Tiger Woods to Make Golf Return at Masters in April (Update1)
March 16, 2010, 12:38 PM EDT(Adds Woods’s career details beginning in fourth paragraph.)
By Michael Buteau and Mason Levinson
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Tiger Woods will return to professional golf on April 8 at the Masters Tournament, four months after stepping away from the sport and admitting marital infidelity.
The world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, Woods hasn’t played in a tournament since November. His return was announced today in a statement, three weeks after he spoke publicly for the first time about the Nov. 27 single-car accident outside his Florida home that led to worldwide scrutiny of his personal life.
The Masters, at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, is the first of the season’s four major tournaments.
“The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect,” Woods said in the e-mailed statement. “After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.”
The first two rounds of the Masters are scheduled to be televised in the U.S. on Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN cable channel, with the final two rounds on CBS Corp.’s flagship CBS network.
Woods, who lost endorsement contracts with AT&T Inc., Accenture Plc, and Pepsico Inc.’s Gatorade, returns to golf with his appeal as a corporate spokesman in tatters and his sport in need of its biggest drawing card. The golf industry may have faced losses of as much as $220 million had he taken the entire year off.
In his 13 1/2-minute statement on Feb. 19 in the clubhouse of U.S. PGA Tour-owned TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, Woods apologized for his behavior and said he would return to therapy.
Admitted Infidelity
Woods admitted infidelity in a Dec. 11 statement on his Web site and went into hiding as many of his sponsors cut ties with him or scaled back his role as an endorser.
“I have undergone almost two months of inpatient therapy and I am continuing my treatment,” he said in today’s statement. “Although I’m returning to competition, I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.”
National polling in the week ended March 2 by Davie Brown Entertainment found that Woods’s appeal as a corporate spokesman reached a new low. Once ranked sixth as a celebrity endorser by the firm’s Davie Brown Index, his rank fell to 147th.
In December, Accenture, the consulting company that had hailed Woods as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign, and AT&T dropped Woods. PepsiCo Inc.’s Gatorade brand cut ties in late February after Woods’s first public appearance.
Scale Back
TAG Heuer, the Swiss watchmaker owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, said it would scale back its use of Woods, who has earned $1 billion in tournament winnings and sponsorships in his career, according to Forbes magazine. Procter & Gamble Co., based in Cincinnati, said it was phasing him out of its Gillette razor advertising.
Woods skipped the tournament at Torrey Pines golf course, near his boyhood home in Southern California, where he typically makes his season debut, and the World Golf Championships Match Play and CA Championship events. Eleven different golfers have won the 11 events on the U.S. PGA Tour this season.
“The major championships have always been a special focus in my career and, as a professional, I think Augusta is where I need to be, even though it’s been a while since I last played,” Woods said in the statement.
Woods’s first Masters title came in 1997 with a record 12- shot victory over Tom Kite.
--Editors: Rob Gloster, Larry Siddons.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mason Levinson in New York at mlevinson@bloomberg.net; To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net.
