What Will Happen to Tiger Woods’s Sponsors?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Aug 4, 6:26AM EDT

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What will happen when the Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) Swoosh that sits on Tiger Woods’s golf bag is not seen as often on TV as last season, when he won five PGA events? This year, when he has rarely been near the lead in any tournament, and therefore rarely on television, that Nike logo has been mostly out of sight. At least Nike sponsors rapidly rising champion Rory McIlroy. However, the visibility dilemma applies to all of Woods’s sponsors, particularly since he injured his back again at the Bridgestone Invitational.

Woods spent so many years at the head of the pack in golf, a period over which he won 14 Majors, and 79 PGA events, that it was a bonanza for sponsors. In the first category, he is second only to Jack Nicklaus, in the second to Sam Snead. For most of that time he had relationships with huge companies, which included AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Accenture PLC (NYSE: ACN). Those sponsors left him after sex scandals in 2009.

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What Woods has left now, beyond Nike and Rolex, is a group of second-tier sponsors that rely on him almost completely as the face of their products. These include Japanese conglomerate Kowa, sports nutrition company MusclePharm and the Upper Deck Company, a sports collectibles operation. While they may have a way to claw back money, from a visibility standpoint, they are out of luck.

These sponsors may never get their money’s worth. Woods may not return to competitive golf this year. If his back problem is severe enough, he may never reappear as a professional player at all. He has been swinging golf clubs since he was two years old. The nagging injuries of so much torque may have taken a final toll.

His value might be salvaged because of his tremendous fame. Basketball great Michael Jordan still has a line of Nike athletic wear and shoes. Jordan is 51 and years away from the career that made him the greatest athlete of all time in his sport.

Woods’s sponsors should be as lucky as Jordan’s. For the time being, they have good reason to be anxious.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.