[Gozz]

A few new articles on Tiger.

http://sports.yahoo....g...p&type=lgns

http://sports.yahoo....exp...?urn=golf,92918

http://sports.yahoo....g...o&type=lgns

Woods will become world's first billionaire athlete by 2010, report

Jul 9, 9:11 pm EDT

NEW YORK (AFP) - Tiger Woods is on pace to pass one billion dollars in career earning by 2010, becoming the world's first billionaire to accumulate his fortune by playing sports, says Forbes Magazine.

The 14-time major championship winner earned 115 million dollars in 2007 alone, said the American magazine which annually ranks the world's richest people with its Forbes' Celebrity 100 list. English footballer David Beckham was the No. 2 sportsman on the list with earnings of 65 million dollars.

"It will be an unprecedented occurrence," the magazine said. "There are plenty of billionaires who have excelled at sports like Switzerland's richest man and champion sailor Ernesto Bertarelli. But there are no billionaires who accumulated their fortune by playing sports."

The magazine goes on to say in its Wednesday edition that while tycoons like Bill Gates accumulated his wealth by holding a stake in a company with soaring profits, Woods is unique because his massive fortune was earned through pay cheques.

Woods is a sports marketers' dream, having earned more than 750 million dollars in endorsement deals to date in his career. At 32, Woods has won 50 tournaments faster than any player and is closing in on Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major championship wins.

The nine-time PGA player-of-the-year is extremely popular and likeable. When he is playing in a tournament, television ratings increase by at least one third and often more—like his recent stunning victory at the US Open in San Diego.

He has lucrative endorsement and sponsorship deals with companies like Nike, Buick and Gillette which help make up nine-tenths of his totals earnings and will land him 90 million dollars in 2008, says Forbes.

Nike Golf registered over 600 million dollars in sales in 2007. The American shoe giant didn't even have a golf line of shoes and clothing before it signed Woods to a contract in 1996.

Gatorade is also launching a new line of sports drinks, called Gatorade Tiger.

Woods is expected to miss the remainder of the golf season, while he recovers from knee surgery. He captured the 2008 US Open in a playoff despite playing with a torn ligament in his left knee.


How Tiger is spending his time

By Rich Tosches

Tiger Woods, as you might imagine, is getting a bit stir crazy. He's been hobbling around on crutches following knee surgery, cooped up in his house day after day and clearly suffering from that indoor malady that afflicts anyone stuck inside for long periods: mansion fever.

He has tried all the usual boredom-fighters: counting the bathrooms in his house, playing games (he particularly enjoys Guess the Names of the Servants and the blindfolded game Pin the Tail on Phil), trying to one-hop golf balls across the half-acre living room and into the Ming vase and, of course, curling up on the sofa, picking up his copy of "Harry Potter" and handing it to J.K. Rowling so she can read it to him.

(For a while he had Stephen King read to him, but doctors said all the screaming, jumping off the couch and crashing through the sliding glass door wasn't doing his knee any good.)

And sure, the big guy gets outside once in a while. But the knee puts quite a limit on what he can do out there. And take it from me, shuffling down to the moat in your $40,000 silk bathrobe and spraying WD-40 on the drawbridge gears, well, that gets old in a hurry.

From his website: "I'm wearing a full leg brace and will be on crutches for a few weeks. To be honest, I'm not sure when my rehabilitation will start. I can't put weight on my leg yet."

That news did little to cheer up his longtime caddy, Steve Williams, who managed a smile and endured some good-natured ribbing from the other guys in the unemployment line, specifically Brett Favre, Michael Strahan and Barry Bonds, who sipped Dom Perignon and munched on $1,200-a-pound cheese as they waited for the next window to open.

On a more positive note, Tiger's post-op plan made it impossible for him to attend the tournament he sponsors, the AT&T National, over the weekend – a small blessing that spared him the ungodly sight of tournament winner Anthony Kim's belt buckle, which looked like something Liberace might have worn to the rodeo.

