Courtesy USA Today

(February 24, 2009) As Tiger Woods emerged as a superstar, it was clear his presence would attract lots of new eyeballs to golf, which led to notions that such consumer sampling would permanently broaden the sport's appeal.

That still hasn't happened. Woods only allows TV networks showing golf to rent audiences — not own them. Says NBC analyst Roger Maltbie: "Let's be honest, the golf world needs Tiger Woods. They have missed Tiger terribly."

But Wednesday, casual golf fans can once again marinate in Woods. The Golf Channel — whose onscreen countdown clock to Woods' return helpfully shows the seconds left — has an expanded Golf Central Pre-Game (1 p.m. ET) before its WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship coverage begins —how's this for luck!— just as Woods tees off at 2:02 p.m. ET.

Don't worry if you can't watch Tiger on TV because you're, as they say, "at work." PGATour.com — debuting its own Tiger "micro-site" — will have tape-delayed, hole-by-hole coverage as the only online outlet able to show shots by Woods at every hole. And Sirius XM satellite radio will have live hole-by-hole coverage. Radio golf makes it more fun to second-guess how players read greens.

The event's match play format means Woods could miss NBC's weekend coverage altogether. Eric Wright of Joyce Julius & Associates, a research firm that calculates values that sponsors get from TV exposure, suggests Woods will fetch sponsors such as Nike about $6 million worth of exposure if he stays on NBC all weekend. But even if Woods is out by Friday, NBC producer Tommy Roy — who says Woods' return has become "a happening" — says he'll keep showing up on NBC all weekend anyway: "We'll document (his play) whether he's out or he's still alive."

Not that golf, NBC's Johnny Miller says, is that dependent on Woods: "Golf is bigger than everybody. … And golf controls the money in the country. All the CEOs play golf."