Dwindling roster of sponsors for Tiger Woods (AFP)
NEW YORK (AFP) – An embattled Tiger Woods faced a dwindling roster of sponsors Saturday, after Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer said it was dropping its US advertising campaigns featuring the golf champion.
Tag Heuer's move came in the footsteps of consulting firm Accenture ending its six-year deal with the golf superstar and razormaker Gillette dropping him from its advertising, after the 33-year-old Woods took an indefinite break from the sport and acknowledged infidelity.
"We recognize Tiger Woods as a great sportsman but we have to take account of the sensitivity of some consumers in relation to recent events," Tag Heuer chief executive Jean-Christophe Babin told Swiss newspaper Le Matin on Friday.
The company, a unit of French luxury goods empire LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, would continue to back Woods's charity foundation, Babin said.
A string of alleged affairs with at least 14 women -- including a porn star and a cocktail waitress -- have decimated the 14-time major champion's squeaky-clean image.
Also on Friday, the golfer's wife Elin -- a former Swedish model -- reportedly hired famed Hollywood divorce attorney Sorrell Trope while details emerged about a 2007 deal between a US magazine and Woods to keep an extra-marital affair secret.
Trope's reputation as a tough dealmaker could help Elin Woods, who is said to have signed a pre-nuptial agreement with Woods but might be in line for even greater riches given her humiliations of the past weeks.
But a growing number of sponsors were scaling back their support of the golfer. Promoters were behind 90 percent of the funding that made Woods the first sports billionaire, but his power as a marketing juggernaut unraveled long before his confession of extramarital affairs one week ago.
The firestorm, which erupted on November 27 after Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade SUV into a tree and a hydrant just outside his home, entered a fourth week with no end in sight and sponsor support eroding.
AT&T, which backs the US PGA Tour event operated by the golfer's foundation, is re-evaluating its relationship with Woods.
Yet US sportswear giant Nike, which pays Woods an estimated 40 million dollars a year, still backs him as it has since his 1996 pro debut, with chairman Phil Knight telling Sports Business Journal the unfolding saga is a small problem.
"When his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip, but the media is making a big deal out of it right now," Knight said.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the National Enquirer kept quiet about a Woods affair in 2007 in exchange for rare access for a cover story to sister publication Men's Fitness.
Under terms of the deal, the Enquirer would not publish photographs and a story on Woods having an extra-marital affair, while the golfer agreed to a cover and photo spread in Men's Fitness, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
American Media, Inc., which owns both publications, denied such a deal took place in a letter to the Journal. Woods agent Mark Steinberg declined to comment to the newspaper.
An Enquirer report on Woods's alleged affair with showclub hostess Rachel Uchitel purportedly caused a row between him and Elin that led to his crash.
Woods is doing all he can to save his marriage, including making calls behind the scenes to women with whom he had affairs about possible deals, celebrity website TMZ said.
Concerns were also raised about Canadian doctor Anthony Galea, who faces charges involving a banned drug and links to performance-enhancing substances, having helped Woods recover from a June 2008 knee surgery.
Thus far, there is no evidence of any doping violation by Woods or that Galea provided him any banned substances.
"He had no links to Tiger Woods (or) any other athletes," Galea's lawyer Brian Greenspan said.
Friday did hold one bright spot of sorts: Woods was named the PGA Tour player of the year for the tenth time in 13 years.
The award is voted on by the players but the PGA declined to release the details of the vote which took place over the past four weeks.
Woods won six tournaments this year, including the FedEx Cup and its 10-million-dollar bonus, but failed to win a major title.