tiger-woods

Tiger Woods Scandal: $12 BILLION Fallout?

December 28, 2009

Tiger Woods has destroyed $12 billion in stock value since his post-Thanksgiving car accident, according to a new study from two University of California, Davis economics professors. The study estimates that Gatorade, Nike and Electronic Arts have suffered the most, while Accenture “experienced no ill effects following the accident.” Woods’ sponsors have engaged in a flurry of activity over the past month as his list of alleged mistresses continued to grow. Gatorade announced it was discontinuing its Tiger Focus beverage , although it claimed the decision was already in the works before the scandal broke. Gillette said it would “limit [Woods'] role in our marketing programs” earlier in the month, and Accenture dropped Woods as the scandal widened. Watchmaker Tag Heuer initially indicated that it would ” downscale ” Woods’ role in the company’s advertising, but has since prominently displayed him on its web site, along with the text “TAG HEUER stands with TIGER WOODS.”

Read the full article →

`New Normal’ Tops 2009 List of Overused Phrases: Caroline Baum

December 23, 2009

Commentary by Caroline Baum Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) — For journalists, pundits and comedians, the end of the year provides an opportunity to look back, fantasize forward and let the creative juices flow. We churn out 10 Best and 10 Worst lists. We reprise the year’s most memorable moments and worst embarrassments. We reflect on famous people and infamous scallywags , current events and eventful currents, the highest highs and lowest lows. When I started to think about 2009, it wasn’t events that came to mind but words and phrases: trite, overused words and phrases, such as “new normal,” “unprecedented,” and “exit strategy.” One picture may be worth a thousand words, but one word can unleash a year’s worth of memories. 1. “New normal” In May 2009, the folks at PIMCO emerged from their secular outlook forum to codify their forecast for slower growth, increased regulation and a decreased role for the U.S. in the global economy as the “new normal.” They weren’t the first. Back in 2001, Warren Buffett and John Bogle warned of a new normal of single-digit stock market returns. A book by that name was published in 2004, spawning a companion Web site ( http://www.thenewnormal.com ). As it turns out, the phrase has applications in almost every field: technology (its transformative power); science (American women are getting fatter); medicine (early puberty for girls); management (constant change is the new normal, according to the Harvard Business Review); and higher education (less financial support from state budgets and endowments). As a way of describing the U.S. economy, the new normal has merit. ObamaNation is looking at bigger government, more regulation and an aging population commanding more resources. Unfortunately, overuse has rendered new normal meaningless. 2. “Unprecedented” If the events of 2008 and policy response were unprecedented, the post-mortems in 2009 drove the point home — ad nauseam. From the collapse in home prices to the government’s co- option of mortgage finance; from the freezing up of financial markets to the failure of big and small firms; from the efforts by the Treasury and Federal Reserve to keep the ship of state afloat to the government’s ownership stake in the private sector: Everything, it seems, was unprecedented. The inauguration of the first black president was unprecedented. Barack Obama , hailed as an agent of change, pledged to change the way Washington operates. Eleven months into Obama’s presidency, Washington is probably the only entity to eschew the new normal (see No. 1 above) for more of the same. 3. “Exit Strategy” Everyone needs an exit strategy. Just ask Jenny Sanford, wife of the philandering South Carolina governor, and Mrs. Tiger Woods . The Fed needs an exit strategy following a period of unprecedented (see No. 2 above) accommodation. Policy makers have enunciated one without a timetable for implementation. The central bank plans to whittle down its balance sheet by natural attrition, terminating emergency lending facilities and selling assets or draining reserves on a temporary basis. It can raise the interest rate it pays on reserves to prevent excess credit expansion, an idea that may work better in theory than in practice. Unlike the Fed, the U.S. military has a date for leaving Afghanistan and no real exit strategy. President Barack Obama said the U.S. will start the transfer of authority to the Afghans in July 2011. His National Security Adviser, General James Jones , admitted the U.S. will be in the region “for a long time.” Or, in Fed parlance, “an extended period.” 4. “Green Shoots” “I do see green shoots,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told CBS’s “ 60 Minutes ” last March, a forecast worthy of Chauncey Gardiner, the child-like sage in Jerzy Kosinski’s “Being There.” (“There will be growth in the spring,” Chance said.) Pretty soon everyone was going green. The media sent out reconnaissance teams. Economists incorporated green shoots into their forecasts. It was a veritable garden of foliage sightings. The shoots matured and produced blooms in the third quarter. The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.2 percent annualized rate following four consecutive quarterly declines. All this flora talk was starting to get to a friend of mine. “If the leaves would just stop falling, I could see the green shoots,” he said. 5. “Uncertainty” Uncertainty gained a new cachet in 2009 and in certain circles, especially those responsible for setting policy. The frequency with which the Fed and European Central Bank use uncertainty to qualify the forecast leads one to believe uncertainty is unique to bad times. It isn’t. A little more uncertainty about the degree to which the subprime crisis was “contained” and a little less “irrational exuberance” over condo-flipping, and we might not be in the shape we’re in. 6. “Historic Opportunity” Historic opportunities were a dime a dozen this year. Obama seized some of them (embracing Islam with a speech in Cairo), squandered others (refusing to meet with the Dalai Lama before his visit to Beijing) and had to settle for a photo-op in still others (the Copenhagen climate summit). The biggest historic opportunity still lies ahead: health- care reform. Obama has been exhorting Senate Democrats to “seize this historic opportunity” (and cement his legacy) by enacting sweeping legislation that expands health-care coverage, creates a new entitlement and does little to address misplaced incentives (third-party payers) or control costs. The Senate is expected to pass its health-care bill as soon as tomorrow on a 60-40 party line vote. The House and Senate must then reconcile their different versions. The more the American people know, the less they like the idea. This may be one historic opportunity Obama will wish he missed. ( Caroline Baum , author of “Just What I Said,” is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) Click on “Send Comment” in sidebar display to send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer of this column: Caroline Baum in New York at cabaum@bloomberg.net .

Read the full article →

Climate Talks Lead Bloomberg Week in Review

December 18, 2009

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) — World leaders meeting in Copenhagen to discuss climate change topped the most-read stories on Bloomberg.com in the past week as a blizzard dumped snow on delegates seeking a solution to global warming. For more coverage of the climate talks, click here . “ California Bonds Fail on Advice Bill Lockyer Couldn’t Refuse ” leads a selection of the week’s best stories. Click the VIDEO tab above for the video pick of the week, a Bloomberg Television interview with William Winters, his first since leaving as co-chief executive officer JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bank. Read the accompanying story here . BusinessWeek’s cover story is the 2010 Investment Outlook . Last-minute shoppers may find gift ideas in BusinessWeek’s buyer’s guide to electronic book readers including Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the Amazon Kindle. Following is a selection of stories from the past week, chosen by senior editors at Bloomberg News. Dubai May Need More Help to Repay Debt After Bailout Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Dubai, the recipient yesterday of a $10 billion bailout from Abu Dhabi, has yet to convince investors it will meet all of its obligations. Click here for more on Dubai’s debt. Regulators Resist Volcker Wandering Warning of Too-Big-to-Fail Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Paul A. Volcker visited nine cities in five countries in the past eight weeks to warn that bankers and regulators “have not come anywhere close to responding with necessary vigor” to the worst economic crisis in 70 years. Marine Can’t Recall His Lessons at For-Profit College Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — Marine Corps Corporal James Long knows he’s enrolled at Ashford University, one of at least a dozen for-profit colleges making money off active-duty military with subsidies from American taxpayers. He just can’t remember what course he’s taking. Golf Inc. Pays for Tiger’s Affairs With Lost Ads Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods’s indiscretions will cascade through Golf Inc., costing the PGA Tour, television networks such as CBS and merchandise vendors like Nike Inc. $220 million or more in lost revenue. Also see Scott Soshnick’s column on the blissful flipside of Woods’s marital mess. Marching Band, Quail Hunt Helped Exxon’s Tillerson to XTO Deal Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — The story of Exxon Mobil Corp.’s acquisition of XTO Energy Inc, which culminated in a $31 billion takeover agreement, can be traced to the University of Texas Longhorns marching band and a quail hunt. Egypt Forces Copts to Hide as Muslims Hit Swiss Minaret Ban Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) — On a side street in the far northeast Cairo suburb of Ain Shams, the door of a five-story former underwear factory is padlocked. This is, or was supposed to be, the St. Mary and Anba Abraam Coptic Christian Church. Target-Date Retirement Funds Use Junk Bonds for Yield Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — John Hancock’s Lifecycle 2010 mutual fund is marketed as an investment that “becomes more conservative” for people approaching retirement age. Thirty- five percent of the fund’s debt holdings in September were junk bonds, according to Morningstar Inc. Sotheby’s, Christie’s Contemporary-Art Sales Total Drops 75% Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Annual sales of contemporary art slumped 75 percent at the two largest auction houses’ evening sales in 2009 after they abandoned price guarantees to sellers. The top 10 most-read stories on Bloomberg.com for the past week: 1. Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming 2. Gold Buying by Central Banks May Send Signal to Sell 3. Abu Dhabi Fund Seeks to End Citigroup Share Purchase 4. Citigroup to Repay $20 Billion of Government Bailout 5. Abu Dhabi Bails Out Dubai World With $10 Billion 6. Exxon to Buy XTO for $31 Billion in Bet on U.S. Gas 7. Tudor Jones Turns Away Investors as Fund Outflows Persist 8. Harvard Swaps Are So Toxic Even Summers Won’t Explain 9. Luxury-Home Owners in U.S. Use ‘Short Sales’ as Defaults Rise 10. Hoffa Says Goldman Sachs Driving YRC Into Bankruptcy # # -0- Dec/18/2009 18:16 GMT

Read the full article →

Greg Simon: Is There a Method to This Madness?

December 17, 2009

For years I’ve been itching to write an article, a blog, an email blast, a Facebook post — just something — to rant about the idiosyncrasies of patent law. I’m not talking about a scholarly, academic work; if you want to learn patent law in a nutshell, go read Patent Law In A Nutshell . Instead, I’ve wanted to write a piece explaining why it is that after years of litigating patent infringement cases, I understand the law fairly well but sometimes just don’t get it. I’ve resisted writing these thoughts down, partly out of fear of exposing to my patent law brethren that, like Meryl Streep confessing to Amy Adams in the dramatic closing scene of Doubt , that “I have my doubts; Oh I have my doubts.” Nevertheless, having just read the recent decision in Perfect Web Technologies v. InfoUSA (Fed. Cir. 2009), I feel compelled to take a minute to rant. By way of context, I began practicing patent law at a prominent L.A. firm as one of several lawyers on a team defending Hewlett-Packard against claims filed by Pitney Bowes alleging that virtually all of Hewlett-Packard’s laser printers, which incorporated a feature for smoothing print called “Resolution Enhanced Technology” or “REt,” infringed a Pitney Bowes patent. The case might seem a bit incongruous on its face. How was it that a company known primarily for postage stamp meters was suing HP — a world leader in the development and sale of laser printers — for infringing a laser printing patent? It turns out that, largely unbeknownst to the industry, engineers within Pitney Bowes tinkered with laser printer technology in the 1970s, and a series of patent applications led to the issuance in 1983 of the patent in suit. Two aspects of the case stood out to me at the time. First, there was no evidence that HP’s engineers were aware of, let alone copied, Pitney Bowes’s patent when they designed their REt system (incidentally, even Pitney Bowes’s then management appeared unaware of its own patent for some time, as it did not file suite until years after HP began selling the accused printers). Second, there was no evidence that HP’s engineers copied any Pitney Bowes laser printer that utilized this patented technology, because Pitney Bowes never claimed to have sold such a laser printer. Call me crazy, but as a young lawyer with no prior experience in patent law, I wondered how HP could be held liable for patent infringement if it had not copied the patent and had not copied a Pitney Bowes product. Actual copying is an element of a copyright infringement claim, so why would the law be any different here? Moreover, despite the law’s oddities and absurdities, perceived or real, it does tend to work out that we only hold people liable when they’ve done something “wrong” in the everyday sense of that word. But alas, patent law did call me crazy. In spite of my misconceptions and the misconceptions of many people I’ve observed commenting on patent cases, copying is not an element of patent infringement. Thus, you might analogize patent law and patent infringement to a game of Monopoly. If by chance you land on “St. Charles Place,” and if it is owned by someone else, you pay. It doesn’t matter whether or not you knew the property was owned by someone else; it doesn’t matter whether or not you knew the perimeters of the property; and it doesn’t matter whether or not you intended to trespass. As a result, it is often highly misleading and erroneous to suggest that a company found liable for patent infringement “stole” or “ripped off” technology. This all makes for a rather dangerous game when you factor in the risks. Defendants accused of patent infringement can be (and often are) hit with astronomical damages awards in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with recent verdicts exceeding $1 billion. Further, courts can permanently enjoin the accused infringer from selling its products up through the expiration of the patent. The risks were too high for HP — nearly its entire line of laser printers was potentially at risk–and so in a public settlement, it paid Pitney Bowes $400 million to buy peace. With outcomes like this — the well-publicized case against Research In Motion is another example — I cringe a little when I hear patent law and the proliferation of infringement suits hyper-simplistically defended with platitudes about “rewarding invention.” Certainly, patent law can reward inventive effort, but not always. I struggle to comprehend how HP’s payment of $400 million to Pitney Bowes, or the verdict against RIM, rewarded invention rather than punishing it. And indeed, much of patent litigation today is entirely divorced from the motivations of patent law; it is simply about making money for the sake of making money, with no associated public benefit. Today, there are companies (you’ve probably heard the term, “patent trolls”) whose entire business consists of shaking down accused infringers with “paper patents” — patents that were issued but have never been the subject of a product on the market. This makeshift industry is even becoming vertically integrated: law firms prosecute patent applications, law firms acquire the resulting patents, and law firms turn around and file infringement suits for their own financial gain. So the companies who are actually benefiting consumers by designing, manufacturing, and selling products — often without the slightest knowledge of these paper patents — are forced to pay a hefty ransom to save their business and keep these products on the market. This is how patent law frequently “rewards invention.” The potential for injustice — at least I think it’s injustice — is compounded by the fact that patentees generally seek to obtain the broadest patent protection possible. Patent “claims” — the portion of the patent which serves to define the invention — tend toward obtuse language that describes the patented product in the most abstract, conceptual language possible. After all, the bigger we draw the boundaries of St. Charles Place, the more likely it is someone will land on it. And many patented inventions are not “products” at all. The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Bilski v. Kappos, which concerns the validity and enforceability of “method” claims that are not tied to a particular machine. Although the USPTO rejected the patent application at issue in Bilski, there are examples of successful applications that would leave you scratching your head. At present, my favorite comes from the above-mentioned Perfect Web case. The patentee in that case applied for and obtained a patent to the following: 1. A method for managing bulk e-mail distribution comprising the steps: (A) matching a target recipient profile with a group of target recipients; (B) transmitting a set of bulk e-mails to said target recipients in said matched group; (C) calculating a quantity of e-mails in said set of bulk e-mails which have been successfully received by said target recipients; and (D) if said calculated quantity does not exceed a prescribed minimum quantity of successfully received e-mails, repeating steps (A)-(C) until said calculated quantity exceeds said prescribed minimum quantity. I know, I know, this is all pretty technical stuff — I should use a semi-colon and parentheses here to indicate facetiousness — so allow me to use my years of legal training and patent experience to put this in plain English for you: 1. A method for sending emails where you: (A) find a bunch of people you want to send an email to; (B) send the email; (C) see if everyone got your email; and (D) if enough people didn’t get your email, send it again. I’m not kidding. This company didn’t patent any technology behind computers, the Internet, or email delivery systems. Rather, they got a patent on the idea that if you send an email to a number of people, and some don’t receive it, you should send it again. Seriously, I think I infringed that patent claim yesterday when I emailed a Tiger Woods joke to my friends. Fortunately, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit just affirmed a lower court decision declaring the patent invalid, so you should feel safe returning to your cutting-edge practice of sending emails to groups of people. I could go on and describe my ideas for re-writing patent law to ameliorate some of this craziness, but you’ll have to wait for my book on the subject. Seeing as it took me 10 years to get around to writing a short blog post, I expect it’ll hit stores by 2025. Until then, I’m adopting an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” philosophy. I’m preparing to patent a method for blogging “comprising the steps: (A) matching a target recipient profile for blog readers with a particular target blog; (B) transmitting a writing to said blog readers on said blog; (C) calculating the quantity of comments received from said blog readers on said blog; and (D) if said quantity of comments do not exceed a prescribed minimum quantity of comments, repeating steps (A)-(C) until said calculated quantity exceeds said prescribed minimum quantity.” When my patent issues, the rest of you bloggers will just have to watch out.

