Among other things he endorses, the club-swinging Tiger currently represents Buick too, as part of his deal with General Motors Corp. That would be the story so far, the background story if you will. Now, for the news: it looks like Tiger and GM won't be partners for long the way things are going today for the automaker from Detroit.
Car companies have long been having issues with profitability, and it seems that the American giants have been hit the hardest. With this economic recession GM has been bleeding dollars left and right and that is why it's looking at every possibility to cut costs. So, for GM's best interest, it looks like Tiger Woods' partnership with GM won't extend beyond 2009.
Tiger has been representing Buick since 1999 and next year that contract will expire. Since GM's stock has dropped more than 74% this year alone, forcing the company to lay off 53,000 union workers since 2005.
This move comes in at a rather bad time, as right now Tiger is at the top of his game and on top of many other things, like BusinessWeek magazine's list of “Most Powerful People in Sports”. So surely, he must have other companies lining up at his door to represent their products.
The ties between Buick and the golf PGA circuit go back a long time. For 50 years Buick has been the “Official Car” of the PGA tour and is one of the biggest golf sponsors according to their website.
Officials for the PGA tour spoke in concern about the financial crisis going on right now and said that it will eventually affect the circuit pretty soon. It looks like their worries are coming true.
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