I hate to say it because I love it, but I think professional golf is heading for the junk heap of sports -- the ones that used to be popular and now rank in popularity somewhere between extreme fighting and motocross.

God knows that junk heap has been building for decades

First, it was boxing, which used to be a huge sport. People gathered around radios and television sets to listen to and watch fights. Boxers were among the biggest celebrities of their time, almost as big as baseball stars like Babe Ruth.

Boxing died. Some people say death occurred when Mike Tyson bit Evander Hollyfield's ear. Others say it was when the Ali-Frazier-Foreman trio disappeared. All that is clear is that boxing is a dead sport. I know the hardcore fans still follow the lower weight classes, but as a widespread cultural experience, boxing is dead.

I think tennis was the next victim, especially the men's game. When Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe were around, it was a huge sport with big television ratings, big newspaper coverage and fans at all levels around the world. The era of Agassi and Sampras was interesting, but the magic already was disappearing.

Now tennis has a stoic machine named Roger Federer and a bunch of other guys whose names end in long strings of vowels. The only people who follow the sport are the mainstream tennis nuts. Women's tennis is better, but only slightly.

The latest victim is the National Hockey League, which committed suicide by embracing violence and then staging a bitter, long-lasting strike. I know there is this small group of hard-core fanatics who still love the game. But as far as being a part of the American consciousness, hockey has largely vanished. See if you can name three NHL players. I didn't think so.

The bad news, at least for some of us, is that I think professional golf is going to be the next sport to fade into the sunset.

As long as Tiger Woods is around, the sport will be OK. But he's been injured and it's clear, he won't be around forever.

The problem for pro golf is that it is boring.

Everybody thought there was going to be a decade of battles between Woods and Phil Mickelson. But Mickelson has slipped a lot and shows no signs of recovery. He may never win another big tournament.

Now it's a bunch of white guys with the world's best and most expensive equipment playing a game in the most beautiful places in the world. I mean, do we really care if Adam Scott beats Aaron Oberholser?

Here are the top nine players in the world, after Tiger: Mickelson, Ernie Els, Adam Scott, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Geoff Ogilvy, K.J. Choi, Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia. Really makes your spine tingle with excitement, huh?

Part of the problem is money. There is so much money each week that these guys have to be very, very serious about their game.

I have thought about things I'd do, if I were PGA commissioner, to make golf more exciting.

I thought about cute girl caddies in shorts and halter-tops. I thought about having the USGA tell equipment makers to cut their prices by 75 percent (remember, the USGA can do anything it wants). I thought about letting players wear shorts. I thought about making the hole in the green four times bigger.

None of those ideas really seemed to be enough.

If I was the PGA commissioner and could make one change that might make it more exciting to watch, it would be to allow and encourage the fans to cheer.

Not just after shots, but during them. A thousand fans screaming "shank it, shank it" would add a whole new element of excitement to the game and maybe save it from the junk heap of niche sports.