Read the full article →

Greg Simon: Is There a Method to This Madness?

December 17, 2009

For years I’ve been itching to write an article, a blog, an email blast, a Facebook post — just something — to rant about the idiosyncrasies of patent law. I’m not talking about a scholarly, academic work; if you want to learn patent law in a nutshell, go read Patent Law In A Nutshell . Instead, I’ve wanted to write a piece explaining why it is that after years of litigating patent infringement cases, I understand the law fairly well but sometimes just don’t get it. I’ve resisted writing these thoughts down, partly out of fear of exposing to my patent law brethren that, like Meryl Streep confessing to Amy Adams in the dramatic closing scene of Doubt , that “I have my doubts; Oh I have my doubts.” Nevertheless, having just read the recent decision in Perfect Web Technologies v. InfoUSA (Fed. Cir. 2009), I feel compelled to take a minute to rant. By way of context, I began practicing patent law at a prominent L.A. firm as one of several lawyers on a team defending Hewlett-Packard against claims filed by Pitney Bowes alleging that virtually all of Hewlett-Packard’s laser printers, which incorporated a feature for smoothing print called “Resolution Enhanced Technology” or “REt,” infringed a Pitney Bowes patent. The case might seem a bit incongruous on its face. How was it that a company known primarily for postage stamp meters was suing HP — a world leader in the development and sale of laser printers — for infringing a laser printing patent? It turns out that, largely unbeknownst to the industry, engineers within Pitney Bowes tinkered with laser printer technology in the 1970s, and a series of patent applications led to the issuance in 1983 of the patent in suit. Two aspects of the case stood out to me at the time. First, there was no evidence that HP’s engineers were aware of, let alone copied, Pitney Bowes’s patent when they designed their REt system (incidentally, even Pitney Bowes’s then management appeared unaware of its own patent for some time, as it did not file suite until years after HP began selling the accused printers). Second, there was no evidence that HP’s engineers copied any Pitney Bowes laser printer that utilized this patented technology, because Pitney Bowes never claimed to have sold such a laser printer. Call me crazy, but as a young lawyer with no prior experience in patent law, I wondered how HP could be held liable for patent infringement if it had not copied the patent and had not copied a Pitney Bowes product. Actual copying is an element of a copyright infringement claim, so why would the law be any different here? Moreover, despite the law’s oddities and absurdities, perceived or real, it does tend to work out that we only hold people liable when they’ve done something “wrong” in the everyday sense of that word. But alas, patent law did call me crazy. In spite of my misconceptions and the misconceptions of many people I’ve observed commenting on patent cases, copying is not an element of patent infringement. Thus, you might analogize patent law and patent infringement to a game of Monopoly. If by chance you land on “St. Charles Place,” and if it is owned by someone else, you pay. It doesn’t matter whether or not you knew the property was owned by someone else; it doesn’t matter whether or not you knew the perimeters of the property; and it doesn’t matter whether or not you intended to trespass. As a result, it is often highly misleading and erroneous to suggest that a company found liable for patent infringement “stole” or “ripped off” technology. This all makes for a rather dangerous game when you factor in the risks. Defendants accused of patent infringement can be (and often are) hit with astronomical damages awards in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with recent verdicts exceeding $1 billion. Further, courts can permanently enjoin the accused infringer from selling its products up through the expiration of the patent. The risks were too high for HP — nearly its entire line of laser printers was potentially at risk–and so in a public settlement, it paid Pitney Bowes $400 million to buy peace. With outcomes like this — the well-publicized case against Research In Motion is another example — I cringe a little when I hear patent law and the proliferation of infringement suits hyper-simplistically defended with platitudes about “rewarding invention.” Certainly, patent law can reward inventive effort, but not always. I struggle to comprehend how HP’s payment of $400 million to Pitney Bowes, or the verdict against RIM, rewarded invention rather than punishing it. And indeed, much of patent litigation today is entirely divorced from the motivations of patent law; it is simply about making money for the sake of making money, with no associated public benefit. Today, there are companies (you’ve probably heard the term, “patent trolls”) whose entire business consists of shaking down accused infringers with “paper patents” — patents that were issued but have never been the subject of a product on the market. This makeshift industry is even becoming vertically integrated: law firms prosecute patent applications, law firms acquire the resulting patents, and law firms turn around and file infringement suits for their own financial gain. So the companies who are actually benefiting consumers by designing, manufacturing, and selling products — often without the slightest knowledge of these paper patents — are forced to pay a hefty ransom to save their business and keep these products on the market. This is how patent law frequently “rewards invention.” The potential for injustice — at least I think it’s injustice — is compounded by the fact that patentees generally seek to obtain the broadest patent protection possible. Patent “claims” — the portion of the patent which serves to define the invention — tend toward obtuse language that describes the patented product in the most abstract, conceptual language possible. After all, the bigger we draw the boundaries of St. Charles Place, the more likely it is someone will land on it. And many patented inventions are not “products” at all. The Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Bilski v. Kappos, which concerns the validity and enforceability of “method” claims that are not tied to a particular machine. Although the USPTO rejected the patent application at issue in Bilski, there are examples of successful applications that would leave you scratching your head. At present, my favorite comes from the above-mentioned Perfect Web case. The patentee in that case applied for and obtained a patent to the following: 1. A method for managing bulk e-mail distribution comprising the steps: (A) matching a target recipient profile with a group of target recipients; (B) transmitting a set of bulk e-mails to said target recipients in said matched group; (C) calculating a quantity of e-mails in said set of bulk e-mails which have been successfully received by said target recipients; and (D) if said calculated quantity does not exceed a prescribed minimum quantity of successfully received e-mails, repeating steps (A)-(C) until said calculated quantity exceeds said prescribed minimum quantity. I know, I know, this is all pretty technical stuff — I should use a semi-colon and parentheses here to indicate facetiousness — so allow me to use my years of legal training and patent experience to put this in plain English for you: 1. A method for sending emails where you: (A) find a bunch of people you want to send an email to; (B) send the email; (C) see if everyone got your email; and (D) if enough people didn’t get your email, send it again. I’m not kidding. This company didn’t patent any technology behind computers, the Internet, or email delivery systems. Rather, they got a patent on the idea that if you send an email to a number of people, and some don’t receive it, you should send it again. Seriously, I think I infringed that patent claim yesterday when I emailed a Tiger Woods joke to my friends. Fortunately, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit just affirmed a lower court decision declaring the patent invalid, so you should feel safe returning to your cutting-edge practice of sending emails to groups of people. I could go on and describe my ideas for re-writing patent law to ameliorate some of this craziness, but you’ll have to wait for my book on the subject. Seeing as it took me 10 years to get around to writing a short blog post, I expect it’ll hit stores by 2025. Until then, I’m adopting an “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” philosophy. I’m preparing to patent a method for blogging “comprising the steps: (A) matching a target recipient profile for blog readers with a particular target blog; (B) transmitting a writing to said blog readers on said blog; (C) calculating the quantity of comments received from said blog readers on said blog; and (D) if said quantity of comments do not exceed a prescribed minimum quantity of comments, repeating steps (A)-(C) until said calculated quantity exceeds said prescribed minimum quantity.” When my patent issues, the rest of you bloggers will just have to watch out.

Read the full article →

Cheating Husband Texting on Office Pager Sues Boss: Ann Woolner

December 17, 2009

Commentary by Ann Woolner Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — When California cop Jeff Quon wanted to talk dirty to his girlfriend at work, he did it by text. When he wanted to get personal with his wife, he texted her, too. News of Tiger Woods’s digital messages to alleged bed partners continues to bounce around the world. But the love triangle that kept Quon’s thumbs busy is the sex scandal that could touch the lives of lots of us. The U.S. Supreme Court this week announced it would hear the case he filed against his employer for snooping around in his text messages. That’s right. Instead of slinking away in shame as Woods did when caught sexting, Quon sued the city whose police department pager he used and whose time he spent hitting on a co-worker and cheating on his wife. He claims an invasion of privacy. And who is suing alongside Quon? That would be his now ex- wife and the Other Woman. The truly amazing aspect of this case is Quon’s victory in the appeals court, which said that the unofficial workplace policy gave Quon reason to expect privacy for the texts he so fervently sent while policing for Ontario, California. For Quon and other privacy advocates, it isn’t great news that the Supreme Court is stepping in. For workers everywhere, what a wonderful thing it would be to use the employer’s computers, cell phones, BlackBerrys, instant messaging and whatever comes next to do anything we want, any time, all the time. Invasion of Privacy If the bosses try to peek in on the Christmas party video you are uploading onto your Facebook page, when you’re supposed to be helping clients, you could just sue them for invading your privacy. As for those papers you signed promising not to abuse the privilege, the ones where you gave up any claim to privacy, so what? If a superior told you it wouldn’t be enforced, you could be home free. Consider Quon. A SWAT team sergeant, he was carrying on his complicated love life with the help of a pager handed him by the Ontario police department . The department policy on computers barred “use of these tools for personal benefit” except for “light personal communications.” The city has the right “to monitor and log all network activity including e-mail and Internet use,” the policy warned. “Inappropriate,” “obscene” or “suggestive” language was forbidden. Electronic Communications You might assume the policy would cover all electronic communications, including digital pagers. Employees were told so at a briefing, which not everyone attended, according to Quon’s lawyer, Michael McGill, at Lackie, Dammeier & McGill, a suburban Los Angeles firm . Nonetheless, Quon was there, and a memo went out informing employees on the point, according to a federal judge’s ruling. But then there was the unofficial policy. A lieutenant told Quon and others that if anyone texted more than 25,000 characters a month, they would have to pay the overage and wouldn’t be monitored if they did. Did that unofficial policy imply official acceptance of the possibility that not all texting would be work-related? Quon texted with such gusto and frequency that he paid for extra usage time and again. Higher-ups noticed and wondered whether Quon, and a few others like him, were getting any work done. So they persuaded Arch Wireless, now USA Mobility Inc. , to turn in transcripts of Quon’s texts. Getting Personal Eliminating those sent when he was off duty still left 456 messages over a month’s time. On the average shift, he would send three work-related texts and 25 personal ones. Most of them went to friends in the department, Quon’s wife and his girlfriend, who worked as a radio dispatcher there. Many were, “to say the least, sexually explicit,” the trial judge wrote. When caught, the entire triangle sued — Jeff Quon, Jerilyn Quon, girlfriend April Florio — naming the city, the police department, the police chief and the wireless provider. How dare they invade their private communications! Quon and his fellow plaintiffs insist that the boss must ask permission first, even if they were using department equipment and spending the public’s time on personal business. OK, highly personal business. The San Francisco-based appeals court agreed with them last year in a ruling that gave comfort to BlackBerry addicts in the court’s nine-state jurisdiction. Debatable Impact How much comfort the decision warrants is debatable. For one thing, the U.S. Constitution restricts government searches and generally not those conducted by private companies. There isn’t much solace there for those of you who aren’t government workers. Plus there is that matter of the unofficial police department policy that the lower courts said trumped the official one. The case makes obvious the need for employers to spell out rules, and most do. Eighty-three percent have policies covering personal use of company-provided e-mail, according to a 2009 survey of 586 organizations by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute . More than a quarter of the employers reported firing workers for violating e-mail rules, up from 14 percent in 2001, the survey found. For one thing, companies are increasingly aware that an employee’s careless message could land the whole firm in trouble, says Nancy Flynn , the ePolicy Institute’s executive director. New Technologies The survey also showed that the newer the technology is, the fewer the official policies governing it. Only one-third of the employers said they have rules covering personal text messaging during work hours. With or without rules, it’s still a good idea to manage your personal relationships in your own time, on your own devices, regardless of how many you are juggling. Or, as Woods has learned, keep the evidence off electronic devices altogether. ( Ann Woolner is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) Click on “Send Comment” in sidebar display to send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer of this column: Ann Woolner in Atlanta at awoolner@bloomberg.net .

