What will PGA broadcasts be without Tiger Woods?

Too much of a good thing …

Soon, the inevitable day that golf’s shortsighted TV shot-callers ensured, will arrive. Golf, as a TV enterprise, will be tethered to a ghost, the ghost of Tiger Woods.

Instead of exploiting the explosion of interest in Woods to introduce a new wave of golf viewers to all of golf’s great and even interesting players — instead of allowing others to share the stage with Woods — TV milked Woods dry, put all its eggs in one golf bag.

Showing Woods’ every shot — a good idea — wasn’t enough. Showing his every step — parking lot, to practice range, 18 holes of golf (even as he lined up long putts from four angles, threw grass in the air, breathed in then out), back to the parking lot — to the exclusion of others who were playing noteworthy golf, became American TV’s mandate, thus it had to become par for our course.

Soon, TV will have to try to undo what it did. It will have to convince audiences Tiger-less golf is worthy of their sustained interest.

Follow the bouncing golf ball, just for the last three weeks:

As Woods was shooting 1-under in the first round of the British Open, the joy from ESPN’s on-site and studio pots- and pans-bangers was relentless: “He’s back! He’s back!”

Next day, as he shot 7-over, it was a somber, “His back. His back.”

Woods often stimulates wonder as to whether bad backs cause final-round bogeys or do final-round bogeys cause bad backs.

Regardless, with Woods out of the hunt, audiences long ago conditioned to Tiger-only viewing were lost. The British Open’s a major? Not after Woods shot 7-over it isn’t.

Next, Firestone, a Woods-centric watch as he’d won it eight times! And during and after the first round there was only one good reason to keep watching: Woods was in the hunt! The CBS/Golf Channel on-course and studio folks were delighted!

But then, dang it, Sergio Garcia and Rory McIlroy — both strong TV draws had US TV allowed such in The Time Of Tiger — left Woods far behind. As Officer Flanagan said, “Break it up, folks, nothing left to see here. Move along.”

But wait! During the final round, Woods, far back, suddenly and angrily withdrew. “His back!”

CBS, trolling for the video evidence of the offending grassy knoll while simultaneously following Woods to the parking lot, went into bereavement mode.

Sure, Garcia and McIlroy were still fighting it out, but how could they/we care about playing golf at such a worrisome time? The PGA Championship would begin in four days. Without Woods, would it still be played? Would it count?

And so, starting Sunday evening, Golf Channel and ESPN, among others, provided a solemn, steady vigil. After all, how could a man who plays golf for a living, who leaves the course in agony on a Sunday, be ready to play a major Thursday?

But because Woods is no mere mortal — Was it his back or kryptonite? — he was back, to play a practice round, Wednesday!

And with TV cameras and reporters semi-circled, Woods stepped from his car without so much as a smile, a wave, or a kind word. Standard Woods. His concerned fans, fabulously enriching networks, forgiving and forgetful sponsors and maudlin, syrup-soaked, see/speak/hear/suspect-no-evil golf announcers are a matter of entitlement.

While Golf Channel stopped what it was doing to show Woods’ car drive up, CBS Sports Network was showing the 2007 PGA Championship — won by Tiger Woods.

Thursday, prior to the TNT/CBS telecast of the first round of the PGA, CBS Sports shamelessly tweeted a photo of Woods that carried the large-print exclamation, “Let’s Go Tiger!”

Thursday’s coverage began with Woods, on tape, walking in from the parking lot. Next, it showed some of his round, on tape, to that point.

None of the TNT/CBS commentators mentioned that despite Sunday’s day-ending, bad-back agony, Woods, on his first hole, violently jerked his putter over his back, after leaving his first putt short. None noted that Tiger could further imperil his bad back by slamming his club into the ground — of course, the f-bomb he spit was ignored — after a pulled approach to a par-3.

When his round ended, TNT/CBS showed Woods, 3-over, nine-back, back in the parking lot.

Soon, when Tiger’s done, golf, the televised version, will be shackled to a ghost. Sow, reap, starve. God save the King!

Yankees’ Jeter fixation comes at a price

Soon, I suspect, after every half-inning, every base Derek Jeter’s spikes touched will be pulled, replaced then placed for sale — the take shared among Jeter, the Yankees and Steiner Collectibles.

♦ Patrick Ewing, who lives in Jersey — he was born in Jamaica, raised in Massachusetts, played for Georgetown before the Knicks — has been selected for enshrinement in the New Jersey (not just sports) Hall of Fame. No, Ewing Township was not named for him, nor was Pat-erson.

♦ Every time Bud Selig boasts about having multiplied MLB’s revenues, longtime MLB in-house employees, who have to beg a 2.4 percent raise, retch.

♦ With MLB games now ending with players, umps and managers standing around, waiting for the replay judges in Manhattan, Myron Rushetzky, former Post City Room generalissimo, suggests that games now can end with a “stand-off.”

♦ Saturday’s and Sunday’s nine-inning Yanks-Red Sox games ran a total of seven hours, 40 minutes, Sunday’s — ka-ching! — ending at midnight. Friday’s Yanks-Red Sox, a 3-2, 8 ½ innings final, ran a mere 3:05.

♦ With ESPN having its guys call Sunday’s Yanks-Red Sox from above Fenway’s Green Monster — ESPN spent much of the game covering ESPN’s coverage — a pitch up and in to David Ortiz moved John Kruk to say, “I’m not sure that was as close as it appeared.” Reader Joe Machado: “That’s because you’re sitting 375 feet away!”

I kid you not: Stats getting out of hand

There’s dark comedy within every ESPN telecast of the Little League World Series.
Wednesday, with Nebraska’s team up, 11-6 in the last inning of a play-in against Minnesota, a Minnesota kid led off with a double. Analyst Chris Burke suggested that the pitcher made a mistake, throwing “a fastball, up in the zone.”

But if you check the splits, non-inherited runner stats, righty-to-righty day-game data and non-save opportunities, Nebraska’s bullpen has been shaky, all season.

For crying out loud, they’re 12-year-olds! One kid threw the ball; the other kid hit it. Fastball up in the zone. Geez.