Nielsen’s “Year in Sports 2010″ reveals that households earning more than $100,000 are more likely to watch major sporting events like the Super Bowl, World Series or World Cup.

Nielsen data over the past six weeks shows that “golf” returned as the most relevant topic to Tiger Woods in online conversations.

With so much anticipation for Tiger’s return to golf, many are speculating about just how high Masters ratings will be.

As the 2009 Masters gets underway this week, The Nielsen Company looks at the tournament’s final round ratings during the reign of Tiger Woods. Starting in 1997, when Woods won his first of four green jackets, his presence at the top of the leaderboard has been ratings gold.

Ratings For The Masters Golf Tournement: 1997-2008

Year
Woods Result
Viewers P2+

1997
Won
13,685,000

1998
T-8
9,957,000

1999
T-18
9,993,000

2000
5th
10,061,000

2001
Won
13,638,000

2002
Won
9,694,000

2003
T-15
8,811,000

2004
T-22
7,913,000

2005
Won
10,778,000

2006
T-3
9,298,000

2007
2nd
10,152,000

2008
T-2
9,711,000

Source: The Nielsen Company / All telecasts on CBS

In tournaments won by Tiger, CBS averages 11.9 million viewers during final round coverage. In each tournament since 1997 NOT won by Tiger, viewership for …