Woods back in '09 lost several significant longtime sponsors in Gillette, AT&T and GatoradeGETTY IMAGES
Tiger Woods is "drawing crowds and hyping TV ratings" with his return to the course, but the question remains of when and if brands will "start sniffing around again," according to Jeff Beer of FAST COMPANY. While some of Woods' golf-specific sponsors "might dust off their Tiger-related marketing strategies, don’t expect any broad consumer brands to follow suit." In the wake of his '09 sex scandal, Woods "lost sponsors including Gillette, AT&T, and Gatorade." Last year’s DUI arrest also "didn’t help his off-the-golf course reputation rebuild." The Davie-Brown Index (DBI) shows Woods’ awareness is "still through the roof, but he’s got a downside." The Marketing Arm/DBI Talent Managing Dir Matt Delzell said, “There is still a very significant lack of trust and likability, in terms of the general population. It’s an interesting balance we don’t see with a lot of athletes, where people want to see him perform well because it adds excitement to the sport, even for casual golf fans. But no one is looking at these numbers and saying, ‘This is a guy I’ve got to attach my brand to’" (FASTCOMPANY.com, 3/21).
JUST LIKE OLD TIMES: SI's Michael Rosenberg writes Woods in his last three tournaments has "looked good enough and healthy enough to remind us that there are two kinds of golfers in the world: Tiger, and everybody else." Woods will "never dominate like he once did, but the 2018 version of Tigermania is like a lot of reunion tours." Fans "don't ask for new works of genius -- just a reasonable copy of the old ones." Fans are "standing on their toes to get a glimpse of Tiger for the same reason people ignore brilliant works of art in the Louvre so that they can crowd around the Mona Lisa: There is only one like that." When Woods "shows up to a tournament saying he expects to win," it brings "more goose bumps than eye-rolls." If he "stays healthy, he can win another major, and after all his surgeries, that would be one of the great sports stories of the decade" (SI, 3/26 issue).
