Archive for the ‘Golf News’ Category

• Woods loses his fifth sponsor after scandal

  Date: 2011.01.07 | Category: Golf News, Sports News | Response: 0

  Loses keep coming for Tiger Woods in all manifestations: marital, golf, public image and financial.  After all the heat that he had to go through in 2010, he has received another notice of the kind that he started to become pretty familiar with just last year: losing sponsors.

  Those loses where clearly reflected in his income, as he perceived 48 millions less in 2010 than in 2009, despite keeping his status as the golfer with the higher income after reporting a profits of 74 million dollars.  

  To the already known companies -Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade and Gillette- that finished their relationship with Woods last year,  another company decided to end their 13-year deal by not renovating the contract that just expired in 2010, and that’s none other than Golf Digest. Woods used to write articles with tips for golfers since 1997, along with legends such as Arnold Palmer, Phil Mickelson or Jack Nicklaus.

  Despite these losses Woods still maintain his sponsorship contracts with Nike, Tag Heuer, Electronic Arts, Upper Deck, TLC Laser Vision Centers and Berkshire Hathaway that report him more than 50 million dollars a year.

• Golf – This Thanksgiving Tiger really has reasons to be thankful for

  Date: 2010.11.19 | Category: Golf News, Sports News | Response: 0

  Time flies fast, but people’s actions don’t seem to fly away with it, as they remain present in people’s minds. What time does do to those memories is change your perception of them, a change that wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the maturity that is gained through time. And former World No.1 Tiger Woods is a living example of how perception changes your life for better. Now he has a more clear understanding of how that car “accident” suffered during Thanksgiving night of 2009 -which led to his private life scandal- was rather a blessing.

  Before that event, Woods was living a double life cheating on the ones he love, and most importantly betraying his values by not staying truth to himself. He had to carry with all those lies and infidelities on his conscience, extra baggage that he no longer needs to take, as he has decided to unpack them and leave them behind, to hopefully never go back after them again.

  Woods said on ESPN that if it wasn’t for that crash, “f that didn’t happen, I don’t think I’d be as blessed and as balanced as I am now.” And he now feels prepared to face his children Sam Alexis, 3, and Charlie, 1 to give them the explanation that he owes, just like he is doing now with fans and the media. We say just like he is doing now because Woods opened a Twitter account -@TigerWoods-, participated in ESPN’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning” radio show and even wrote an essay on Newsweek.

  Leaving his public image aside for a moment -which has been so negatively affected from the scandal- and just focusing in the human being, what Woods is doing is really admirable: he is accepting to face the monster in which he had become and burry him in the ground.

  Once his confidence comes back there are no doubts that titles will follow, titles that have been absent on this winless season. Woods is already working in getting back to the path that one led him to the World No.1. He was hired new coach Sean Foley and the Chevron World Challenge on Dec. 2 could be the right scenario for Woods to break up this strike. All that Woods really knows and cares is that “what’s transpired in my life and where I am now, and I am so much better now because of this past year.

• The Tiger Woods effect reaches the Premier League

  Date: 2010.09.10 | Category: Golf News, Sports News | Response: 0

  It looks like the Tiger Woods affair has turn loose an infidelity wave that has reached the shores of England, to make public the privacy of renowned football players.  All of the stories that have been coming out lately have one common denominator: prostitutes. It seems that this is the weakness that has been causing so much trouble to their lives.

  The spotlight is now on Manchester United’s star Wayne Rooney, who got involved with the 21-year-old Jennifer Thompson – also know as Juicy Jeni in her working environment – while his wife was pregnant. During four months, Rooney and his lover had seven encounters, which cost him 1.140 Euros each, and might end up magnifying its cost if finally his wife Coleen decides to divorce.

  Someone else that was in the eye of the storm was Peter Crouch, the tall Tottenham’s striker, whose adventure in Madrid with Monica Mint cost him his relationship with the beautiful Abby Clancy, a famous English model. Not only the media was shocked when they found out about Crouch’s affair, but also Mint, as she “can’t understand how he decided to pay me for sex having a woman like Abbey”. That is something that we also can’t understand, just like we can’t understand why he paid 1000 Euros to a woman who charges 100.

  So far the only player that has received a second chance has been John Terry, whose wife Toni Poole prevented their scandal from turning into another Tiger Woods case. This is the kind of luck that Ashley Cole didn’t have the fortune to enjoy, since his wife Cheryl Ann Tweedy -a famous English singer, actress, songwriter and model- did not tolerate his act of infidelity and broke up with him.  We don’t know whose story is going to come out next, but we do know that they are going to keep on coming.

• Rooting for Tiger: divorce just the beginning?

  Date: 2010.08.25 | Category: Golf News, Sports News | Response: 0

  Everyone, including Tiger Woods himself, seems to have breathed a sigh of relief when the divorce between he and his erstwhile wife, Elin Nordegren, was finalized on Monday. The former couple issued a joint statement after Florida’s Bay County Court ended the nearly six-year marriage.

  The settlement comes after nine months of scandal, beginning with a now-infamous car accident that saw Nordegren swinging at car windows with a golf club. The day before, the first news of Woods’ repeated infidelities had surfaced. The result was a media frenzy that mottled both the golfer’s image and, eventually, his game.

  After, the two’s desperate struggle to repair a badly broken marriage – and, for Woods, his reputation – became fodder for more gossip: Woods’ therapy and, in February, his public apology to fans. The “distractions,” as Woods describes the media circus surrounding the affair in his blog, also proved damaging to his golf. Even at Sunday’s Masters, just before the divorce announcement, Woods was left with a disappointing fourth place (Phil Mickelson took first).

  Nonetheless, the divorce may signal an end to the hoopla and the name bashing that have surrounded Woods since the accident. Indeed, Monday’s statement called in part for privacy to allow the family, particularly the couple’s two children, time to recover.

  “Once we came to the decision that our marriage was at an end,” the statement on Woods’ blog read, “the primary focus of our amicable discussions has been to ensure [the children’s] future well-being. The weeks and months ahead will not be easy for them as we adjust to a new family situation, which is why our privacy must be a principal concern.”

  The exact terms of the settlement are as yet unclear, although most media outlets agree that Nordegren will be receiving a sum in the millions. There are also indications that the discussions between the two were less than amicable; Yahoo Sports reports that both Woods and Nordegren had hired multiple attorneys for the case. There have also been suggestions that the generous settlement terms depended on Nordegren keeping quiet on Woods’ private life – although it’s not clear what else might be said that could possibly bring down the golfer’s already rock-bottomed reputation.

  Woods hasn’t taken a single title in the PGA tours this year, and he’s been on the outs in the majors. And yet, despite it all – the slew of women, the clumsy apologies, the repeated failures – everyone still seems to be rooting for Tiger. He may have stumbled a bit with his injury in 2008, then fallen face down into the dirt with his scandal in 2009, but fans and commentators alike seem to be waiting for the sports star to regain his title. After all, who isn’t hoping that he’ll eventually catch up to Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major championships?

  Woods has spent the days since Sunday’s Masters recuperating. Next week, though, he’s back in the spotlight at the Quail Hallow Championship in North Carolina. And he’s already committed to both THE PLAYERS Championship and the AT&T National. And maybe, just maybe, as his private life becomes just that – private – Woods can return to become the player everyone wants him to be.