Tiger Woods: Will crash shake golf from its dependency on the star?

Observers are already wondering if this could be the event that will liberate golf from its dependence on Tiger Woods, as the sport has repeatedly appeared to have to turn to the 50-year-old to shape its future.

Augusta wanted a new nine-hole public golf course: “The Loop.” Let’s let Tiger design it.

The PGA Tour establishes a committee to decide its future shape. Let’s preside over Tiger.

The USA needs to win the Ryder Cup back. Let’s have Tiger be Captain America.

The list goes on and on.

Woods has been player director on the PGA Tour Policy Board since August 2023 and has been vice chairman of the PGA Tour Enterprises board of directors for the past two years.

The tour also introduced a special rule that would make Woods eligible for all big-money Signature Events; yet the current world number 3,736 has completed all four rounds in just four tournaments since 2020.

TMRW Sports company, together with Rory McIlroy, founded the TGL Indoor league, supported by the PGA Tour. His second season ended last Tuesday with a sweaty Woods making a TV ratings-boosting appearance in the finals.

“His presence on the course is matched by his voice or his presence off the course,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told ESPN four years ago, as his circuit tried desperately to combat the threat of the breakaway LIV Golf league.

“I think his peers look at him as a leader – a leader on the golf course, but also a leader off the course.”

But how much longer?

Will Woods be on hand for the scheduled opening of “The Loop” next week?

Or will he just stay low, as he did when previous car accidents revealed a troubling aspect of his life?

And if he disappears from the fray, how can he continue to chair the US tour’s future competitions committee? Bosses want the next time to be determined by the end of June; The timing couldn’t have been worse for them.