Tiger’s Hunting TrailTiger Woods would have never thought that a car accident would cost him so much. What happened with Tiger Woods a few days back can easily be called the shocker of the year in the golfing world!
It all started with a mysterious car accident outside Woods’ Florida mansion on Thanksgiving, an event on which both Tiger and his wife Elin Nordegren decided to remain tight-lipped, to everyone’s surprise. His wife used his golf club to smash a window of his vehicle to get him out of his SUV. Things became more suspicious after Tiger declared on his website (point to be noted here is that he avoided facing the media directly since the crash) a pull-out from the Chevron World Challenge, a tournament that benefits his charity foundation. He ostensibly stated that he wanted to recover from his injuries sustained from the car crash, but the reality was obviously a very different one.
Slowly and steadily, the can of worms opened and secrets began to unfold about the private life of the ace golfer, who found himself amidst one of the biggest sex scandals controversies in international sports, and now, has decided to take an indefinite break from his golfing career.
In what came as a bolt from the blue for everyone, the highest earning sportsman in history, Tiger is alleged to have been involved with 14 different women sexually, apart from his wife. The list of his mistresses includes names like porn stars Holly Sampson and Joslyn James, Rachel Uchitel (a VIP hostess), Jamie Grubbs (a reality TV star) and many more.
A sex addict to the core, it is also known that he signed a prenuptial agreement, according to which, his wife Elin was supposed to get five million dollars to keep from walking away from the marriage and an additional 80 million for staying with him as ‘Mrs. Tiger Woods’ for seven years. However, the money couldn’t hold her back and she, reportedly, has decided to divorce him, deciding to claim half of his earnings of the past five years.
It is not only Woods’ family life that has been disrupted. Financially, Woods may have got the shock of his life as many big brands pulled out their advertisements featuring the mottled golfer from the broadcasts and cable channels in the States. To add to his misery, technology outsourcing and consulting firm Accenture Plc ended its six-year sponsorship arrangement with Woods altogether.
According to media research group Nielsen, the last prime-time commercial starring Woods - a 30-second advert for Gillette - played on November 29. Woods has also lost his own brand of Gatorade sport drink named Tiger Focus, which was launched in March 2008. However, the company claims that the decision has nothing to with the scandal and that they had planned to discontinue with the product several month ago.
Meanwhile, Woods ranking as a celebrity product endorser plunged from 6th to 24th on the Davie Brown Index.