Without Tiger Woods on the greens, just 1.2 million viewers tuned in to NBC's telecast of the Chevron World Challenge, down 54 percent from a year ago, which featured Woods. "An unexpected drop in ratings is clearly negative for everyone broadcasting golf," Richard Greenfield, an analyst at Pali Research, told today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times. CBS carries the Masters and PGA Championship; NBC, the U.S. Open; ESPN, the British Open and the Golf Channel televises about 150 events. Greenfield noted that while the networks will be hit significantly by the loss of viewers, the entire value of Comcast's Golf Channel could be undermined. However, a spokesman for the channel downplayed the impact. "We have a core audience that comes to watch golf no matter who is playing," Golf Channel spokesman Dan Higgins told the newspaper. "Tiger didn't play a full schedule in 2008 or 2009 [because of a knee injury], so we've gone through this before." In a related development, Nike said Monday that it will not withdraw its sponsorship from Woods. In an interview with the Sports Business Journal, Nike Chairman Phil Knight said, "When his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip."