Tiger Woods v Phil Mickelson: Is the $9m match good for golf or a tacky sideshow?
Over the next few weeks the attention of golf fans will be increasingly drawn to a genteel corner of France nestled by the Palace of Versailles, where Europe and the United States will resume hostilities in the finest traditions of the Ryder Cup.
Once that’s over, however, an altogether gaudier spectacle will be competing for the gaze of the sport’s followers: the $9m head-to-head contest between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson taking place amid the glitz and kitsch of Las Vegas in late November.
An unashamedly commercial affair, made for a pay-per-view audience and with the players wearing microphones so that audiences may enjoy their in-game verbal sparring, it has divided observers. Nonetheless, it may offer a glimpse into the future of sport, or at the very least clues as to what sticks and what doesn’t in an industry in flux.
Read more: Sam Torrance: Europe timing their form perfectly for the Ryder Cup
Fans and sceptics will agree, however, that Tiger vs Phil – or The Match, as it has been billed – is a sporting occasion for our times, with a format designed to tap into several key industry trends.
It’s short-form sport, attempting to ape the success of Twenty20 cricket, and the single-round-only contest caters to the viewer who likes golf – or perhaps even just Woods or Mickelson – but is reluctant to commit to a four-day tournament.
The match also draws on the growing cult of the individual and the pulling power of sport’s biggest names. For instance, Cristiano Ronaldo has almost four times as many social media followers as his club Juventus, while his old team Real Madrid lost 1m within 24 hours of his departure last month. For legions, Ronaldo is the draw; The Match is predicated on Tiger and Lefty fans following where they go too.
Real Madrid lost followers on social media when Cristiano Ronaldo moved to Juventus this summer (Source: Getty)
On top of all that it is geared towards increasingly valuable behind-the-scenes and lifestyle content: there’s a Road To Las Vegas element, some early trash-talking between the pair on social media – Mickelson seemingly joined Twitter a fortnight ago in order to engage in hammy banter with Woods – and the miked-up players’ on-course repartee.
“This is perfectly capitalising on a lot of the changing behaviours when it comes to sports consumption that we can see already,” says Carsten Thode, chief strategy officer at agency Synergy. “I think it’s an incredibly smart thing to do commercially because they are tapping into all these trends and it’s guaranteed to be a commercial success.”
Commercialisation is writ large across The Match, from the $9m prize to the Vegas backdrop. It has borrowed the well-worn hype tactics of boxing – exemplified in last year’s blockbuster bout between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, held in the same city.
And it is no coincidence that the contest is taking place in the gambling capital of the world: the match is, essentially, a winner-takes-all wager between two multi-millionaires.
Conor McGregor's fight with Floyd Mayweather was also held in Las Vegas (Source: Getty)
With sports betting now legal in a handful of other American states beyond Nevada, and Woods and Mickelson promising to introduce in-play side bets on longest drive and closest to the pin challenges, it promises to be an early bonanza fledgling US bookmakers.
“These one-off events I’m always for and boxing has been the biggest sport in terms of driving an audience,” says Steve Martin, global chief executive of M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment. “The Mayweather-McGregor fight was a similar thing and I understood why that was done.
“It feels like this is trying to learn from that and copy it in a way. Hype it and hype it, stage it in Las Vegas, put super money on it and drum up an interest. The truth will be told when we look at the audience and whether people care about the outcome.”
Where opinions differ is over whether it is primarily good for golf and a sporting contest with genuine merit or a tacky sideshow in which the two biggest earners in the game’s history seek to leverage their fading appeal for one more pay-day.
Tiger Woods is one of golf's most successful players, having won 14 Majors (Source: Getty)
“To me it’s a little bit over the top, given the backdrop of the world economy at the moment. It’s a little bit showy. The social media banter to me feels a bit forced. They’re playing it in Vegas, which is also the backdrop of money, money, money,” says Martin.
“What’s happening with this $9m? I know there’s going to be a big charitable part of it and I hope there is. People are talking about the input, which is the match itself, but what are you supposed to feel? Are you supposed to care? I’m not sure.”
For now it’s a one-off, but if successful Thode believes it could encourage the staging of future head-to-heads between the best – or at least most high-profile – golfers.
“I can see someone developing something more sustainable around the bare bones of this format,” he says.
“I’m sure it’s going to be a commercial success as a one-off and we’ll see if they turn it into something a bit more sustainable than that. In a way it won’t really matter. It certainly won’t matter to Tiger or Phil when one of them picks up the money.”