Read the full article →

Woods’s Wife to Leave Him Amid Infidelity Scandal, People Magazine Reports

December 16, 2009

By Brad Skillman Dec. 16 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods’s wife Elin Nordegren plans to leave him, People magazine reported on its Web site, citing a source close to the golfer’s wife. Another unidentified source told the magazine that “she’s made up her mind.” Photos this week showed Nordegren without her wedding ring, People said. Woods, 33, said Dec. 11 that he was taking an indefinite break from professional golf, citing infidelity and the need to focus on being a “better husband, father and person.” Woods is the winner of 14 major titles. Nordegren has met with laywers to renegotiate their prenuptial agreement, People said, citing a “high-profile Florida divorce attorney.”

Read the full article →

Mike Bonifer: Tiger’s Unplayable Lie

December 16, 2009

Six years ago, after playing hooky from work on a Friday to watch The Best Golfer in the World play nine holes at Riviera Country Club, I wrote this about him for my company’s blog: Tiger hit one shot that I will remember for a long time, one of the best I’ve ever seen. 220 yards from the green after an errant drive, out of deep rough, he hit a high draw inches to the right of a big tree ten yards in front of him, inches to the left of two bigger trees 30 yards farther up, a couple of feet over a bunker fronting the green, to within ten feet of the pin. People in the gallery ooohed and aaahed and applauded, then gathered around the divot he made in the rough like so many TV cops peering down at a murder victim. “Look at how long it is,” they muttered of the divot. “Look how wide he took his swing path.” “Did you see how hard he went down after it? Damn!” And… His focus is the most intimidating thing about his game. There is an unshakeable calmness to him that you don’t see in the other pros. Earl named him well, because he plays golf like a big cat stalking its prey. The confidence he has in the inevitability of his success is absolute. And… And yet…and yet…it’s strange to stand near another human being and not sense any more humanity in him than you would in a thoroughbred in the paddock at Santa Anita. What makes us vital–all that brawling, longing, laughing, crying, hurting and loving–all that bitching and moaning and mucking around most of us do on a daily basis-is bad for a person’s golf game. And so none of it seems to be part of Tiger’s make-up. He is, on the golf course anyway, inhuman. Today, the Eldrick “Tiger” Woods story, scripted for him by his father, Earl, since before he was born, is falling apart quicker than a 20-handicapper’s swing on the back nine of the club championship. In two weeks, Tiger has gone from paragon to pariah, and has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a brand can no longer script the humanity out of its narrative and expect the world to play along. In the billion-channel cosmos of the Networked World, sooner or later reality will outflank any brand’s ability to script and control its story the way brands could when there were three TV networks and a couple of major newspapers to be reckoned with, and story material was limited to what happened inside the ropes at Riviera. As this is written, the Tiger Woods brand burns out of control like a California wildfire, and embers from Tiger’s Inferno have landed on the roofs of Nike, Gatorade, Gillette and Accenture, and they’re in flames, too. Buick’s house of straw (did anybody ever really believe Tiger drove a Buick?) is probably burned beyond salvaging. What’s fueling this fire isn’t the the commonplace tabloid fodder of marital infidelity, it’s not about whether you side with a justly aggrieved wife or forgive a superstar his transgressions. This story is much bigger than that. It is a story as old as Achilles, the story of a hero’s fall from grace. It’s in our nature to want to see a story completed. Tiger’s story will hold the audience’s attention at least until the downfall is assured, the disgrace complete. The light at the end of Tiger’s tunnel–and the hope for any brand that has lost its way–is that the journey does not have to not end with the fall from grace. It may be impossible for the audience to turn away from a tragedy, but what the audience turns to of its own volition, and embraces more fervently than anything, is the hero’s return. As Joseph Campbell chronicles in Hero With A Thousand Faces , ‘falling to the Temptress(es)’ is one of many twists in the journey toward true heroism. Tiger Woods can redeem himself in the eyes of his audience, but he’s got to want to be an authentic hero, not one playing a role that has been scripted for him. Here are five productive moves he (or any other burning brand) can make in that direction: 1. Accept the Unplayable Lie. For you non-golfers, a Lie is Unplayable when the ball is in a position where not even Tiger Woods can take a productive swing at it. At that point, you’ve just got to accept the penalty and play on. This is the situation in which Tiger finds himself today. There is no excuse that will satisfy. No spin that can put the scandal to rest. He’s got no swing at this one. He’s got to cop to being a pig and a dog and apologize with more than words for whatever hurt his family, and get on with whatever’s next. Too many brands waste time talking about how or whether to play the unplayable lie, instead of quickly agreeing that it’s unplayable. They will consult with caddies and seek ruling from judges. They will pull different clubs out of the bag. They will check the wind. They will roll up their pants legs and walk into the hazard. Sometimes, they will even go all Van De Velde (for you golf fans) and take a stupid swing at the ball and make things much, much worse. And all along, the best thing would’ve been to simply accept the penalty and play on. 2. Be entrepreneurial. I always thought Tiger missed an opportunity when he signed with Nike for so much of his gear. Nothing against signing with Nike for the clubs, shoes and whatever, but giving them the clothing line, too, turned him into their mannequin. Nike dresses him like a second grader in a private school. His golf clothes are billboards with swooshes. He could be wearing clothes designed by people like Bill Johnson’s Transient label in D.C., or eco-friendly brands like Nau or Vital Hemptations . Small businesses of all kinds need help these days, and Tiger is just the guy to give it to them. He can help take a small minority-owned solar energy company national. He can sign with up-and-coming companies as sponsors, and not charge them a dime. Instead, he can own equity in them. This will have the added benefit of re-energizing the fan base, as pulling for Tiger will mean that you are pulling for a host of deserving upstart companies, too. The hero’s journey requires allies along the way. 3. Embrace your Cablinasianism. Tiger has made a big deal about being what the brand calls ‘Cablinasian.’ Caucasian-Black-Indian-Asian. Okay cool. But the scripted Tiger only explores a very narrow strand of that, the strand that is privileged, plays a lot of golf, owns a yacht and apparently hits on anyone carrying a cocktail tray. All brands can tap creative energy by exploring their multiculturalism. Tiger’s ethnic makeup is one thing besides being a great golfer that can differentiate the brand, but he has to show the audience what Cablinasian means beyond the clever cosmetic of a made-up word. 4. Be a supporting player for a change. From the time he was born, Tiger Woods has seldom been in a scene in which he was not the star. His father basically abandoned his other children to focus on young Eldrick. By age two, Tiger was on national television hitting golf balls. When he was a junior, he played with the grown-ups, when he was in college, he played with the pros, as a pro, he plays against the history of the game itself. That is a pretty lonely path. He needs to focus on sharing the narrative with others for awhile. This does not mean going into hiding. It means consciously taking a backseat in someone else’s scene. Raise your children. Work with your charities. Find a protégé to coach. In the Networked World, we are measured every bit as much by what we contribute to others as by what we amass for ourselves. No brand is an island. 5. Get better at something you’re bad at. We all develop go-to moves. If you are good at something, and receive a ton of approval and money for doing it, what is your motivation for doing anything else? Here is your motivation: In the Networked World, the narrative is not only multi-channel, it is multi-dimensional. Relying on your go-to move has the effect of limiting your brand’s value, because it limits the dimensions of the brand that have the potential to improve and grow. When you have won the Masters by 12 strokes and the U.S. Open by 15 and are probably The Greatest Golfer Who Ever Lived, golf is not an area of growth. It is a flat line at best. The growth areas are the dimensions of the brand that have not yet been explored. For Tiger Woods, this could probably mean just about anything other than playing golf and getting girls’ numbers, so there is a lot of room for growth. And growth is the only way out of this. Mike Bonifer is the author of GameChangers–Improvisation for Business in the Networked World .

Read the full article →

Mike Bonifer: Tiger’s Unplayable Lie

December 16, 2009

Six years ago, after playing hooky from work on a Friday to watch The Best Golfer in the World play nine holes at Riviera Country Club, I wrote this about him for my company’s blog: Tiger hit one shot that I will remember for a long time, one of the best I’ve ever seen. 220 yards from the green after an errant drive, out of deep rough, he hit a high draw inches to the right of a big tree ten yards in front of him, inches to the left of two bigger trees 30 yards farther up, a couple of feet over a bunker fronting the green, to within ten feet of the pin. People in the gallery ooohed and aaahed and applauded, then gathered around the divot he made in the rough like so many TV cops peering down at a murder victim. “Look at how long it is,” they muttered of the divot. “Look how wide he took his swing path.” “Did you see how hard he went down after it? Damn!” And… His focus is the most intimidating thing about his game. There is an unshakeable calmness to him that you don’t see in the other pros. Earl named him well, because he plays golf like a big cat stalking its prey. The confidence he has in the inevitability of his success is absolute. And… And yet…and yet…it’s strange to stand near another human being and not sense any more humanity in him than you would in a thoroughbred in the paddock at Santa Anita. What makes us vital–all that brawling, longing, laughing, crying, hurting and loving–all that bitching and moaning and mucking around most of us do on a daily basis-is bad for a person’s golf game. And so none of it seems to be part of Tiger’s make-up. He is, on the golf course anyway, inhuman. Today, the Eldrick “Tiger” Woods story, scripted for him by his father, Earl, since before he was born, is falling apart quicker than a 20-handicapper’s swing on the back nine of the club championship. In two weeks, Tiger has gone from paragon to pariah, and has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a brand can no longer script the humanity out of its narrative and expect the world to play along. In the billion-channel cosmos of the Networked World, sooner or later reality will outflank any brand’s ability to script and control its story the way brands could when there were three TV networks and a couple of major newspapers to be reckoned with, and story material was limited to what happened inside the ropes at Riviera. As this is written, the Tiger Woods brand burns out of control like a California wildfire, and embers from Tiger’s Inferno have landed on the roofs of Nike, Gatorade, Gillette and Accenture, and they’re in flames, too. Buick’s house of straw (did anybody ever really believe Tiger drove a Buick?) is probably burned beyond salvaging. What’s fueling this fire isn’t the the commonplace tabloid fodder of marital infidelity, it’s not about whether you side with a justly aggrieved wife or forgive a superstar his transgressions. This story is much bigger than that. It is a story as old as Achilles, the story of a hero’s fall from grace. It’s in our nature to want to see a story completed. Tiger’s story will hold the audience’s attention at least until the downfall is assured, the disgrace complete. The light at the end of Tiger’s tunnel–and the hope for any brand that has lost its way–is that the journey does not have to not end with the fall from grace. It may be impossible for the audience to turn away from a tragedy, but what the audience turns to of its own volition, and embraces more fervently than anything, is the hero’s return. As Joseph Campbell chronicles in Hero With A Thousand Faces , ‘falling to the Temptress(es)’ is one of many twists in the journey toward true heroism. Tiger Woods can redeem himself in the eyes of his audience, but he’s got to want to be an authentic hero, not one playing a role that has been scripted for him. Here are five productive moves he (or any other burning brand) can make in that direction: 1. Accept the Unplayable Lie. For you non-golfers, a Lie is Unplayable when the ball is in a position where not even Tiger Woods can take a productive swing at it. At that point, you’ve just got to accept the penalty and play on. This is the situation in which Tiger finds himself today. There is no excuse that will satisfy. No spin that can put the scandal to rest. He’s got no swing at this one. He’s got to cop to being a pig and a dog and apologize with more than words for whatever hurt his family, and get on with whatever’s next. Too many brands waste time talking about how or whether to play the unplayable lie, instead of quickly agreeing that it’s unplayable. They will consult with caddies and seek ruling from judges. They will pull different clubs out of the bag. They will check the wind. They will roll up their pants legs and walk into the hazard. Sometimes, they will even go all Van De Velde (for you golf fans) and take a stupid swing at the ball and make things much, much worse. And all along, the best thing would’ve been to simply accept the penalty and play on. 2. Be entrepreneurial. I always thought Tiger missed an opportunity when he signed with Nike for so much of his gear. Nothing against signing with Nike for the clubs, shoes and whatever, but giving them the clothing line, too, turned him into their mannequin. Nike dresses him like a second grader in a private school. His golf clothes are billboards with swooshes. He could be wearing clothes designed by people like Bill Johnson’s Transient label in D.C., or eco-friendly brands like Nau or Vital Hemptations . Small businesses of all kinds need help these days, and Tiger is just the guy to give it to them. He can help take a small minority-owned solar energy company national. He can sign with up-and-coming companies as sponsors, and not charge them a dime. Instead, he can own equity in them. This will have the added benefit of re-energizing the fan base, as pulling for Tiger will mean that you are pulling for a host of deserving upstart companies, too. The hero’s journey requires allies along the way. 3. Embrace your Cablinasianism. Tiger has made a big deal about being what the brand calls ‘Cablinasian.’ Caucasian-Black-Indian-Asian. Okay cool. But the scripted Tiger only explores a very narrow strand of that, the strand that is privileged, plays a lot of golf, owns a yacht and apparently hits on anyone carrying a cocktail tray. All brands can tap creative energy by exploring their multiculturalism. Tiger’s ethnic makeup is one thing besides being a great golfer that can differentiate the brand, but he has to show the audience what Cablinasian means beyond the clever cosmetic of a made-up word. 4. Be a supporting player for a change. From the time he was born, Tiger Woods has seldom been in a scene in which he was not the star. His father basically abandoned his other children to focus on young Eldrick. By age two, Tiger was on national television hitting golf balls. When he was a junior, he played with the grown-ups, when he was in college, he played with the pros, as a pro, he plays against the history of the game itself. That is a pretty lonely path. He needs to focus on sharing the narrative with others for awhile. This does not mean going into hiding. It means consciously taking a backseat in someone else’s scene. Raise your children. Work with your charities. Find a protégé to coach. In the Networked World, we are measured every bit as much by what we contribute to others as by what we amass for ourselves. No brand is an island. 5. Get better at something you’re bad at. We all develop go-to moves. If you are good at something, and receive a ton of approval and money for doing it, what is your motivation for doing anything else? Here is your motivation: In the Networked World, the narrative is not only multi-channel, it is multi-dimensional. Relying on your go-to move has the effect of limiting your brand’s value, because it limits the dimensions of the brand that have the potential to improve and grow. When you have won the Masters by 12 strokes and the U.S. Open by 15 and are probably The Greatest Golfer Who Ever Lived, golf is not an area of growth. It is a flat line at best. The growth areas are the dimensions of the brand that have not yet been explored. For Tiger Woods, this could probably mean just about anything other than playing golf and getting girls’ numbers, so there is a lot of room for growth. And growth is the only way out of this. Mike Bonifer is the author of GameChangers–Improvisation for Business in the Networked World .

