Hale fears Woods the 'monster'

Tiger Woods's grip on golf has turned him in to a "monster" who is casting a shadow over the game and those who play it as a profession. That was the extraordinary claim made today by Hale Irwin, the former major winner and Ryder Cup veteran.

As Woods began his defence of the £3.6 million NEC Invitational World Championship at the Firestone Country Club here, Irwin hit out at Tigermania and the media's obsessive interest in the man who has taken sport by storm.

Irwin said: "A monster has been created - and it's a huge monster, too."

The conventional view is that 25-year-old Woods is the greatest thing to happen to the game, with his technical excellence and fistpumping celebrations attracting huge crowds to tournaments and causing record numbers of viewers to tune in to television coverage of his charge at titles.

Tournament purses have risen dramatically as a result of the so-called 'Woods Effect' - the winner here on Sunday will bank £691,000 and even the player who finishes last will pocket £17,000 - while the US Tour recently secured new broadcasting contracts worth £615m on the back of Woods's popularity.

Yet figures released in the wake of last week's US PGA serve to emphasise that professional golf on this side of the Atlantic is becoming a one-man show.

Ratings for the television coverage of Saturday's third round, in which Woods fell out of contention, were down 29 per cent on last year when he was consolidating his successful challenge for a third successive major.

That trend was signalled at the US Open in June, where the third-round ratings on American television were down 15 per cent on 2000 as Woods began to descend into what, by his standards, is a slump. It continued at The Open at Lytham, where ratings tumbled by 26 per cent. Irwin said: "There are financial implications for people who aren't getting the endorsement opportunities they deserve or the full recognition they have earned.