Actually, the giant, expensive jeweled belt buckle with the initials "AK" was terrific and Kim didn't mind all the jokes the players made about it, and Monday morning he quietly offered it to Ashton Kutcher (a.k.a. Mr. Demi Moore) for $5.

Anyway, there are hints that Tiger is fading, slowly, from our thoughts. The actual website xRank, which keeps track of Internet searches for sports stars and other celebrities, reports that he dropped from second place right after the U.S. Open to 20th place this week. This puts him a few places behind Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and just ahead of someone named Usher, who I believe is the guy who showed me to my seat at Coors Field last Friday night.

And after we were reminded of his fierce competitive nature during the U.S. Open – and after he hears about this xRank thing – I think we can all assume how the greatest golfer on earth will spend 18 hours a day for the next six months: hunched over his computer, relentlessly conducting searches for "Tiger Woods."


Out of the Woods

By Michael Arkush, Yahoo! Sports Jul 9, 12:37 pm EDT

More From Michael Arkush

* A new leader of the pack Jul 2, 2008
* Creamer, Lewis falter but learn major lessons Jun 30, 2008

Yahoo! Sports

For all the good that Tiger Woods has done for the sport of golf, there is a definite downside to his unprecedented dominance. The casual golf fans who tune in only to catch Woods believe they can again ignore the tour while he recovers from knee surgery. This is their prerogative, of course, but they will be missing a game that was still special before Woods turned pro in 1996, and will be special after he quits, no matter how many records he might set.

Golf, after all, is a test of true character and discipline; of whether supremely talented human beings can summon the courage to overcome their opponents – and their own stubborn, self-imposed demons. Such values are intrinsic and enduring, from one era to the next.

If anything, Tiger’s prolonged absence is an opportunity for other players on the tour to attain the recognition they deserve – a recognition often denied by media and public focused on the latest Woods’ achievement.
ADVERTISEMENT

Take Anthony Kim. If he keeps performing as he did last week at Congressional, notching his second victory of the year, he will soon be anointed as the latest Real Deal. Except, on this occasion, the hype will be justified. Not since Sergio Garcia, only 19 at the time, sprinted down the 16th fairway at Medinah during the final round of the 1999 PGA, has someone younger than Woods presented such a legitimate threat to his long reign. The sport, and Woods, will no doubt benefit greatly from a spirited challenge, just as tennis is, suddenly, more captivating because Rafael Nadal has demonstrated that Roger Federer can be beaten.

The media deserves some of the blame. By paying so much attention to Woods – the networks show almost all of his shots, even on the rare occasions when he’s out of contention – his contemporaries are not often given their proper due, judged primarily by how they fit into the Woods narrative. From Rich Beem in 2002 to Michael Campbell in 2005 to Zach Johnson and Angel Cabrera in 2007 to Trevor Immelman at the 2008 Masters, anyone who outduels Woods is regarded almost as a secondary figure, as a foil, not as a full-fledged major champion.

The narrative makes the most sense – and dollars – for television: Woods attracts the eyeballs, the others don’t.

Nonetheless, questions remain: Are we short-changing a game which reflects such important values? Are we forgetting that one man, however blessed he may be, will never be bigger than the sport? And how many inspiring stories are we failing to chronicle?

The answer: Plenty. Take Kenny Perry, 47. For Perry, at his advanced age, to win two events in four starts, is a tremendous accomplishment. His lack of charisma must not be mistaken for a lack of character. While many may, with good reason, criticize him for not attempting to qualify for the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, and skipping next week’s British Open at Royal Birkdale, Perry should be commended for believing in a most noble goal – making this year’s Ryder Cup, to be held in his beloved Kentucky – and sticking with it.

Another overlooked character is Stewart Cink. Cink is certainly easy to overlook, another dud on the charisma scale. Yet a strong argument can be made that he’s been the tour’s most consistent performer – Cink has seven top 10s in ‘08 – and will be a key member in September at Valhalla. Closing the deal in Connecticut a few weeks ago, after a series of Sunday failures, signifies that Cink, 35, might take the next step and become an elite player. Winning one of this season’s last two majors is a real possibility.

