I keep hearing the debate, especially with The Open starting this week, about whether it hurts the game of golf or helps it to have Tiger out for the rest of the golf season. I personally think that it is fundamentally a stupid argument because I definitely am a believer that no one golfer is bigger than the game. But I feel compelled to answer the question. You may or may not agree, but here it goes.

I don't believe that it is good or bad for the game of golf. Now I'm not copping out, let me explain what I mean because I just believe that "It is what it is" plain and simple. And here is what I mean by that.

There is no doubt that Tiger is the dominant golfer of these times. And I've talked in past posts about some of the things that the money is doing to the game that I believe limit the number of golfers who will be able to step up and challenge Tiger consistently. But contrary to some of the perception that is out there, golf tournaments, especially the majors, are not over just because Tiger shows up.

Let's look at some numbers. Tiger made his PGA debut in 1996. Since that time there have been 13 Masters Tournaments, 13 US Opens, 12 British Opens, and 12 PGA Tournaments. Now, as I said Tiger has been a dominant golfer on the PGA Tour. During that time he won the Masters 4 times, The US Open 4 times, The British Open 3 times, and the PGA 4 times.

So he has won 30% of the Majors during his career. Yes, unbelievable. But those numbers also tell us that 70% of the time, someone else won one of those majors. So despite what you hear the other pro golfers saying about "Now we have a chance", I think that most of that is joking. These guys are pros and while I believe that they respect Tiger, I don't believe that they are scared of him. The bottom line is that I just don't think that Tiger's absence hurts the game or helps the game.

Now I believe that many of you golf fans, like me, will miss seeing him play. And I don't want this entire article to come off sounding negative on Tiger. I am not negative on him and I respect him tremendously. But I believe that the game of golf will go on and the fans will come to the tournaments and will watch the tournaments on TV. And I believe that Tiger will come back and be as good as he was before.

It is what it is. It's just one of the game's best out for a while. Get well Tiger and all you golf nuts out there......keep loving, watching, and playing the game.