Quick test, right now: text your friends and ask how many of them tuned in to see Tiger Woods on Sunday at the British Open.

Now see how many of them know who won the tournament.

If your circle of friends is anything like, well, the rest of America, the first number’s going to dwarf the second one. (Spoiler: it was Francesco Molinari.) It’s been this way for more than 20 years now, ever since that day in April 1997 when a 21-year-old Woods first throttled Augusta National. And even now, when golf’s talent base is as broad as it’s ever been, when half a dozen remarkable players jockey at the top of every leaderboard, Woods just has to stroll onto the course in his Sunday red and the audience belongs to him.

View photos Tiger Woods in red and black, once again. (AP) More

Call it the Grandmother Test: your grandmother (most likely, don’t @ me) doesn’t know who Jordan Spieth or Justin Thomas are, doesn’t much care that Dustin Johnson missed the weekend at Carnoustie or that Rickie Fowler can’t close the deal on major Sundays. But she knows Tiger Woods, and she – along with hundreds of thousands of others – will tune in when, and only when, Tiger’s in the field and making noise.

Or, in Twitter terms:

View photos Via Twitter More

Naturally, Woods’ very presence in a tournament sends a certain segment of golf fandom into fits. “We’re sick of Tiger Woods!” wail golf purists and internet commenters. They gripe that he’s irrelevant, that coverage fixates on Woods at the expense of the poor neglected legions of other golfers – even though Woods has as many majors on his own as all of the world’s top 12 players combined.

But rather than catering to hurt feelings, let’s focus instead on facts. As always, the loudest voices don’t represent the majority. Even though he hasn’t won in five years, Woods’ presence still brings huge ratings bumps to every tournament he enters, especially those where he’s even remotely competitive. A quick sample from this year alone:

• The Farmers Insurance Open in January, where Woods finished T23, saw increases of 53 percent and 38 percent on its Saturday and Sunday numbers, with Sunday bringing the tournament’s highest ratings in five years.

• The Valspar Championship in March, where Woods finished in a tie for second, was the highest-rated non-Masters event since the 2014 PGA Championship – higher than any U.S. Open or British Open in the Spieth/JT/DJ Era – and the highest for a non-major PGA Tour event since the 2013 Players (which Woods won).

• The Arnold Palmer Championship, also in March, saw a bounce of 136 percent on Sunday over the Tiger-less tournament in 2017. Woods finished in a tie for fifth place.

Hard truth: whatever airtime Woods gobbles up from lesser-known players, the vast majority of the audience either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. There are plenty of non-major, non-Tiger events for the golf hardcores to enjoy the sterling shotmaking and precision putting of [lesser-known players’ names redacted for courtesy’s sake]; when Tiger’s around, Tiger claims the spotlight.

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