PGA Championship: Why the PGA Tour should root for Gary Woodland

As the weekend approaches at the final major championship of the season, Gary Woodland looks to break away from a star-studded leaderboard. Would a Woodland victory be a good thing for the Tour?

The PGA Tour loves its stars. Between big names like Dustin Johnson, Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and some guy named Tiger, they’ve got plenty of talented faces to build their brand around.

So how should Tour executives feel seeing the relatively unknown Gary Woodland flirting with a major title after 36 holes?

Woodland’s no slouch. He arrived at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis as the 44th-ranked player in the world, a ranking that reflects his victory in this season’s Waste Management Open.

But I doubt many fans around the country are tuning in hoping to see Gary Woodland teeing off in the final pairing on Sunday.

We all love Cinderella stories in big tournaments, whether it’s a pimple-faced amateur making the cut at the Masters or an anonymous journeyman shocking the field with the tournament of his life.

Woodland doesn’t check either of those boxes. He’s a respectable second-tier talent with the ability to go low, but someone who hasn’t turned heads by showing up in the top-10 with much consistency, notching only one top-10 finish outside of his win.

You’d think the Tour would prefer to see Rickie Fowler take the Wanamaker Trophy. Rickie’s got the look, the following, a steadily improving on-camera presence, and the talent to be a force in the game for decades.

You’re right. A Fowler championship would expose the game to his stable of young fans and help grow the sport. But I’m not the Tour. I’m just a fan.

Like you, I watch a lot of golf. I see guys like Rickie and Dustin compete for trophies every week and I know I’ll have plenty of opportunities to watch them go at it for years. I can’t say that for a guy like Woodland.

Woodland is playing for all of the recognizable, marginally relevant Tour players who don’t get the airtime or the recognition they deserve. Networks are happy to bring us all 70 of Tiger’s strokes in real time, but there are plenty of players out there whose game warrants national attention.

They’re the pros who have a high enough ceiling to win any given week, but don’t have the consistency to match the world’s top-ranked superstars.

Serious golf fans want to see these veteran players win on the big stage. The Tour would benefit from bringing these names and faces into the spotlight. Everybody knows Dustin Johnson is great, and that’s why fans like watching him.

If Woodland pulls it off he’ll become another well-known name in the sport, and having more recognizable players is an asset for the Tour.

The Tour consists of scores of players like Woodland who are capable of a breakout win and the status that comes with it.

If the Tour prioritized bringing more players like Woodland into the public eye, the casual fan would invest in their success and tune in regardless of whether Tiger Woods is in the field.

The PGA Tour is right to care about growing the game and bringing in new fans. That doesn’t mean they should ignore the diehards who value the lower-profile players on tour. Rickie Fowler will be a favorite at every major next season, and I’ll be there wearing my Sunday orange when his time comes.

But this weekend, I’m hopping on the Woodland Wagon. I hope the Tour does, too.