Tiger Woods’ absence could cost $15 billion, but possibly be good for golf?

Tiger Woods’ bad back offers the golf business an opportunity it would not have if the PGA Tour’s cash cow were healthy enough to play competitively.

“Life without Tiger can be effectively good for the industry,” Rick Horrow, chief executive of Horrow Sports Ventures and visiting expert on sports law and business at Harvard Law School, told Golf.com’s Josh Sens recently. “It gets promoters, sponsors and TV executives thinking more creatively, working to cultivate a greater understanding and appreciation for the inherent excitement, tradition and allure of golf.”

Apart from that view of Life Without Tiger through rose-colored Oakleys, however, a prolonged absence by Woods, who is likely to miss the U.S. Open in June and perhaps remain on the DL for even longer, could cost those involved in the financial end of the game some $15 billion.

Sens came up with the eye-popping figure after factoring in dropping ticket prices and meager TV ratings for the Masters, which Woods missed for the first time in his professional career, and after speaking with television, communications, and media experts. All involved agreed they could not specify exactly how much Woods will cost golf as long as he remains benched, but Sens considered the $68.8 billion value of the golf industry in his ciphering.

In the meantime, while he may be costing tourney sponsors, ticker sellers, gear manufacturers, and other golf-related entities boatloads of cash by being laid up after spine surgery, the world No. 1 has come up with a new way to make money for his foundation and local youth charities.

The Tiger Woods Foundation has added a golf tourney for amateurs to its fundraising portfolio. The best players competing on elite courses that include Merion, Congressional, and Innisbrook, as well as those who bring in the most money for the foundation’s seven learning centers and Earl Woods Scholarship Program via the Tiger Woods Charity Playoffs, will earn spots in a year-end final event in Orlando, Fla.

“Between the prestigious tournament venues and the chance to support a great cause, I’m excited to see fans and players enjoy this opportunity to give back,” Woods said in a statement on the playoffs website.

Two-person teams may register for regional qualifying tournaments for $500 each at most sites and a philanthropic pledge of $1,000. Teams that secure donations of at least $10,000 will automatically qualify for the Charity Playoff finals, as will teams with low-net and low-gross scores from each qualifier.

In addition to two days of golf in the finals on December 1-December 2, finalists will receive two nights at the Four Seasons Resort Orlando, a private exhibition and reception with Tiger and other tour players, and clubhouse credentials for the World Challenge at Orlando’s Isleworth Golf & Country Club from December 4-December 7. The top fundraising duo will also earn two pro-am spots in the three TWF events in 2015, the Deutsche Bank Championship, Quicken Loans (formerly the AT&T) National, and World Challenge.

The qualifiers begin on May 27 at Cascata in Las Vegas and end on October 16 at Myopia Hunt Club, a prestigious private course on Boston’s North Shore that has hosted four national championships and has the distinction of being the most difficult track in U.S. Open history.

Woods announced the series on March 31 and as of Tuesday evening, 35 donors had already raised $77,000 at Merion, site of of the 2013 U.S. Open.