Golf

1990s Golf: The Tiger Effect

Golf Before Tiger

For the longest time, golf was a sport dominated by white men. In fact, up until 1961, the PGA of America had a rule banning any non-caucasian from the game. Even up until the nineties, golf was unpopular to many and very discriminatory.

Professional golf before Tiger, was different. The viewership and fandom were nothing like what it is today.

In America 1996, just before the days of Tiger Woods, there were 26.4 million golfers. Just ten years later, there were 29.8 million.

Early 90s stars

Payne Stewart

Payne had 6 PGA Tour wins and 2 major titles to his name just in the nineties. Payne was famous for his wild outfits. Unfortunetly he met an untimely death in 1999 becuase of a plane crash.

Mark O'Meara

Mark O'Meara was another star in the ninties that had 12 tour victories and 2 majors. Mark competed amoung all of the great players of this time, and is still a golf figure today.

Ernie Els

Ernie had 12 tour victories and 2 major titles in the nineties. This decade allowed Ernie to breakthrough and launched him into stardome.

Nick Faldo

Sir Nick Faldo had 6 tour victories as well as an astonishing 4 major titiles in the ninties.

The Tiger Era

Tiger Woods changed the perception of golf and broke a racial barrier that had been there for many decades.

His insane ability paired with his popularity brought new fans and players of all races and ages into golf.

Tiger Woods shattered virtually every junior record in the early 1990s. He famously won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots, shattering major's records.

Golf, Then and Now

Since the 1990s golf era, Golf has exploded. Today golf is more popular in Asian countries, the golf equipment and apparel industry has exploded to over 4 billion in market, and just in the US, there are 25 million golfers.

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