As Tiger Woods tries for yet another major tournament this weekend, should we perhaps be thinking of him now as not just the greatest living sportsman but as an economy in his own right? After all, his father Earl Woods estimates that the golfer's capital value is in the region of $5 billion (€5.9 billion), which is something akin to the GDP of countries such as Nepal and Malta.
Just how much he is really worth is the subject of debate in the business press in the United States, but few doubt that he is set to become the first billionaire figure in sporting history in terms of revenue earnings.
The 25-year-old sportsman generates economic activity wherever he goes.
When he plays in tournaments, Tiger gets near-blanket television coverage, providing his sponsor Nike with millions of dollars worth of television exposure.
NBC is clearing its screens from 1.30 p.m. to 8 p.m. this Saturday and Sunday to cover the US Open at Tulsa, Oklahoma. It will show every shot Tiger plays, knowing that television audiences for golf tournaments in the US increase by 70 per cent if he is taking part and the network can charge more for advertisements.
In April, more than 18 million viewers watched the final round of the Masters, with Tiger triumphant, three times more than last year, when he wasn't in the reckoning.
The sporting and commercial achievements of Eldrick (Tiger) Woods are already phenomenal. Since becoming a professional golfer in the late summer of 1996, he has won 35 tournaments, 27 of those on the PGA Tour, including the 1997 and 2001 Masters, the 1999 and 2000 PGA Championships, the 2000 US Open and the 2000 British Open.
With his second Masters victory in 2001, Tiger became the first golfer to hold all four professional major championships at the same time.
In addition to his golfing talents - he can be methodical, outrageous, brilliant, thrilling and impossible in the same round - Tiger is a marketing executive's dream. He is goodlooking, articulate and polite, and he has the racial make-up for worldwide mass market appeal, with his mixture of black, white, Thai, Chinese and American Indian blood.
His commercial value was brought home to Nike when its total revenues from golf products increased from $40 million to $200 million two years after signing up Tiger in 1997, according to the Economist. Last year he signed a five-year deal with Nike worth between $85 million and $100 million, depending upon incentives, which is believed to be the richest endorsement contract in sports history.
Woods is believed to earn more than $65 million a year by endorsing Nike, American Express, Rolex, Buick and Walt Disney (precise details of his commercial deals are kept confidential).
The agreement to promote Walt Disney products and theme parks, signed last month, is said to be worth some $20 million over five years, which is probably cheap at the price. He is expected to drive the Rendezvous, Buick's new sports utility vehicle, at PGA Tour events this year, a promotion which "will generate traffic in the showrooms" according to Buick designer Dave Lyon.
Just for turning up at tournaments, Tiger can earn in excess of $2 million each time in appearance money. He was reportedly paid $2.2 million to play in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany last month. As a celebrity who transcends sport, Tiger can earn as much in appearance money for one event as Darren Clarke earns in prize money in a year. His annual appearance fees last year probably exceeded his earnings from nine victories that brought cheques worth a record $9.1 million.
The Tiger Woods economic unit consists of a tightly knit group of five men: the star, his father Earl Woods, his coach Butch Harmon, caddie Steve Williams and business manager Mark Steinberg.
Earl has no doubt of the real worth of this unique Tiger economy, taking into account earnings potential. "If things continue and he stays healthy, there's no limit," he said in a newspaper interview, during which he quipped that Tiger might start a dynasty like the Rockerfellers.
"Five billion might be on the short side," he said. "We're not just talking about the money he wins, we're talking about the money that's invested."
Indeed, the golfer may easily surpass the $10 billion that For- tune Magazine estimates was produced in product endorsement by basket-ball superstar Michael Jordan.
Tiger recently played a round in Florida with another one man economy, Warren Buffett, for which the 70-year-old multibillionaire investor paid $650,000 to charity. At the 18th hole, Woods challenged him to a bet, which Tiger won with a six on the par four (he played it on his knees to make it a contest). To Tiger Woods's treasure chest one must now add the bet he collected from Buffet - exactly $5.
