripped, he was exuberant on the course, and he was tearing up courses and course records. Lots of courses were 'Tiger-proofed' lengthened, narrowed, and added and deeper rough. One European course had a strip of rough added across the fairway to negate bombed drives for a Ryder Cup in Spain. And narrowing fairways around the 300yd mark was standard. And the fan composition was changed - more people who had never played golf showed up - people that were fans of other sports and they brought that kind of fandom to the golf courses. The 'gentlemanly' polite clap for all golfers changed to cheers/jeers and heckling. More 'lager louts' as the British would call them - people more involved in the occasion and the alcohol and their friends than the actual golf being played. It took over at team competitions, and then bled into regular tournaments as well, also often along the same nationalistic lines, but also just between a fan favorite and one or more of his competitors. Our society on the whole is less civil so why would we expect that not to bleed into sports as well. And I think while the players have maintained standards pretty well, I think they also show signs of being less civil to one another. [/QUOTE]

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