Nearby, in a crowded CBS production truck, Sean McManus, the network president for sports, was just as hushed as he stared at a screen that showed the ball rolling purposefully over the bent grass.
When it dropped for a birdie, McManus punched triumphantly at the air and turned to give a colleague a high-five. It was as though he had made the shot himself.
That putt had lifted Woods to within three strokes of the lead during the third round of last August's PGA Championship - the closest he would get, as it turned out. It would be worth an instant replay. Several, in fact.
McManus had good reason to be as gleeful as the gallery faithful. For he is not really a sports journalist, seeking only an objective account of the play.
Instead, he and CBS are partners with Woods and the Professional Golfers Association in a big-time money game. Tiger Woods is good for CBS, and a Tiger Woods who wins is even better.
Sports, perhaps more than any other aspect of American life, has been changed by television. TV has made sports a multibillion-dollar industry.
In the process, athletes have been transformed from mere heroic figures, able to throw farther and run faster than other mortals, into highly skilled, highly paid commodities, props to boost ratings and sell advertising.
That's why the networks concentrate so hard on profiles of Michael Jordan, Brett Favre, Ken Griffey Jr. and Tiger Woods. The television-sports partnership depends on personalities to keep fan interest high.
Sports consumed 2,100 hours on the four main broadcast networks in 1996. That's 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, that viewers could sit at home and watch everything from the Super Bowl to bowling. And that does not count ESPN's 24 hours a day and the output of the other cable networks.
Virtually no experience is as commonly shared on such a mass basis.
