TURN OUT THE LIGHTS, GOLF'S PARTY IS OVER.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

THOUSAND OAKS - To see it this week at Sherwood Country Club, where Tiger Woods' tournament is going on, golf after the boom looks a lot like golf at the lob-wedged peak of its recent popularity.

The sweater-round-the-waist crowd is here, loving every tight swing by 16 of the world's best players -- OK, 15 of the world's best players plus John Daly. The sweatshirt-and-jeans demographic is represented on these footpaths, hooting at such golf-transcending names as Tiger and Big John. Everybody's smiling, and why shouldn't they be, this being an event whose last-place finisher will earn $170,000.

The mood is misleading.

Not yet a decade after Tiger's Masters breakthrough catapulted golf into the top tier of America's pastimes, its once seemingly unlimited potential for growth as a spectator and participation sport has slipped through the game's gloved fingers.

You might not know it from scenes like those from the Tiger-hosted Target World Challenge at Lake Sherwood, but the boom is over.

``New golfers really haven't been springing up as much as we thought (they would),'' Woods said after Friday's round.

``You know, obviously everybody thinks we have reached a plateau,'' said Chris DiMarco.

Tennis boomed and peaked, leaving a trail of unused courts. Ice hockey grew and cracked apart. Pro basketball soared and soured. What goes up always has come down. Check back in a few years on poker, which seems to have leapfrogged golf in the hearts of people yearning to test their intestinal fortitude with as little physical risk as possible.

Meanwhile, back at the golf course, the signs are all there, some pointing to the problems, some to explanations, some to the sport's attempts at solutions.

The PGA Tour's new television contract essentially trades ABC -- which is broadcasting its last golf today from Sherwood -- for tournament coverage on The Golf Channel. Think of it as the NFL Network with fewer exposure issues but the same loss of promotional scope.

This is the TV world's way of saying golf is a niche sport again.

The Tour will introduce a year-end series of tournaments in 2007 that mimic NASCAR's championship ``Chase.'' Golf will call it the FedEx Cup.

``If (Woods) is going to play the last six tournaments in a row, and our (TV) ratings go way up, then it's worth it,'' DiMarco said. ``Everybody knows out here where our bread is buttered. It's Tiger Woods, and he is what has made our purses go up, and when he plays a tournament the ratings are better (and) the amount of people that come out and watch is greater.''

Top players rake in so much sponsorship income that, for some, it has to affect incentive to compete week in and week out. Phil Mickelson hasn't played a tournament since September, and the golf community seemed all too ready to believe a report that Callaway planned to dock his endorsement contract a few million dollars (though the report apparently was false).

The big names will have to rouse themselves from their beds of cash long enough to pursue the FedEx Cup. You'd think the $10 million winner's check would make that easy, but who knows?

The emphasis on club and ball technology has stolen some of the sport's man-against-the-elements appeal.

The pace of course construction has declined, matching the drop-off in participation that Woods referred to. The new wave of ``Tigers'' -- minority pro prospects who would expand the U.S. talent pool -- has failed so far to materialize. It's not a matter of race but of finances and geography.

``(It's) probably price and availability,'' Woods said. ``It's pretty easy to find a place to play hoop, or a pick-up game of football. You can play soccer anywhere you want. But it's hard to find a golf course where you can actually learn and train.''

Though women's pro golf is stronger and higher-profile than ever, golf's potential to expand its appeal to women may have been stunted by the less-than-welcoming message in the Augusta National controversy.

Golf remains a joy to watch at its highest levels, and a nice way to waste a day at its lowest. No other pro sport presents such reliable tests of a competitor's ability to show off highly refined skills under high pressure.

But any game that depends on the popularity of individuals, rather than on the more enduring appeal of a team uniform, will go through ups and downs in crowd appeal. A game with one big individual will rise and fall from week to week.

Of course, Tiger Woods' domination might be only part of what has dragged golf down from the boom years. The Tour's incentive problems, the technology issues, and the high cost for new players are symptoms of a sport groaning under the weight of its economy.

The bad news: Golf is back in its niche. The good news: It's the niche that buys all the Buicks.

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(color) Tiger Woods has been the dominant figure in golf the pastdecade, which could explain its decline in popularity.

Scott Halleran/Getty Images