Woods teeing up to become Jordan of the fairways
Given the hysteria surrounding last week's announcement of Michael Jordan's retirement you could be forgiven for believing that the end of the basketball world is nigh.
To be sure, Jordan's excellence has been one of the prime factors in the success of the marketing wizards in building the NBA into one of sport's most valuable properties.
Jordan, with his extraordinary talent and charisma, has been the face of basketball for much of the past decade, raising international awareness of the sport in general and the NBA in particular to unprecedented heights of popularity.
That the game, whose image has been so badly tarnished by the protracted lockout of the players, will suffer in the short term from Jordan's absence is inevitable.
Indeed, we may never see another Michael Jordan, but fresh new faces will emerge to fill the void. The show will go on.
Such is the nature of modern professional sport that it's rare for one player to dominate any discipline in the way that Jordan has.
During the past two years, many parallels have been drawn between Jordan and Tiger Woods. And more specifically, the impact that these two remarkable athletes have had on their respective sports.
Ever since Jack Nicklaus' powers showed signs of waning in the early 1980s, golf had been crying out for someone to come along and assume the Golden Bear's mantle.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, dozens were burdened with being branded as the 'next Jack Nicklaus'. That no one has come close to emulating his achievements is testament to the fact that Nicklaus, like Jordan, was a one-off. That said, Nicklaus never commanded the global appeal and attention that Jordan has enjoyed and that Woods has experienced in his fledgeling career.
The arrival of Woods on the professional scene came as a huge boost to all sectors of the golfing industry. To describe him as the sport's saviour may be over-stating the case, but he undoubtedly deserves much credit for broadening the worldwide popularity of the game.
As his peers readily acknowledge, Woods has also been the main reason behind the significant increases in purses and television revenues that have come the way of the US PGA Tour.
Although to date he has just one Major to his name - the 1997 US Masters - Woods is modern golf's equivalent of Michael Jordan, not only an outstandingly gifted performer, but also a personality of immense proportions who has the ability to inspire people - regardless of colour, creed and race - to try their hand at the game.
The good news for golf is that Woods is still in his early 20s and is expected to remain at the forefront of the game for another 20 years. That's at least 80 Major championship opportunities and more than 300 other regular Tour events.
Given the pressures he faces, on and off the course, there are those, however, who are already predicting that Woods may prematurely opt to turn his back on the game.
If and when that day comes, the US PGA Tour knows it will need to have ready-made replacements waiting in the wings.
Golf can count itself fortunate that there is currently an abundance of young, talented players, keeping Woods on his toes and driving him to perform to ever higher standards.
Leading the way is David Duval, who by the admission of Woods himself, is the best player in the world at the moment - a point he underlined with his runaway, nine-stroke victory in the season-opening Mercedes Championship.
In Europe, England's Lee Westwood and Spaniard Sergio Garcia, dubbed the new Seve Ballesteros, are widely tipped for golfing superstardom, while Japan's Shigeki Maruyama, Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee and Taiwan's Hong Chia-yuh will carry the hopes of Asia into the new millennium.
Whether any or all go on to attain the global fame of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, remains to be seen. What we do know, though, is that it's a healthy state of affairs when a sport is blessed with depth of talent.
