The Tiger Woods effect has been seen many times over in men’s golf over the past decade. When Woods is not in contention for a tournament title, ratings sink.

But until this weekend, golf had never seen a Woods effect this severe. For the first time ever, Woods missed the cut at a major tournament. With Tiger off to an early start on his weekend, ratings for the U.S. Open dropped to record-low levels.

There are two more major events left this season, and that begs the question: Can Woods return to form, and what will happen if he can’t? Golf ratings are sure to plummet.

Woods exited the tournament on Friday after shooting 12 over par for two days and missing the cut by three strokes. Thus Saturday’s Tiger-less third-round coverage of the U.S. Open on NBC averaged a 3.2 household rating, according to Nielsen overnights.

That was the lowest Saturday average since Nielsen began measuring the tournament in 1982. It was down 27 percent from the previous year, when Saturday averaged a 4.4.

Sunday’s final round averaged a 5.1, down 12 percent from a 5.8 the previous year, when Woods finished second. It was the lowest-rated final round in three years and second-lowest-rated since 1994.

NBC’s two-day average of 4.2, if it holds when final ratings are released later today, would be the worst two-day average since 1988 and tie for second-worst ever.

Ratings for Thursday and Friday were off as well, with Woods never really finding a rhythm and finishing well behind the leaders on each day.

Clearly audiences were not interested in watching a major where Woods had no chance of winning. Too, they may have felt deceived by all the pre-tournament build up, which focused on a showdown between Woods and Phil Mickelson, winner of the past two majors who missed a third straight win with a double bogey on the final hole Sunday.

The media thus deserves much of the blame for the lackluster ratings. It was unrealistic to expect Woods, who took a two-month break to be with his sick father, who passed away a few weeks ago, to contend in the year’s toughest major after so much time off. He looked out of sync for most of his two rounds.

What’s more, it may be weeks or even months before Woods returns to form on the golf course, much less contends for a title. His father was a huge influence in his life and on his golf game, and Woods has seemed understandably uninterested in playing since he became ill.

If Woods’ game remains off when the British Open begins on July 20, ABC will suffer similarly poor ratings. Despite the attempts by the Tour and the media to build Mickelson into the same sort of fan favorite as Woods, the U.S. Open ratings indicate it’s not working.

If Woods misses another cut, even interest in him may start to fade as he shows a heretofore unseen human side.

The hope years ago had been that Woods would bring new viewers to golf, who would stay long after he’d gone because they enjoyed the game. That hope seems less and less likely, as the golf craze continues to rise and fall on his game nine years after he won his first major.