Read the full article →

Mike Bonifer: Tiger’s Unplayable Lie

December 16, 2009

Six years ago, after playing hooky from work on a Friday to watch The Best Golfer in the World play nine holes at Riviera Country Club, I wrote this about him for my company’s blog: Tiger hit one shot that I will remember for a long time, one of the best I’ve ever seen. 220 yards from the green after an errant drive, out of deep rough, he hit a high draw inches to the right of a big tree ten yards in front of him, inches to the left of two bigger trees 30 yards farther up, a couple of feet over a bunker fronting the green, to within ten feet of the pin. People in the gallery ooohed and aaahed and applauded, then gathered around the divot he made in the rough like so many TV cops peering down at a murder victim. “Look at how long it is,” they muttered of the divot. “Look how wide he took his swing path.” “Did you see how hard he went down after it? Damn!” And… His focus is the most intimidating thing about his game. There is an unshakeable calmness to him that you don’t see in the other pros. Earl named him well, because he plays golf like a big cat stalking its prey. The confidence he has in the inevitability of his success is absolute. And… And yet…and yet…it’s strange to stand near another human being and not sense any more humanity in him than you would in a thoroughbred in the paddock at Santa Anita. What makes us vital–all that brawling, longing, laughing, crying, hurting and loving–all that bitching and moaning and mucking around most of us do on a daily basis-is bad for a person’s golf game. And so none of it seems to be part of Tiger’s make-up. He is, on the golf course anyway, inhuman. Today, the Eldrick “Tiger” Woods story, scripted for him by his father, Earl, since before he was born, is falling apart quicker than a 20-handicapper’s swing on the back nine of the club championship. In two weeks, Tiger has gone from paragon to pariah, and has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a brand can no longer script the humanity out of its narrative and expect the world to play along. In the billion-channel cosmos of the Networked World, sooner or later reality will outflank any brand’s ability to script and control its story the way brands could when there were three TV networks and a couple of major newspapers to be reckoned with, and story material was limited to what happened inside the ropes at Riviera. As this is written, the Tiger Woods brand burns out of control like a California wildfire, and embers from Tiger’s Inferno have landed on the roofs of Nike, Gatorade, Gillette and Accenture, and they’re in flames, too. Buick’s house of straw (did anybody ever really believe Tiger drove a Buick?) is probably burned beyond salvaging. What’s fueling this fire isn’t the the commonplace tabloid fodder of marital infidelity, it’s not about whether you side with a justly aggrieved wife or forgive a superstar his transgressions. This story is much bigger than that. It is a story as old as Achilles, the story of a hero’s fall from grace. It’s in our nature to want to see a story completed. Tiger’s story will hold the audience’s attention at least until the downfall is assured, the disgrace complete. The light at the end of Tiger’s tunnel–and the hope for any brand that has lost its way–is that the journey does not have to not end with the fall from grace. It may be impossible for the audience to turn away from a tragedy, but what the audience turns to of its own volition, and embraces more fervently than anything, is the hero’s return. As Joseph Campbell chronicles in Hero With A Thousand Faces , ‘falling to the Temptress(es)’ is one of many twists in the journey toward true heroism. Tiger Woods can redeem himself in the eyes of his audience, but he’s got to want to be an authentic hero, not one playing a role that has been scripted for him. Here are five productive moves he (or any other burning brand) can make in that direction: 1. Accept the Unplayable Lie. For you non-golfers, a Lie is Unplayable when the ball is in a position where not even Tiger Woods can take a productive swing at it. At that point, you’ve just got to accept the penalty and play on. This is the situation in which Tiger finds himself today. There is no excuse that will satisfy. No spin that can put the scandal to rest. He’s got no swing at this one. He’s got to cop to being a pig and a dog and apologize with more than words for whatever hurt his family, and get on with whatever’s next. Too many brands waste time talking about how or whether to play the unplayable lie, instead of quickly agreeing that it’s unplayable. They will consult with caddies and seek ruling from judges. They will pull different clubs out of the bag. They will check the wind. They will roll up their pants legs and walk into the hazard. Sometimes, they will even go all Van De Velde (for you golf fans) and take a stupid swing at the ball and make things much, much worse. And all along, the best thing would’ve been to simply accept the penalty and play on. 2. Be entrepreneurial. I always thought Tiger missed an opportunity when he signed with Nike for so much of his gear. Nothing against signing with Nike for the clubs, shoes and whatever, but giving them the clothing line, too, turned him into their mannequin. Nike dresses him like a second grader in a private school. His golf clothes are billboards with swooshes. He could be wearing clothes designed by people like Bill Johnson’s Transient label in D.C., or eco-friendly brands like Nau or Vital Hemptations . Small businesses of all kinds need help these days, and Tiger is just the guy to give it to them. He can help take a small minority-owned solar energy company national. He can sign with up-and-coming companies as sponsors, and not charge them a dime. Instead, he can own equity in them. This will have the added benefit of re-energizing the fan base, as pulling for Tiger will mean that you are pulling for a host of deserving upstart companies, too. The hero’s journey requires allies along the way. 3. Embrace your Cablinasianism. Tiger has made a big deal about being what the brand calls ‘Cablinasian.’ Caucasian-Black-Indian-Asian. Okay cool. But the scripted Tiger only explores a very narrow strand of that, the strand that is privileged, plays a lot of golf, owns a yacht and apparently hits on anyone carrying a cocktail tray. All brands can tap creative energy by exploring their multiculturalism. Tiger’s ethnic makeup is one thing besides being a great golfer that can differentiate the brand, but he has to show the audience what Cablinasian means beyond the clever cosmetic of a made-up word. 4. Be a supporting player for a change. From the time he was born, Tiger Woods has seldom been in a scene in which he was not the star. His father basically abandoned his other children to focus on young Eldrick. By age two, Tiger was on national television hitting golf balls. When he was a junior, he played with the grown-ups, when he was in college, he played with the pros, as a pro, he plays against the history of the game itself. That is a pretty lonely path. He needs to focus on sharing the narrative with others for awhile. This does not mean going into hiding. It means consciously taking a backseat in someone else’s scene. Raise your children. Work with your charities. Find a protégé to coach. In the Networked World, we are measured every bit as much by what we contribute to others as by what we amass for ourselves. No brand is an island. 5. Get better at something you’re bad at. We all develop go-to moves. If you are good at something, and receive a ton of approval and money for doing it, what is your motivation for doing anything else? Here is your motivation: In the Networked World, the narrative is not only multi-channel, it is multi-dimensional. Relying on your go-to move has the effect of limiting your brand’s value, because it limits the dimensions of the brand that have the potential to improve and grow. When you have won the Masters by 12 strokes and the U.S. Open by 15 and are probably The Greatest Golfer Who Ever Lived, golf is not an area of growth. It is a flat line at best. The growth areas are the dimensions of the brand that have not yet been explored. For Tiger Woods, this could probably mean just about anything other than playing golf and getting girls’ numbers, so there is a lot of room for growth. And growth is the only way out of this. Mike Bonifer is the author of GameChangers–Improvisation for Business in the Networked World .

Read the full article →

Accenture Ends Marketing Deal with Tiger Woods as Gillette ‘Takes a Break’

December 13, 2009

By Brett Pulley and Katie Hoffmann Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) — Accenture Plc , the consulting company that built its marketing around Tiger Woods , said it was ending a six-year relationship with him, while Procter & Gamble Co. said it will begin phasing the athlete out of promotions for its Gillette brand. “For the past six years, Accenture and Tiger Woods have had a very successful sponsorship arrangement and his achievements on the golf course have been a powerful metaphor for business success in Accenture’s advertising,” the company said in a statement. “However, given the circumstances of the last two weeks, after careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising.” AT&T Inc., also a sponsor, is evaluating its relationship with Woods, the company said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Accenture pulled print ads from more than one publication, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who sought anonymity because the decision isn’t public. The moves suggest sponsors are taking steps to distance themselves from the golfer following reports of infidelity that surfaced last month. Woods said Dec. 11 he’ll take an indefinite break from the game. The publicity may taint Accenture , which has been linked to Woods since 2003, more than other sponsors because the ads tie Woods so closely to its values, according to David Martin , president of Interbrand Corp.’s New York division. “His qualities they’re using as a metaphor for their qualities,” said Martin, who leads the consulting company’s golf-branding practice. “They’re in a more precarious position than anybody else.” Celebrity Endorsements An image of Woods among cactuses, previously rotating on Accenture’s main page along with photographs of a skier and skaters, was no longer on display beginning Dec. 11. Its sponsorship page excluded any mention of Woods and a search of the site for his name returned no results. Gillette, maker of the Mach3 razor, will stop running print and broadcast ads featuring Woods, and plans to phase out Web site and retail promotions in coming months, said Mike Norton , a company spokesman. “As Tiger takes a break from the public eye, we will support his desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs,” Gillette said in a statement yesterday. AT&T, the largest U.S. phone company, said in its statement that “we are presently evaluating our ongoing relationship.” Woods issued a statement saying he’ll take time off to mend family relationships and focus on being a better husband and father. “It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try,” he said on his Web site. Personal Lives Woods apologized and sought understanding from both his fans and business partners. The golfer earns $110 million in annual income from endorsements and tournaments, as estimated by Forbes magazine. In October, he became the first athlete to top $1 billion in career earnings. “It would be both premature and inappropriate to comment on the status of specific business relationships,” Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg , said in an e-mail. “We have had thoughtful conversations and his sponsors have been open to a solution-oriented dialogue. Of course, each sponsor has unique considerations and ultimately the decisions they make we would fully understand and accept.” “When you sign up to use celebrity endorsements in your advertisement, you have to be prepared to deal with things that happen to celebrities in their personal lives,” said Tom Bedecarre , chairman of AKQA, a San Francisco-based digital advertising agency. Once the ‘Centerpiece’ Accenture called Woods the “centerpiece” of its advertising campaign in an earlier version of one Web page taken down. “As perhaps the world’s ultimate symbol of high performance, he serves as a metaphor for our commitment to helping companies become high-performance businesses,” the page, entitled “Accenture and Tiger Woods,” said. Until late last night, the cactus advertisement and some other print ads were visible on parts of the site. Dublin-based Accenture fell 68 cents to $42 on Dec. 11 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 28 percent this year. Accenture hadn’t issued any statements since Woods’s Nov. 27 automobile accident and subsequent reports of extramarital affairs. Other companies with marketing ties to the golfer, including sportswear maker Nike Inc. and video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc., have said they aren’t changing their media plans or advertising schedules. Accenture’s advertising campaign is problematic because the ads contain copy lines that are easy fodder for late-night comedians and headline puns, AKQA’s Bedecarre said. Late-Night Jokes “You go through every airport in the world, and there’s Tiger with some kind of copy line,” Bedecarre said. “My sense is this is going to be a chance for people to reassess their plans, and reassess their copy.” Through Dec. 7, there were 20 instances of late-night television shows with jokes and skits that mentioned Woods’s troubles together with products, according to Nielsen Co., which tracks TV viewing and ad recall. Viewers remembered products tied to Woods at a rate 41 percent higher than their typical recall of brands mentioned in late-night jokes, Nielsen said. Consumers’ opinion of the brands dropped 11 percent, almost double the usual 6 percent drop when a product is the butt of a late-night joke. Accenture wasn’t among the names mentioned. “It’s a double-edged sword,” Randall Beard , a Nielsen executive vice president, said in an interview. “The saturation of Tiger in the media has heightened the recognition of his sponsor affiliations. But at the same time for these brands, the controversy is contributing to a more negative impact on public perception.” Influencing Shoppers The No. 1 golfer has plunged to 24th from sixth in the Davie Brown Index of celebrity endorsers, which marketers and ad agencies use to gauge the ability of personalities to influence shoppers. Gary Beckner, Accenture’s director of global marketing, discussed the company’s affiliation with Woods in a 2008 interview with Bloomberg News. As the company prepared to go public in 2001, “we needed some kind of a real impact and we thought Tiger would fit,” said Beckner, who hasn’t responded to recent calls. “We don’t sponsor golfers just to sponsor golfers. It has to be the right fit,” Beckner said. “Right now we have a high- performance position in the market and Tiger Woods is the epitome of high performance. He’s our flagship, our bright shining star. He has a lot of impact.” To contact the reporter on this story: Brett Pulley in New York at bpulley@bloomberg.net ; Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Woods’s `Indefinite Leave’ Announcement Raises Question of How Long Gone

December 13, 2009

By Michael Buteau Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods is leaving golf to tend to a marriage battered by his extramarital affairs, and the sport wonders how long he’ll be away and how it will fare in the meantime. Woods said in a statement on his Web site that his “infidelity” has hurt his family, and he needed to focus on being a “better husband, father and person.” He said he was leaving competitive golf “indefinitely.” Woods, No. 1 in the world in the Official Golf Rankings and the first athlete to make a billion dollars according to Forbes magazine, has won 14 major tournaments, more than any current golfer and second all-time. His popularity shows up in television ratings and sponsorship — the tour’s prize money has almost tripled to $275 million since he turned pro in 1997. “Watching golf without Tiger is like watching the Three Stooges without Curly,” said Scott Becher , president of Coral Gables, Florida-based Sports & Sponsorship Inc. “He’s the spark, the catalyst, he’s a good guy and bad guy all in one.” Woods, 33, is four wins shy of tying Jack Nicklaus’s mark of 18 titles in the four majors: the Masters Tournament, U.S. and British opens and PGA Championship. He hasn’t missed the Masters, scheduled for April 8-11 in Augusta, Georgia, since he was an amateur in 1995. Broken Leg In 12 years on the tour, he has brought fans moments to remember. He won the 2008 U.S. Open in Torrey Pines in a playoff over Rocco Mediate while playing with a broken leg. In 2005, he won the Masters in a sudden-death playoff over Chris DiMarco after his chip shot on the 16th hole sat on the lip of the cup for an instant before rolling in. The 2010 U.S. Open in June will return to California’s Pebble Beach course, where he won by a tournament-record 15 shots in 2000. The British Open will be staged the following month at St. Andrews in Scotland, where Woods won in 2000 at 19- under par, the lowest score ever for the tournament when it was held at the 400-year-old course. “They always say that there’s nobody bigger than the game of golf itself, but right now in these times there is, and it’s him,” John Daly , a two-time major tournament winner, said at a press conference at the Australian PGA Championship . “I hope we get him back soon. Golf needs him.” Daly, who was suspended by the U.S. Tour after repeated problems with alcohol and personal relationships, said he “just could never imagine” what Woods is going through. He said it also cast Woods in a new light. “He definitely screwed up,” Daly said. “I think a lot of people are in shock. Everybody has to realize that Tiger Woods is a human and he was put on a pedestal of being non-human.” Car Crash Woods had been the subject of reports of extramarital affairs following a Nov. 27 car accident outside his home near Orlando, Florida. He and his Swedish-born wife, Elin, have been married for five years and have a 2-year-old daughter and 10- month-old son. His statement on Dec. 11 was the first time he used the word infidelity. He hasn’t appeared in public since the crash. “It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try,” Woods said. Accenture Plc , the Dublin, Ireland-based consulting company that built its marketing around Woods, removed him from its Web site two days ago. Procter & Gamble Co . said yesterday that it will begin phasing Woods out of print and TV ads for its Gillette division. Other companies with marketing ties to Woods, including sportswear maker Nike Inc ., and video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc ., have said they aren’t changing their media plans or advertising schedules. PGA Tour Response U.S. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement that the tour supports its top draw’s decision and that Woods’s “priorities are where they need to be.” “We look forward to Tiger’s return to the PGA Tour when he determines the time is right for him,” Finchem said. Ticket sales often increase by as much as 20 percent when Woods commits to play in an event, according to tournament organizers. When Woods is in contention to win during weekend play, network viewership rises as much as 50 percent, according to AC Nielsen Corp. “The tour has more to lose than Tiger does in the short term,” Paul Swangard , managing director of the University of Oregon’s sports marketing center, said in a telephone interview. “Any advertiser looking at a media buy in golf would have to take a pause.” The U.S. golf season will begin in Hawaii in the first week of January. Based on his schedule from previous seasons, Woods likely would have played in three tournaments before the Masters in April. Woods plays an average of 18 of the 41 U.S. PGA Tour events each season. CBS, Masters CBS Corp. has broadcast the Masters every year in the U.S. in 1956 on one-year contracts. The event typically draws the highest ratings of any golf tournament. “We’ve obviously done golf tournaments without Tiger before,” Sean McManus , president of CBS Sports and News, told the New York Times. “We’ll adjust, but I guess a lot of it depends on what the definition of the word ‘indefinite’ is.” Geoff Ogilvy , the 2006 U.S. Open champion, said at the Australian PGA Championship that all golfers had a stake in Woods’s story. “If Tiger Woods indefinitely doesn’t play golf,” Ogilvy said, “that’s not good for us.” To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Woods’s `Indefinite Leave’ Announcement Raises Question of How Long Gone

December 13, 2009

By Michael Buteau Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods is leaving golf to tend to a marriage battered by his extramarital affairs, and the sport wonders how long he’ll be away and how it will fare in the meantime. Woods said in a statement on his Web site that his “infidelity” has hurt his family, and he needed to focus on being a “better husband, father and person.” He said he was leaving competitive golf “indefinitely.” Woods, No. 1 in the world in the Official Golf Rankings and the first athlete to make a billion dollars according to Forbes magazine, has won 14 major tournaments, more than any current golfer and second all-time. His popularity shows up in television ratings and sponsorship — the tour’s prize money has almost tripled to $275 million since he turned pro in 1997. “Watching golf without Tiger is like watching the Three Stooges without Curly,” said Scott Becher , president of Coral Gables, Florida-based Sports & Sponsorship Inc. “He’s the spark, the catalyst, he’s a good guy and bad guy all in one.” Woods, 33, is four wins shy of tying Jack Nicklaus’s mark of 18 titles in the four majors: the Masters Tournament, U.S. and British opens and PGA Championship. He hasn’t missed the Masters, scheduled for April 8-11 in Augusta, Georgia, since he was an amateur in 1995. Broken Leg In 12 years on the tour, he has brought fans moments to remember. He won the 2008 U.S. Open in Torrey Pines in a playoff over Rocco Mediate while playing with a broken leg. In 2005, he won the Masters in a sudden-death playoff over Chris DiMarco after his chip shot on the 16th hole sat on the lip of the cup for an instant before rolling in. The 2010 U.S. Open in June will return to California’s Pebble Beach course, where he won by a tournament-record 15 shots in 2000. The British Open will be staged the following month at St. Andrews in Scotland, where Woods won in 2000 at 19- under par, the lowest score ever for the tournament when it was held at the 400-year-old course. “They always say that there’s nobody bigger than the game of golf itself, but right now in these times there is, and it’s him,” John Daly , a two-time major tournament winner, said at a press conference at the Australian PGA Championship . “I hope we get him back soon. Golf needs him.” Daly, who was suspended by the U.S. Tour after repeated problems with alcohol and personal relationships, said he “just could never imagine” what Woods is going through. He said it also cast Woods in a new light. “He definitely screwed up,” Daly said. “I think a lot of people are in shock. Everybody has to realize that Tiger Woods is a human and he was put on a pedestal of being non-human.” Car Crash Woods had been the subject of reports of extramarital affairs following a Nov. 27 car accident outside his home near Orlando, Florida. He and his Swedish-born wife, Elin, have been married for five years and have a 2-year-old daughter and 10- month-old son. His statement on Dec. 11 was the first time he used the word infidelity. He hasn’t appeared in public since the crash. “It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try,” Woods said. Accenture Plc , the Dublin, Ireland-based consulting company that built its marketing around Woods, removed him from its Web site two days ago. Procter & Gamble Co . said yesterday that it will begin phasing Woods out of print and TV ads for its Gillette division. Other companies with marketing ties to Woods, including sportswear maker Nike Inc ., and video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc ., have said they aren’t changing their media plans or advertising schedules. PGA Tour Response U.S. PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a statement that the tour supports its top draw’s decision and that Woods’s “priorities are where they need to be.” “We look forward to Tiger’s return to the PGA Tour when he determines the time is right for him,” Finchem said. Ticket sales often increase by as much as 20 percent when Woods commits to play in an event, according to tournament organizers. When Woods is in contention to win during weekend play, network viewership rises as much as 50 percent, according to AC Nielsen Corp. “The tour has more to lose than Tiger does in the short term,” Paul Swangard , managing director of the University of Oregon’s sports marketing center, said in a telephone interview. “Any advertiser looking at a media buy in golf would have to take a pause.” The U.S. golf season will begin in Hawaii in the first week of January. Based on his schedule from previous seasons, Woods likely would have played in three tournaments before the Masters in April. Woods plays an average of 18 of the 41 U.S. PGA Tour events each season. CBS, Masters CBS Corp. has broadcast the Masters every year in the U.S. in 1956 on one-year contracts. The event typically draws the highest ratings of any golf tournament. “We’ve obviously done golf tournaments without Tiger before,” Sean McManus , president of CBS Sports and News, told the New York Times. “We’ll adjust, but I guess a lot of it depends on what the definition of the word ‘indefinite’ is.” Geoff Ogilvy , the 2006 U.S. Open champion, said at the Australian PGA Championship that all golfers had a stake in Woods’s story. “If Tiger Woods indefinitely doesn’t play golf,” Ogilvy said, “that’s not good for us.” To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods’s Images Disappear From Accenture’s Web Site; P&G Pulling Ads

December 12, 2009

By Brett Pulley and Katie Hoffmann Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) — Accenture Plc , the consulting company that built its marketing around Tiger Woods , removed him from its Web site yesterday, while Procter & Gamble Co. said today it will begin phasing the athlete out of print and TV ads. An image of Woods among cactuses, rotating this week on Accenture’s main page along with photographs of a skier and skaters, was no longer on display last night. Its sponsorship page excluded any mention of Woods and a search of the site for his name returned no results. Accenture pulled print ads from more than one publication, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who declined to name them and sought anonymity because the decision isn’t public. The moves suggest Accenture, which has been linked to Woods since 2003, is taking steps to distance itself from the golfer following reports of infidelity that surfaced last month. Woods said yesterday he’ll take an indefinite break from the game. The publicity may taint Accenture more than other sponsors because the ads tie Woods so closely to its values, according to David Martin , president of Interbrand Corp.’s New York division. “His qualities they’re using as a metaphor for their qualities,” said Martin, who leads the consulting company’s golf branding practice. “They’re in a more precarious position than anybody else.” Celebrity Endorsements Procter & Gamble’s Gillette division, for which Woods is a spokesman, said it was pulling its ads. “As Tiger takes a break from the public eye, we will support his desire for privacy by limiting his role in our marketing programs,” the statement said. References to Woods disappeared from Accenture’s site yesterday evening. Earlier, some links to Woods’s name returned messages saying the requested page couldn’t be found. Later the links vanished completely. Woods issued a statement saying he’ll take time off to mend family relationships and focus on being a better husband and father. “It may not be possible to repair the damage I’ve done, but I want to do my best to try,” he said on his Web site. Woods apologized and sought understanding from both his fans and business partners. The golfer earns $110 million in annual income from endorsements and tournaments, as estimated by Forbes magazine. In October, he became the first athlete to top $1 billion in career earnings. Personal Lives “It would be both premature and inappropriate to comment on the status of specific business relationships,” Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg , said in an e-mail. “We have had thoughtful conversations and his sponsors have been open to a solution-oriented dialogue. Of course, each sponsor has unique considerations and ultimately the decisions they make we would fully understand and accept.” Accenture spokesman Alex Pachetti didn’t return calls seeking comment. “When you sign up to use celebrity endorsements in your advertisement, you have to be prepared to deal with things that happen to celebrities in their personal lives,” said Tom Bedecarre , chairman of AKQA, a San Francisco-based digital advertising agency. Accenture called Woods the “centerpiece” of its advertising campaign in an earlier version of one Web page taken down. “As perhaps the world’s ultimate symbol of high performance, he serves as a metaphor for our commitment to helping companies become high-performance businesses,” the page, entitled “Accenture and Tiger Woods,” said. Extramarital Affairs Until late last night, the cactus advertisement and some other print ads were visible on parts of the site. Dublin-based Accenture fell 68 cents to $42 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has risen 28 percent this year. Accenture hasn’t issued any statements since Woods’s Nov. 27 automobile accident and subsequent reports of extramarital affairs. Other companies with marketing ties to the golfer, including sportswear maker Nike Inc. and video-game publisher Electronic Arts Inc., have said they aren’t changing their media plans or advertising schedules. The Associated Press said earlier today that P&G, the Cincinnati-based maker of Mr. Clean, Nyquil and Tide, was pulling its ads. Spokesman Damon Jones confirmed the report. ‘Every Airport’ Accenture’s advertising campaign is problematic because the ads contain copy lines that are easy fodder for late-night comedians and headline puns, AKQA’s Bedecarre said. “You go through every airport in the world, and there’s Tiger with some kind of copy line,” Bedecarre said. “My sense is this is going to be a chance for people to reassess their plans, and reassess their copy.” Through Dec. 7, there were 20 instances of late-night television shows with jokes and skits that mentioned Woods’s troubles together with products, according to Nielsen Co., which tracks TV viewing and ad recall. Viewers remembered products tied to Woods at a rate 41 percent higher than their typical recall of brands mentioned in late-night jokes, Nielsen said. Consumers’ opinion of the brands dropped 11 percent, almost double the usual 6 percent drop when a product is the butt of a late-night joke. Accenture wasn’t among the names mentioned. Influencing Shoppers “It’s a double-edged sword,” Randall Beard , a Nielsen executive vice president, said in an interview. “The saturation of Tiger in the media has heightened the recognition of his sponsor affiliations. But at the same time for these brands, the controversy is contributing to a more negative impact on public perception.” The No. 1 golfer has plunged to 24th from sixth in the Davie Brown Index of celebrity endorsers, which marketers and ad agencies use to gauge the ability of personalities to influence shoppers. Gary Beckner, Accenture’s director of global marketing, discussed the company’s affiliation with Woods in a 2008 interview with Bloomberg News. As the company prepared to go public in 2001, “we needed some kind of a real impact and we thought Tiger would fit,” said Beckner, who hasn’t responded to calls this week. “We don’t sponsor golfers just to sponsor golfers. It has to be the right fit,” Beckner said. “Right now we have a high- performance position in the market and Tiger Woods is the epitome of high performance. He’s our flagship, our bright shining star. He has a lot of impact.” To contact the reporter on this story: Brett Pulley in New York at bpulley@bloomberg.net ; Katie Hoffmann in New York at khoffmann4@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods is No. 1 Search Term Sending Traffic to Internet News Sites

December 10, 2009

By Brian Womack Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods ’s name was the top search term sending traffic to U.S. news sites at the start of the month, as Web users sought updates on the golfer’s car crash and reports of extramarital affairs, Experian Hitwise said. “Tiger Woods” ranked first in those searches on Dec. 1, Dec. 2 and Dec. 4, the New York-based research company said. Total queries for Woods soared more than 40-fold in the week of the Nov. 27 accident, Hitwise said. It then almost doubled the following week. Web traffic began growing after Woods had a single-car accident outside his home near Orlando, Florida. Woods, the world’s top-ranked golfer, posted a statement on his Web site Dec. 2 saying he let his family down with “transgressions” and hasn’t been true to his “family values.” He didn’t address reports of infidelity that appeared in media such as US Weekly. “There’s an almost unquenchable appetite for more content,” said Pete Blackshaw , an analyst with Nielsen Co. in Cincinnati. “Traffic is taking a significant jump.” While TV ads featuring Woods have vanished from the airwaves, the scandal hasn’t had that same effect online, said Rajeev Goel , chief executive officer of Palo Alto, California- based PubMatic Inc. The bulk of advertising with Woods, 33, is probably traditional media, such as television and print, said Goel, whose company helps Web publishers sell space to advertisers. Advertising Gains? Goel expects the scandal to help sites sell more advertising. Some of PubMatic’s news and entertainment customers have seen traffic double since the Woods story broke, he said. On Google Inc. ’s search engine, Woods-related topics were among the top 20 fastest-growing queries all but one day this month. Yahoo! Inc. , the No. 2 U.S. search engine, said queries for Woods shot up almost 40-fold in the past 30 days. The percentage of blogs commenting on Woods has surged more than 10- fold, according to Nielsen. Traffic to AOL Inc.’s entertainment-gossip site TMZ rose 51 percent from before the car accident, according to Hitwise. The controversy is giving media sites a chance to win new customers, Goel said. “There’s an opportunity for these sites to bring in new readers if they can sustain the readership beyond the Tiger news,” he said. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Obama Surrenders to General’s Political Surge: Margaret Carlson

December 9, 2009

Commentary by Margaret Carlson Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — No more calls. We have a winner. All hail General Stanley McChrystal , who has won his war for 30,000 more troops to be deployed to a country whose government is so rotten and corrupt many of its citizens prefer the Taliban. Marching triumphantly to Capitol Hill on Tuesday, then giving network interviews and long sit-downs with Charlie Rose and Christiane Amanpour , McChrystal showed himself, as much as anyone, to be the decider of our foreign policy. The U.S. war on terror will now be centered in Afghanistan. Don’t mistake this for a surge. It’s an escalation. In a blizzard of clarifying statements from Obama administration officials, the purported July 2011 drawdown date for the reinforcements was rendered inoperable almost as soon as it was uttered. Common sense says the deadline was a feint to calm Democrats. You don’t win the hearts and minds of Afghanis, as McChrystal wants to do, in a lifetime, much less 18 months, or train an army of mostly illiterate, tribal men in a country that exhausted the superior army of the Soviet Union before the U.S. gave it a go. Of all the issues Obama didn’t want on his desk, Afghanistan was the hardest, even without the military hemming him in. McChrystal fought in memos, fought through leaks, fought in the trenches, as much with political arts as martial ones. For a while it looked like McChrystal was being outmaneuvered by Vice President Joe Biden . Biden argued that Afghanistan had changed from a just war to a senseless one because al-Qaeda has mostly moved elsewhere, that the citizenry rightfully hated the corrupt and dysfunctional government, and that drones and special forces on the Afghan border with Pakistan could do the job. Fighting Back McChrystal and anonymous “military officials” fought back. Dramatic excerpts from a classified memo to the president appeared. “Inadequate resources,” the memo from McChrystal warned, “will likely result in failure.” His warning echoed the frequent predictions of doom from former Vice President Dick Cheney , who insisted that Obama’s failure to grasp that we are “at war” and his “dithering” invited renewed terrorist activity. When General Douglas MacArthur disagreed with stopping at the 38th parallel in North Korea, President Harry Truman fired him . If MacArthur had had McChrystal’s savvy, he might have gotten his way. Generals used to be unsuited for prime time: too gruff, too candid, too unpolished. Now most are tanned, rested and ready for their closeup, with P.R. as good as Tiger Woods before the recent troubles. Flatter Me In October, McChrystal let a reporter accompany him to Helmand province and got a long, flattering profile in the New York Times magazine out of it. On the cover, a Patton-like photo. Inside, the story of a man who “pushes himself mercilessly, sleeping four or five hours a night” and subsists on one meal a day. Jumping from a whirring Black Hawk helicopter, he paraded through an outpost in the south without helmet or flak jacket to show how more troops on the ground can calm the populace. That’s a lot of ramrod-straight bravado to match. Democratic presidents are fearful of reviving the charge that they are soft on national security and defer to the military brass. As Representative John Conyers , a Democrat highly critical of Obama’s build-up, put it, “Calling in generals and admirals to discuss troop strength is like me taking my youngest to McDonald’s to ask if he likes French fries.” Obama’s Ambivalence Obama’s nationally televised speech revealed his ambivalence by granting McChrystal what he wanted — 30,000 U.S. troops, plus maybe 10,000 from a coalition of the willing — but only for a little while. Testifying in Congress, McChrystal hedged that double message. He placated restive Democrats with the suggestion that the deployment would end on a date certain, while signaling to Republicans that Obama’s commitment was more open-ended. Meantime, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai was telling reporters that it would be at least five years before Afghan security forces would be capable of standing up so we could stand down. Defense Secretary Robert Gates , in a surprise trip to the region, said it could be as long as four years before any of the surge troops come home. In a blunder, Gates said what not even the most hawkish say: “We are in this thing to win.” Send Gates — never tan, rarely quotable — to the same media training that’s made generals the envy of Britney Spears . Civilian Leadership Generals should have their say, but not necessarily their way, in the Oval Office. It’s all too easy to lose sight of the constitutional principle that military commanders are subordinate to civilian leadership when a confident general with good press says we will all be dead if we don’t listen to him. During his deliberations, Obama was cast as indecisive and overly sensitive to politics, while McChrystal was seen as resolute, concerned not about his popularity but about his country. Less prominent were the facts that during McCrystal’s command, Osama bin Laden has remained at large and the lie was perpetrated that Corporal Pat Tillman was killed by enemy fire, not accidental friendly fire. It would be heartening to think Obama did the hard thing on Afghanistan not because his hand-picked general intimidated him, but because he became convinced that catastrophe would ensue if he failed to send more American troops. ( Margaret Carlson , author of “Anyone Can Grow Up: How George Bush and I Made It to the White House” and former White House correspondent for Time magazine, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.) Click on “Send Comment” in the sidebar display to send a letter to the editor. To contact the writer of this column: Margaret Carlson in Washington at mcarlson3@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods’ Status With Consumers Falls After Affair Scandal, Gauge Shows

December 8, 2009

By Michael Buteau Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods ’ standing with the public is in freefall following reported extramarital affairs, according to a consumer research company. The 33-year-old golfer’s ranking on a list of celebrity endorsers plunged to 24th from 6th, based on the Davie Brown Index, which marketers and advertising agencies use to gauge the ability of personalities to influence consumer behavior. The No. 1 ranked golfer’s $110 million in annual income from endorsements and tournaments hinges on his standing with consumers. Woods ranks as the world’s fourth-highest paid celebrity by Forbes magazine in the 12 months through June 30. In October, he became the first athlete to top $1 billion in career earnings, Forbes said. The Davie Brown Index tracks 2,800 celebrities. It was created by the Los Angeles-based marketing company Davie Brown Entertainment to provide a way to measure the use of celebrities in marketing campaigns. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods TV Ads Disappear After Affair Reports

December 8, 2009

No advertisements featuring Tiger Woods have run on prime-time television broadcast networks or 19 cable channels since late last month, after reports of his extramarital affairs, according to data from Nielsen Co.

Read the full article →

All Tiger Woods Ads Are Withdrawn by Marketers From Prime-Time Television

December 8, 2009

By Brett Pulley Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Marketers have pulled all Tiger Woods advertisements from prime-time television broadcast networks and 19 cable channels following reported extramarital affairs, according to data from Nielsen Co. The last prime-time ad featuring the 33-year-old golfer was a 30-second Gillette Co. spot that ran on Nov. 29, according to New York-based Nielsen. Woods was also absent from commercials on a number of weekend sports programs, including NFL games, Nielsen said. “Last weekend there wasn’t any advertisement during those games,” said Aaron Lewis, a spokesman at Nielsen. To contact the reporters on this story: Brett Pulley in New York at bpulley@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Jill Schlesinger: $200B TARP Money NOT Going To Elin Woods!

December 7, 2009

Over the weekend, the government found $200 billion in TARP money and Elin Woods discovered a few more paramours were hanging with husband Tiger . (If that $60 million enhancement to the pre-nup is true, it looks like Elin the scorned will be collecting $6.66M per girlfriend!) Treasury says that over the next 10 years TARP will cost $141 billion, down a whopping $200B from the August estimates. ( Here’s a good breakdown of TARP funds ). The windfall is partially attributed to the speedy repayments by some of the larger TARP recipients. No sooner did we learn that we taxpayers are finally catching a break, that the pundits were talking about how to spend it. The latest idea being floated: use the TARP money for a jobs plan , although Tiger Woods is lobbying to have the money go to Elin. This idea makes me nervous because other than rescuing the financial system from Armageddon, I haven’t been too impressed with the Administration’s ability to spend money in a focused and results-driven way. Here’s a great quote from EconomistMom.com that speaks to my angst: We can’t afford to do stupid deficit-financed spending or tax cuts, because then the short-term (and even longer-term) benefit of the policy can’t possibly outweigh the cost of compounded interest. Which means we would be better off not doing it. So just because we may wish we had more jobs in this country, doesn’t mean we have an excuse to just throw more money out the door-certainly not when we seem to need the money for so many other things like expanded health care coverage, more troops in Afghanistan, and, oh yeah, saving for the future. Before Congress starts throwing dollars at job creation, let’s hope that there’s a sober examination of what parts of the Stimulus have worked, what haven’t and the costs of dong nothing vs. doing something. With a little rigor, we might see a substantive plan that aims for success rather than a 2010 campaign slogan. Image by Flickr User Rio Calle , CC 2.0

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods Car Crash Details Should Remain Private, Seton Hall Poll Says

December 3, 2009

By Michael Buteau Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) — The public doesn’t have a right to know details of Tiger Woods’s one-car accident that led the world’s top golfer to apologize for “transgressions” against his “family values,” 78 percent of Americans said in a new poll. When asked the following question from Nov. 30 through yesterday, 78 percent of those surveyed by the Seton Hall Sports Poll answered “no”: “Tiger Woods has declined to speak to the police after his one car accident last Friday. Do you think the public has a right to know the details of the incident?” Of the 1,052 people sampled, 15 percent answered “yes”, while 7 percent said they “did not know.” “Not all sports figures would get this support,” said Rick Gentile , director of the poll. “The fans have made an investment in this man, and strongly support his right to privacy.” The question was first posed two days before Woods said in a statement on his Web site that he let his family down and had “not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.” Woods said he is dealing with his “behavior and personal failings behind closed doors with my family.” In his statement, Woods didn’t specifically address reports of infidelity that appeared in media including US Weekly magazine. Among those who said they follow sports in the survey, the response jumps to 82 percent. For those who don’t follow sports, 62 percent said the public has no right to know. The poll was conducted among a random sampling of adults 18 and older. It was weighted to reflect the national distribution of age, race and gender. The margin of error due to sampling is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points among respondents. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Rick Smith: Why is Tiger Woods in the Deep Rough

December 2, 2009

“I am dragged along by a strange new force. Desire and reason are pulling in different directions. I see the right way and approve it, but follow the wrong.” – Ovid Why is the irrational often more powerful than the rational? What leads us to do really stupid things? Locked up in his estate, this is certainly a question Tiger Woods is now asking himself. Why risk it all for a simple trist (or a series of them)? Why is lust so often more powerful than logic? What’s the difference between a golf ball and an Escalade? TIGER CAN DRIVE A GOLF BALL 400 YARDS. I offer no moral explanation, nor moral condemnation for Tiger Wood’s apparent extracurricular activities. But as we are all once again exposed to what appears to be an incredibly costly tradeoff of seduction and sacrifice, I find it helpful to look to modern psychological for possible explanations. Police asked Tiger’s wife how many times she hit him…She said 
”I DON’T KNOW, 5 OR 6…PUT ME DOWN FOR A 5″ In his wonderful book, The Happiness Hypothesis, John Haidt writes about the conflicting systems of the brain. Specifically, there are two competing systems at work in the brain at all times. The automatic system is derived from the oldest part of the brain, and triggers simple reflex (like sex and passion). The more sophisticated, controlled system manages processes like planning, weighing the pro’s and con’s of different paths. When presented with certain stimulus, like a beautiful hostess in a romantic place, far away from home, the war between the automatic and controlled systems begins to rage. The controlled system confronts with logic – “Hey, Idiot – Over here! You can’t be serious! Do you have any idea of the consequences?!” But the automatic system fights back. “Wow….hot!….martini…. REALLY HOT! ” WHAT WERE TIGER AND HIS WIFE DOING OUT AT 2:30 IN THE MORNING? THEY WENT CLUBBING The automatic system, powered by millions of years of evolution, runs automatically, effortlessly, and endlessly. The logical controlled system is powerful, but it has an endurance problem. Like a tired muscle, it eventually wears down and caves in. As Plato once said, “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” DID YOU HEAR PHIL MICKELSON CALLED TIGER’S WIFE ASKING HOW TO BEAT HIM? Tiger is in the deep rough, that is for sure. But we cannot fault his logic or his reasoning. It was the oldest part of his brain that fought harder and longer, and eventually sent Tiger’s tee-shot deep into the woods… and his driver into the bushes.

Read the full article →

Jonathan Littman: Tiger’s Seven Lessons OFF the Course

December 1, 2009

Tiger Woods is a great golfer. Arguably, the best who’s ever lived. He’s also human and, in light of recent developments, acting on lousy advice. Woods’ handlers deserve most of the blame for the way they’ve bungled his recent mishap. What’s more, he and they have also provided a shining example of how not to deal with a crisis. Here are seven lessons that executives — and even ordinary humans who don’t live in gated communities — can learn from his troubles: 1. Nothing is private if you are an executive or celebrity. 2. If it happens outside your front door it’s even less private. 3. The more handlers you hire to spin your scandal, the more likely you are to whirl out of control and come off like a corporation instead of a human being. 4. Standing up the cops is always a bad move. 5. Telling half the story is a brilliant strategy … to invite the National Enquirer to fill in the blanks. 6. Every day spent in hiding exponentially lowers the chances people will believe you. 7. Always keep your golf clubs in the car. Jonathan Littman is the co-author of the new book I HATE PEOPLE! (Little, Brown and Company; June 2009) with Marc Hershon. A Contributing Editor at Playboy, Jonathan is the co-author of the best selling Art of Innovation.

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods to Be Cited for Careless Driving, Won’t Face Further Charges

December 1, 2009

By Michael Buteau Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods will be cited for careless driving in the one-car crash last week outside his home and faces no further charges, the Florida Highway Patrol said. Patrol spokeswoman Kim Montes said at a televised news conference that Woods, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, would be fined $164 and that there was insufficient evidence to get medical records in the case. He was treated for facial cuts after the crash. After issuing Woods the citation, the investigation will be closed and police will not pursue criminal charges against Woods or his wife, Elin, police said. Police discussed their decision hours after a lawyer for Woods’s neighbors in Windermere, Florida, told reporters that the golfer’s wife, Elin, asked them to call 911 after her husband’s sport-utility vehicle struck a fire hydrant and a tree as he was leaving his house about 2:20 a.m. local time on Nov. 27. Police said Friday that Woods’s wife told them she had used a golf club to break a window in the vehicle to free her husband. Bill Sharpe, the attorney for Jerome and Linda Adams, said in Orlando that his clients told him that Woods didn’t “look like he had been beaten up with a golf club,” and that the scratches on his face “were consistent with someone in a minor car accident. None of the injuries looked like he had been beaten up by his wife.” Woods received hospital treatment for facial cuts and bruising after the accident. He said in a statement two days ago that his wife had acted “courageously” in rescuing him from the vehicle after the crash. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods Skipping California Tournament He Hosts After Crash injuries

November 30, 2009

By Michael Buteau Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods will skip his Chevron World Challenge golf tournament amid questions about a car crash that sent him to a hospital with injuries. Woods said in a statement that he canceled a tournament- preview news conference that was scheduled tomorrow at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, and won’t play because of injuries. Woods, 33, has played host to the tournament, an invitation-only exhibition that benefits his charitable foundation, since 1999. “I am extremely disappointed that I will not be at my tournament this week,” Woods said in a statement on his Web site. “I am certain it will be an outstanding event and I’m very sorry that I can’t be there.” Woods said he is unable to attend “due to injuries” sustained in the car accident. He said he won’t participate in any other tournaments in 2009 and will return to action next year. Greg McLaughlin , president of the Tiger Woods Foundation , said “we support Tiger’s decision.” The tournament is scheduled for Dec. 3-6, with early rounds televised on the Golf Channel cable network and weekend play on General Electric Co.’s NBC. It features a field of 18 players competing for $5.75 million, including a winner’s share of $1.35 million. The last- place finisher receives $150,000. The event’s prize money doesn’t count toward official PGA Tour earnings. Competitors receive World Golf Ranking points for the first time this year. ‘Embarrassing’ Woods took the blame yesterday for what he called an “embarrassing” one-car crash outside his Florida home. The world’s No. 1-ranked golfer said the accident created a stressful situation for him and his family. “This is a private matter and I want to keep it that way,” Woods said in a statement on his Web site , his only comments about the accident so far. “Although I understand there is curiosity, the many false, unfounded and malicious rumors that are currently circulating about my family and me are irresponsible.” Woods declined to meet with investigators for the third time yesterday to discuss the Nov. 27 accident in which his Cadillac sport-utility vehicle struck a fire hydrant and a tree as he was leaving his Windermere, Florida, house about 2:20 a.m. local time. Golf Club Police said that Woods’s wife, Elin, told them she heard the crash, ran from the house and used a golf club to smash a window in the vehicle and get her husband out. Woods was released from a local hospital after being treated for facial cuts. “This situation is my fault and it’s obviously embarrassing to my family and me,” said Woods, a 14-time major champion who’s topped golf’s Official World Ranking since 2005. “I’m human and I’m not perfect. I will certainly make sure this doesn’t happen again.” In addition to his cuts, Woods said he has bruising and is “pretty sore,” making his playing status unknown. He last played two weeks ago, winning the Australian Masters in his first appearance in that country since 1998. Those invited to this year’s Chevron tournament at the Jack Nicklaus-designed course include defending champion Vijay Singh , U.S. Open winner Lucas Glover , British Open winner Stewart Cink , PGA Championship winner Y.E. Yang, Ireland’s Padraig Harrington , England’s Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter , and Americans Anthony Kim , Kenny Perry and Jim Furyk . While daily tickets to the four-day event, which also includes a Pro-Am round on Dec. 2, cost $30 for the first two rounds and $40 for weekend rounds, the prices go as high as $4,250 for a 20-pass “Executive Club” package. There are no refunds, according to the tournament’s Web site, whether Woods plays or not. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net .

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods to Get Third Chance to Tell Police About Car Accident, Injury

November 29, 2009

By Nancy Kercheval Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods refused to meet with Florida police for the second day after he was injured in a car accident that caused as much as $8,000 damage to his sport- utility vehicle. Officers from the Florida State Highway Patrol haven’t seen Woods since he crashed into a fire hydrant and tree as he left his driveway at 2:25 a.m. local time yesterday, Sgt. Kim Montes said. Woods, the No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings , was taken to a hospital for treatment of facial cuts before the investigating officer arrived. “We were asked by his agent to come back (Sunday),” Montes said in a telephone interview. “The law does not require him to make a statement, but this is an opportunity to give his side to move the investigation forward.” Montes said police action on these types of minor crashes routinely is completed in one day. Investigators will review the Orange County Sheriff’s office 911 tapes, which may be released as early as tomorrow if they are deemed to be not pertinent to the probe, Montes said. Woods’s 2009 Cadillac Escalade was towed from the scene of the crash in his community of Windermere, Florida, for “safekeeping” and awaits pickup, Montes said. The left front hit the fire hydrant, while the right front struck the tree. Total damages were set at $5,000 to $8,000, she said. Police want to know how both back passenger windows were shattered, Montes said. Neither the front window nor the driver’s side windows were damaged. Golf Club Woods’s wife, Elin, used a golf club to break out windows in the car to free her husband, Windermere police told the Associated Press yesterday. The back window of the car wasn’t broken as previously reported, Montes said. Woods’s playing status is unknown. He is scheduled to play in the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, California, next week. Woods is host of the tournament, which is not part of the U.S. PGA Tour’s regular season and attracts most of golf’s top players. He last played two weeks ago, winning the Australian Masters in his first appearance in that country since 1998. This season, Woods, 33, won six times in 17 events after undergoing reconstructive surgery on his left knee following his 2008 U.S. Open victory. He also had three runner-up finishes among his 14 top 10s in a year in which he failed to win one of golf’s four major titles for the first time in five years. Woods led the U.S. Tour with $10.5 million in earnings, and ended the season by capturing the yearlong FedEx Cup title for the second time. The championship also included a $10 million bonus. $1 Billion With that bonus, Woods became the first athlete to surpass the $1 billion mark in career earnings, Forbes magazine reported in October, citing its own calculations of Woods’s golf and endorsement earnings. In this year’s majors, Woods tied for sixth at the Masters Tournament and U.S. Open. He then missed the cut for weekend play at the British Open, only his second missed cut at a major in his professional career. His best chance to add to his list of 14 major titles came at the PGA Championship in August. While Woods led the field after 54 holes at Minnesota’s Hazeltine National Golf Club, he wasn’t able to fend off Y.E. Yang and lost for the first time as a pro when holding the lead going into the final round. Woods lives in the Windermere community in Orange County, Florida, with his wife and two children. He is building a new home on Florida’s Jupiter Island. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net .

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods Remains Silent for Second Day About One-Car Accident, Injury

November 29, 2009

By Nancy Kercheval Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods refused to meet with Florida police for the second day after he was injured in a car accident that caused as much as $8,000 damage to his sport- utility vehicle. Officers from the Florida State Highway Patrol haven’t seen Woods since he crashed into a fire hydrant and tree as he left his driveway at 2:25 a.m. local yesterday, Sgt. Kim Montes said. Woods, the No. 1 player in the World Golf Rankings , was taken to a hospital for treatment of facial cuts before the investigating officer arrived. “We were asked by his agent to come back (Sunday),” Montes said in a telephone interview. “The law does not require him to make a statement, but this is an opportunity to give his side to move the investigation forward.” Montes said police action on these types of minor crashes routinely is completed in one day. Investigators will review the Orange County Sheriff’s office 911 tapes, which may be released as early as tomorrow if they are deemed to be not pertinent to the probe, Montes said. Woods’s 2009 Cadillac Escalade was towed from the scene of the crash in his community of Windermere, Florida, for “safekeeping” and awaits pickup, Montes said. The left front hit the fire hydrant, while the right front struck the tree. Total damages were set at $5,000 to $8,000, she said. Police want to know how both back passenger windows were shattered, Montes said. Neither the front window nor the driver’s side windows were damaged. Golf Club Woods’s wife, Elin, used a golf club to break out windows in the car to free her husband, Windermere police told the Associated Press yesterday. The back window of the car wasn’t broken as previously reported, Montes said. Woods’s playing status is unknown. He is scheduled to play in the Chevron World Challenge in Thousand Oaks, California, next week. Woods is host of the tournament, which is not part of the U.S. PGA Tour’s regular season and attracts most of golf’s top players. He last played two weeks ago, winning the Australian Masters in his first appearance in that country since 1998. This season, Woods won six times in 17 events after undergoing reconstructive surgery on his left knee following his 2008 U.S. Open victory. He also had three runner-up finishes among his 14 top 10s in a year in which he failed to win one of golf’s four major titles for the first time in five years. Woods led the U.S. Tour with $10.5 million in earnings, and ended the season by capturing the yearlong FedEx Cup title for the second time. The championship also included a $10 million bonus. $1 Billion With that bonus, Woods became the first athlete to surpass the $1 billion mark in career earnings, Forbes magazine reported in October, citing its own calculations of Woods’s golf and endorsement earnings. In this year’s majors, Woods tied for sixth at the Masters Tournament and U.S. Open. He then missed the cut for weekend play at the British Open, only his second missed cut at a major in his professional career. His best chance to add to his list of 14 major titles came at the PGA Championship in August. While Woods led the field after 54 holes at Minnesota’s Hazeltine National Golf Club, he wasn’t able to fend off Y.E. Yang and lost for the first time as a pro when holding the lead going into the final round. Woods lives in the Windermere community in Orange County, Florida, with his wife and two children. He is building a new home on Florida’s Jupiter Island. To contact the reporter on this story: Nancy Kercheval in Washington at nkercheval@bloomberg.net .

