Golf Digest shelves Tiger Woods instructional articles

Not trying to dump on Tiger Woods at this point. Lots of other folks have beaten me to that anyway. But an item that Wednesday's Sports Business Daily carried Wednesday interested me enough to pass along.

The New York Post reported that Golf Digest is "loosening its ties to Tiger Woods, suspending his monthly instructional golf articles while Woods is on leave from professional golf," but the magazine "has not totally severed its connection with Tiger." Writer Keith Kelly noted that Golf Digest has an "exclusive long-term contract with Woods valued at $3[M] per year," and the publication "declined to say whether Tiger's compensation would be suspended." A spokesperson for Golf Digest publisher Conde Nast said that Woods "will remain on the magazine's masthead as Playing Editor."

Kelly wrote that Golf Digest "suffered public embarrassment this month over a cover photo composite for the January issue that appeared to show Woods and President Barack Obama on a green together, with the cover line: '10 Tips Obama Can Take from Tiger.'" The magazine "has also been criticized by rivals for not writing about the Tiger scandal on its Web site, running only wire copy." Golf Digest's admission that it is "benching Tiger was buried in an editor's note," Kelly said.

And it shouldn't come as any surprise that his ability to pitch products has suffered significant repercussions. The Dallas Morning News noted in its Wednesday editions that his value now as an "advertising pitchman is pretty much nonexistent." The Davie Brown Index (DBI) "tracks and ranks precisely how the public feels about 2,400 celebrities," and it "ranks how trustworthy, influential, appealing and trendy we find big names," according to writer Cheryl Hall. Woods was a "perennial on the DBI Top 10 ... at the outset of 2009," but he is "now 78th and ranks that high only because he's the most recognized person on the planet."

In the latest poll taken on Dec. 15, Woods ranked "2,252 out of 2,400 in appeal, 1,681 as an effective pitchman and 2,161 in trustworthiness." David Brown Talent President Jeff Chown: "Once the news of Tiger broke, we've tested him at least once a week to gauge consumer insights. He dropped immediately after the news broke the Friday after Thanksgiving. The second week was even more drastic. Now there's not much further he can go. Literally.

 

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