Who is more responsible for making golf as popular as it is today: Arnold Palmer or Tiger Woods?

[Righty to Lefty]

It's Tiger....Tiger is the wealthiest athlete in the history of sport and is the reason why a journeyman golfer can have a good week at a non major and be set up for the rest of his life financially. Tiger is the reason why players on the whole look more athletic. Gary Player may have been first, but he didn't dominate the game by doing it and that is the key. Tiger is the reason why when a 12 or 13 year old kid says they want to be a professional golfer when he grows up and no one laughs. Tiger is the reason why people who would have previously picked baseball, football, or basketball pick golf thus more athletic people are choosing golf nowadays. Tiger is the reason why non golfers watch. No one else in the history of sport has had such a profound effect on their sport. Not even Michael Jordan because Tiger is more internationally known in my opinion simply because he travels the world to play. Tiger doesn't move the needle, Tiger IS the needle.

[Spitfisher]

Its a tough question, because it does lacks a definition of popular. Is popular how many are playing or how many are watching and reading? Here is what I believe is the correct answers for Todays popularity.

Palmer: He got more people to play golf, The amount of golfers prior to Tiger really getting started (1998) was 27 million. When Palmer started it was closer to 14-15 million. Since1998  the participation has been flat to slowly but steadily been going down and most recently the past few years the decline has been steeper, especially young golfers 10-21 are now at an all time low.

Woods:  As much as golfers have declined since he turned pro, Viewership on the other hand is at its highest during this period this likely was  the direct result of Tiger & more TVs, more media coverage and technology.

[Dloy]

Palmer all the way, no question. He's an "inclusive" guy, always reaching out to the fans and the incoming lions. Tiger is incredibly gifted, except in that regard. You rarely see him genuinely complement anyone. Of course that focus is an edge, but who would you rather spend the day with?

[skydog]

Not an answerable question in my opinion, because there would have been no Tiger without Arnie. Like most folks from that generation (including my father, who taught me) Earl was probably inspired/brought into the game by Arnie and likely never would have introduced Tiger to it without him. More concretely, without Arnie, there wouldn't have been a PGA tour for Tiger to explode onto...and at the very most if there was a tour it would have been an obscure 'minor league' version of itself with little to no air time or notoriety.

[David in FL]

Not an answerable question in my opinion....

Since when did that ever stop us from debating something?!

...... there would have been no Tiger without Arnie. Like most folks from that generation (including my father, who taught me) Earl was probably inspired/brought into the game by Arnie and likely never would have introduced Tiger to it without him. More concretely, without Arnie, there wouldn't have been a PGA tour for Tiger to explode onto...and at the very most if there was a tour it would have been an obscure 'minor league' version of itself with little to no air time or notoriety.

I agree.  Sounds like you just did a pretty good job of answering the "unanswerable"!

[skydog]

Haha yea I guess I did. I voted for Arnie

[Fourputt]

Palmer. Tiger's father watched Palmer, got into golf, and got Tiger into golf.

Palmer first, with Woods adding on to what Palmer contributed.

It's been a progression, but Arnie started it.  He took the game out of the country club and into the mainstream.  Even though there had most always been public courses in the US (Overland Golf Course in Denver has been in operation since 1895), the game's first real public boom was started by Arnie and his Army.  There might never have been a Tiger without Arnie paving the way.