Tiger Woods following The Masters “is set to join Nike Golf president Cindy Davis on what the company is calling its ‘Make it Matter’ tour,” a three-city “promotional swing through Asia,” according to Gene Yasuda of GOLFWEEK. The tour is “designed to fuel the region’s growing interest in the game and promote Nike products.” The tour begins in China with stops in Shenzhen (April 12) and Beijing (April 13), then moves to Seoul, South Korea (April 14). Nike initially “had planned on visiting Tokyo as well, but altered its itinerary, respecting Japan’s need to focus on efforts to recover from the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the nation March 11” (GOLFWEEK.com, 3/22). In Korea, Oh Young-jin writes Woods' visit “may help some golfers improve their game and give them ‘bragging rights’ but, the chance is that, to the bigger audience, it will be a sideshow and it will reinforce golf’s negative image that it doesn’t deserve.” A Nike spokesperson said, “We will ask reporters to submit their questions and select some from them that Tiger will address.” Young-jin: “In a way, Nike is prudent enough not to hold a question-and-answer session during Tiger’s visit” (KOREA TIMES, 3/23).
