Tiger Woods will be playing golf this week at Hazeltine in Chaska. Actually, a whole bunch of professional golfers will be playing golf this week at Hazeltine, but how much attention will be given to any of them not named Tiger Woods?

It got me thinking about where golf ranks in terms of fans and fan interest as compared to other sports. It is maybe hard to rank because our individual rankings could change so frequently througout the year. I mean, the Twins are struggling right now, so our frustration may drop them slightly. The Vikings are preparing for their first preseason game which is on Friday, and we expect the team to be very good, so is interest peaked, or will interest be even higher in three or four weeks? The Timberwolves will not be a very good basketball team this year, but at least Kevin McHale is out of the decision-making realm, so is there hope? What if Ricky Rubio decides to play this year, would that change the ranking? This is still the State of Hockey, right? But the Wild have had one significant playoff run and that was several years ago. The Gophers hockey team had a very disappointing season last year, but Bemidji State became a big, national story line. And where would high school hockey (or another sport) rank for you? And then there is NASCAR, which apparently is the biggest spectator sport around, for some reason.
 
And then there is golf. When Tiger Woods is in a tournament, its sponsors and network executives are so excited. When he isn't in the tournament, does anyone watch it? Tiger Woods has won tournaments the last two weekends, and since he is yet to win a Major this year, that will be a huge story line.

So, as we prepare for an onslaught of news stories from local and national media (and likely a ton of extra traffic in the southwest Metro, I thought it would be fun to guage or rank our sports interests.

I will post my personal rankings, and feel free to post your ranking in the comments below and discuss:

1.) Baseball - Twins (I'm sure this surprises you)
2.) Football - Vikings 
3.) Basketball - Timberwolves
4.) Golf - with Tiger playing
5.) Football - College
6.) Hockey - College
7.) Basketball - College
8.) World Series of Poker
9.) Hockey - High School
10.) Hockey - Wild
11.) Golf - without Tiger playing
12.) Soccer

Now for me, there is a huge dropoff between #1 and #2. Then there is a big dropoff between #2 and #3. And then really after #3, I probably don't watch enough to have much of a strong feeling about the ranking.

So let me know your sports rankings. If you want, try to convince me to try another sport.