Tiger Woods falling out of favour?

Feature by Anand Datla

October 18, 2014: It appears the tether is getting ever shorter for the legendary Tiger Woods. Just on the heels of Woods dropping off from the top of the Forbes Fab 40, there are reports emerging that the Middle East money might be drying up too. A Telegraph report this week citing unnamed sources ran a story indicating that Dubai and Abu Dhabi may no longer be interested in shelling out top dollar to invite Woods to the desert.

In the story by James Corrigan, it is reported that the organisers of the Desert Classic and the Abu Dhabi Championship are no longer willing or interested to lay out the red carpet for the iconic American. It is believed that Tiger charges between $2mn to $3mn as appearance fee to show up at an event.

With his magic evaporating under the burden of personal issues and loss of form, Woods is facing an erosion of value and respect. The great American hasn’t won a major title since his memorable victory at the US Open in 2008. Meanwhile, a new breed of young golfers have taken the golf world by storm with their irrepressible energy and skills.

Men such as Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, Henrik Stenson and Adam Scott are beginning to impose themselves on the tour. This generation of golfers are not as besotted by the aura of Tiger as were a previous generation of golfers.

The combination of these factors are working against Woods, who is fighting a constant battle with his ageing body to try and rediscover the glory days of his past. Tiger’s own personal innuendo hasn’t helped matters either, with sponsors seeing better value and longevity in other golfers.

An unidentified source from the tour is said to have described the situation, in the story by Telegraph. “Of course Tiger is still a huge name, but those tournaments are not prepared to bus their budgets any more, or at the very least spend their entire budget on one man,” he is quoted to have said.

“There are other players of big interest now, not least Rory McIlroy. In these market conditions, at those prices, Woods does not represent the value he once did. In fairness, he has been there a lot and the novelty has worn off.”

In the days of yore, when the golfing world was filled with Tiger lore, the desert dalliance seemed like a perfect alliance between an incredibly talented golfer and the wealthy Sheikhs. The present situation though suggests that the marriage might be all but over.