And what about the game’s two most compelling young guns, Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott? Each possesses enormous talent, displayed in tantalizing flashes, but have not lived up to our lofty expectations because of their inability to put the ball in the hole when it matters most. Will they ever develop into truly exceptional putters? Or will their success always be limited by these fundamental flaws? They aren’t getting any younger.

The tour is filled with one compelling tale after another, of past-their-prime major winners in search of one final moment of glory (Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Corey Pavin, etc.), and twentysomethings (Aaron Baddeley, Ryan Moore, Sean O’Hair, etc.) in search of the stardom they, and we, have envisioned for years. Every week, as they battle the course and the ever-changing conditions, above all else, they battle themselves, more personally accountable than any other athletes, unable to blame their teammates or the opposition for any failings, and unable to hide in locker rooms or dugouts. They must, instead, move on with determination to the next hole, facing the immediate pressure to rebound, or fall further behind.

So much is out of their control, such as the tree Perry’s ball hit earlier this season during a playoff in the AT&T Classic in Georgia, the ball bouncing into the pond, sinking his hopes of victory. The pros can’t merely be good. They also have to be lucky.

Yet these stories, and many more, are constantly neglected, casualties of the infatuation with Woods and, to a lesser degree, with Phil Mickelson. Events without either star in the field are deemed irrelevant, an unfair knock on the extremely capable competitors who remain, and the difficult courses they are trying to tame.

One day, Woods will leave the tour and he won’t be coming back, and that day may come sooner than we’d like to believe. It may be difficult to imagine, but the game will survive – just as it survived the loss of Hogan, Nelson, Palmer, and Nicklaus.

[vaca22]

It's Tiger's world...we just happen to live in it.

[Freddy300]

Germany's Michael Schumacher probably hit $1 billion already. He raced in Formula 1 from about 1991 to 2005 or so. His last 6 years he was making close to $80 + million a year while living in tax exile in Switzerland. Add in 30% appreciation in the euro then he is probably a billionaire.

[harold baines]

Shumacher definetly makes more than Tiger

people over in the stated just don't care about F1 much, but Schumacher is the best paid athelete not Tiger

[littlepingman]

vaca22, on Jul 10 2008, 03:16 PM, said:

It's Tiger's world...we just happen to live in it.

Cool. Someone tell him I need a loan...

[skinkman]

actually Tiger is the highest paid..when ranks were done with Scumacher in the list.


http://www.all-ranki...hp?r=cb5e3e7640

nothing like facts and he's always been ahead of Schumacher earnings since he came on tour..

[stianvm]

yea, facts are fun, especially when you get them right.

Schumacher hit the billionaire mark in 2005, aswell as out-earning Woods for several years 1999-2002(i think it was)

In 2007 he didnt even race, thats quite funny

[harold baines]

statistics and facts... great stuff

in 2004
Tiger Woods

$80.3 mil (Pay Rank: 1)

Golf

Age: 28


His winless streak in golf's majors is at 7 and counting, but Tiger still managed to win his 5th straight PGA Tour Player of the Year award in 2003. Despite his recent stumbles on the fairways, it's still good to be Tiger. He's the world's number one ranked player, earns $70 million a year in endorsements and is about to marry Swedish former nanny/model Elin Nordegren.


Michael Schumacher

$80 mil (Pay Rank: 2)

Auto Racing - Driver, Ferrari

Age: 35

married



His annual salary from Ferrari, now approaching $40 million, makes him the world's highest-paid athlete. Schumacher dominates Formula One racing so thoroughly that the F1 racing circuit agreed to sweeping rule changes to curb the dominance of the six-time world champion.


if you look into it, 70 of Tiger's 80 million was from endorsement deals so he really only got $10 mil for doing his actual job

Shumacher got pretty much the exact same money (300k less) and he made almost $40 mil for doing his actual job

either way, there's enough statistics out there to make either guy the winner depending on how you want to look at things


http://www.forbes.co...datatype=Person


the only way Shumacher wouldn't have beaten Tiger to billionaire status is if he's a world class idiot at managing his money