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods Wins Australian Masters Golf Title in Melbourne by Two Shots

November 15, 2009

By Dan Baynes Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods won the Australian Masters golf tournament after shooting a 4-under-par final round to take his first career victory in the country. Woods, the world’s top-ranked player, finished with a 14- under par total of 274 at Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Golf Club, two shots ahead of Australian Greg Chalmers. Playing his first event in Australia for 11 years and fourth in total, Woods entered the final round in a three-way tie for the lead after carding an even-par 72 yesterday. He made amends with five birdies on the last day. Woods collected A$270,000 ($252,000) of the tournament’s A$1.5 million prize pool. He was also presented with the champion’s gold jacket for the victory, which followed six wins on the U.S. PGA Tour this year.

Read the full article →

Woods Creates National Buzz on Australian Golfing Return After Decade Away

November 10, 2009

By Dan Baynes Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — Golf fans need only look skyward to locate Tiger Woods at this week’s Australian Masters . Woods’s first appearance in Australia for more than a decade today drew thousands of fans to Melbourne’s Kingston Heath Golf Club to watch the 14-time major champion practice as network television helicopters hovered above. “I’ve never experienced that before,” Woods, the world’s top-ranked golfer, told reporters after completing nine holes. “They’re definitely overhead.” Woods, 33, has played in Australia on three previous occasions without success. He was on the losing U.S. Presidents Cup team in his most recent visit in 1998 and finished tied for fifth at the 1996 Australian Open and eighth at the Masters the following year. His arrival into Melbourne yesterday by private jet from Shanghai was televised by Sky News. John Brumby , premier of Victoria state, today took his seat alongside Woods at a media conference that went live to the nation on the Nine Network. “It’s not normal. Trust me: it’s not,” Woods said. “Thank God it’s not normal.” Woods is being paid a $3 million appearance fee, local media reported. His presence has already helped the Masters sell out and organizers said they expect more than 100,000 spectators to attend the tournament’s four days. Ticket Only A capacity crowd and the probability of first-time golf watchers at Kingston Heath prompted a warning on the tournament’s Web site that spectators won’t be allowed to bring cameras and cell phones onto the course. They’ve also taken out radio advertisements telling people not to come to the venue if they don’t have a ticket. The event starts in two days. “Never before has a golf tournament so completely captured the imagination of Australia,” Brumby told reporters. He added that the event will boost Victoria’s economy by more than A$19 million ($17.6 million). For Woods, the quality and uniqueness of Kingston Heath, which is nestled among the eight golf courses in Melbourne’s so- called Sandbelt , is the reason for his visit. “It’s an unbelievable golf course,” Woods said. “As I’ve always said and always alluded to, I’ve always been a huge fan of the Sandbelt golf courses, the bunkering is just phenomenal. You never get a chance to see bunkering like this in any other place in the world.” Shanghai Loss Woods enters the Australian Masters, where the winner will receive a check for A$270,000 and a gold jacket, after finishing tied for sixth at the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. Three dropped shots on the front nine in the final round left him with too much to do, Woods said. He’s rated the bookmakers’ favorite to rebound with his first victory in Australia. Even so, the 7,059-yard Kingston Heath course, which is just 300 yards longer than the shortest course used on the U.S. PGA Tour this season, may throw up further disappointment. “There is a school of thought that the Sandbelt course won’t suit him,” said Michael Sullivan, chief executive officer of Sportingbet Australia, which makes Woods an 8-5 chance to get his first Australian victory. Woods said he’s anticipating a challenging few days. “You don’t need a golf course to be brutally long for it to be tricky,” he said. “We don’t get a chance to play at venues like this. You have so many different options. You have to be able to shape the ball around the golf course, you have to be able to think.” To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Baynes in Sydney dbaynes@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Eric O’Keefe: American Thoroughbred Racing Needs a Lifeline, and the Answer Can Be Found in Australia

November 9, 2009

It’s the sort of headline that demands a second look: “Zenyatta Joins the Immortals with Sensational Breeders’ Cup Win” At more than 1,500 words, the accompanying article not only singled out the gallant charge of the 5-year-old mare down the stretch to beat her male rivals in North America’s richest race yesterday — “arguably the finest racemare in American racing history” — but it highlighted other key contests on the second day of most important event in U.S. Thoroughbred racing, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Too bad it ran in Britain’s Guardian. What’s wrong with that? Because it sure would be nice if the American press gave a damn about horseracing. Friday morning I stepped off a 14-hour flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles and got ready to make my way to Santa Anita for the Breeders’ Cup. Naturally I picked up a copy of the Los Angeles Times . As I leafed through it, it was clear that jet lag had already set in. The only article I could find in sports about the races was about synthetic surfaces. It was one of those absurd moments when you know you just put your keys in your pocket only you can’t find them anymore. There had to be something somewhere, only I was too frazzled from my flight to pick it out. It didn’t take long for me to come to my senses. There was no article. Think about that. If Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson were about to tee off in the U.S. Open and you had a look at the local paper where the tournament was taking place, wouldn’t you expect the event to be all over the place? Now what would you do if the Open were about to begin and the only story you could find was one about a group of groundskeepers arguing over the merits of one type of seeded Bermuda fairway green over another? You’d probably join the rest of America and stop reading newspapers. With press like that is it any surprise that the racing industry in the U.S. is on life support? At Seabiscuit’s final race in 1940, 78,000 watched him win the Santa Anita Handicap. On Friday, 37,651 showed up at the same California landmark for the biggest, richest race meet in North America. No wonder Santa Anita’s parent company is in bankruptcy court. The New York Times ? I opened that paper this morning to find a whopping 200+ words devoted to the most memorable Thoroughbred race of the last decade. That’s half the coverage the Times gave the Harvard-Columbia game and a fraction of what it devoted to an 18-year-old NBA hopeful dribbling his life away in obscurity in Israel. Sure, the Daily Racing Form and the Thoroughbred Times went the distance on Zenyatta’s epic performance, but those are industry rags. Racing is their beat. America’s great dailies? They just don’t get it. Zenyatta was anything but a narrow niche story. Minutes prior to the Classic, her sassy moves were critiqued by Len Goodman from Dancing With the Stars. How did the Brit score the long-legged mare? “10!” During the post parade, it was impossible to overlook the thousands of pink signs with “Girl Power” and “Maneater” dedicated to their heroine. You can imagine the endless ovation after she returned unbeaten. I bring all this up because I just flew back from Australia, a country with one-tenth the population of the U.S. Yet the Australian racing industry is the envy of every racetrack operator in the States. There are not only more racetracks in Australia, there are more racetracks in Australia than in the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and Great Britain combined. The country’s greatest racing event is a four-day meet called the Melbourne Cup Carnival, and like the Breeders’ Cup it too ended on Saturday. Attendance on the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival was a tad over 107,000. That’s right. More people packed into Flemington Racecourse for the first day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival than showed up at Santa Anita Park for two days of Breeders’ Cup. And things were just getting going. Over the remaining three race days, the Victoria Racing Club hosted an additional 250,000, which is why it is Australia’s largest single event. The reason I’m so familiar with Australian racing is because I just wrote a book called The Cup . It’s about one of the most emotion charged episodes in the history of the Australia’s greatest race. I won’t give away the storyline, but it goes without saying that Damien Oliver’s journey to the winner’s circle in the 2002 Melbourne Cup has been chosen as one of the greatest moments in the history of Australian sport. Over the past six years, I’ve been to Australia four times, researching the book and writing the script for the companion movie with the Australian director Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove, Free Willy). So why is Thoroughbred racing alive and kicking Down Under? The obstacles they face are no different — casino gambling, online competitors, and of course rising costs for everything under the sun. But I’ll tell you what they do have going for them: the sort of press that champions a great story. (Not that synthetic surfaces isn’t gripping material.) Go to Google and punch in the words “Jake Stephens Alcopop.” I just did this and links to 666 stories popped up. Was the 5-year-old gelding hailed as the next Secretariat? No. Was his owner a Whitney or a Mellon or, to use an Australian version of more money than God, a Murdoch? No. You know what Alcopop was? A story people wanted to read. For the last two weeks, Melbournians read about him in their three daily papers, and they watched his South Australian trainer on TV brushing off questions about the fact that he had taken out his license just a year ago. And Alcopop wasn’t even this year’s big news. Center stage belonged to 81-year-old Bart Cummings, a 12-time winner of the Melbourne Cup who had three runners in the race. Guess what? Neither Alcopop nor any of Bart’s runners won the Cup. So did the Australian media get this year’s Melbourne Cup wrong? Not at all. The moment the Race That Stops the Nation concluded, the tabloids and the newspapers had a brand new story about a hard-luck trainer and a never-say-die jockey who believed in a great horse. That’s a lesson their American counterparts should take to heart … before another track goes bankrupt.

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods the man to beat in China

November 5, 2009

Tiger Woods the man to beat in China

Read the full article →

Gregory Gabriel: The Big Dawg Seeks Big Bucks From Electronic Arts for Unauthorized Use of His Identity

October 23, 2009

If you are a fan of the NFL, you may not realize it but have probably seen John Thompson in the end zone at a Cleveland Browns games dressed in his signature dog mask wearing an orange construction hat wielding a rubber bone in a frenzy. Thompson has been attending Browns games in his costume for 25 years and has become known as “Big Dawg.” And if you ever played a video game, you have probably played or heard of Madden NFL manufactured by Electronic Arts. Thompson recently sued Electronic Arts because Madden NFL 09 contains an image of a fan at Browns games in a costume resembling Thompson’s signature costume. Thompson’s claim is based on the fact that every one of us enjoys what is referred to in legal jargon as a right of publicity. This means that, no one has the right to use your name, likeness or identity for commercial purposes without your permission. The right of publicity is a derivative of your overall right to privacy. In other words, because you have a constitutional right to privacy, you also have a right to not have your face plastered over billboards, on the side of buses, in magazines, etc. However, while fame is not a prerequisite to assert a claim for a violation of your right of publicity, the more famous you are, the more the use of your name or likeness is worth. For example, someone is certainly going to pay Lebron James more money to endorse their product than they would you (unless of course you happen to be Tiger Woods). Accordingly, if someone uses your likeness without your authorization and you are an just an average Joe like me, you may have a difficult time proving that you have been substantially damaged. California statutory law does throw you a little bone (no pun intended) entitling you to a minimum of $750 plus your attorney’s fees if your right of publicity is violated. In order to establish that your right of publicity has been violated, it is not necessary that the your exact image or likeness be used, but some portion of the public viewing the advertisement must be able recognize the fact that it is you. For example, in one instance a cigarette manufacturer used an image of race car driver Lothar Motschenbacher in front of his race car in a commercial. Motschenbacher’s face was not recognizable in the advertisement, but the car bore virtually all of the same unique markings of Motschenbacher’s car except that the number was changed and a spoiler was added. The court ruled that Motschenbacher could pursue his right of publicity claim. In another famous case, Samsung used the image of a robot dressed in a wig, gown and jewelry that resembled Vanna White’s hair and dress. The robot was also positioned by a game board, which was recognizable as the game board from the Wheel of Fortune set. The court ruled that Vanna White could pursue her right of publicity claim. Bette Midler and Tom Waits even successfully pursued claims for a violation of their right of publicity based on the use of imitations of their voice in commercials. When I first read about Thompson’s claim, my first thought was that his claim is of questionable validity. While I’ve seen the guy at Browns games, I have no idea who the man behind the mask is and I assumed few others knew the actual identity of the dog faced fan. However, my opinion changed when I read a little more about the case. Mr. Thompson’s name is not just John Thompson, he had it legally changed to John Big Dawg Thompson. That is one serious fan. He has also become a mini local celebrity in the Cleveland area appearing in publications, commercials and on TV broadcasts. In fact he was even inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s inaugural class of its Hall of Fans in 1999. Given all of that, I think that it is certain that at least in northern Ohio, people playing Madden NFL 09 instantly recognize the character in the game as John Big Dawg Thompson. Apparently Electronic Arts agrees as it has been reported that the case is in the process of settling for an undisclosed amount of money.

Read the full article →

Tiger Woods Earned $10.5 Million in PGA Tour Tournament Purses This Season

September 28, 2009

By Vince Golle Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Tiger Woods earned $10.5 million in tournament purses on the U.S. PGA Tour this year, his third-best season since turning professional in 1996. Woods, who entered 2009 following reconstructive knee surgery, won six tournaments and finished in the top 10 in 14 of 17 events, including three of four in the FedEx Cup playoffs. He topped the PGA Tour money list for the ninth season, this time without winning one of golf’s four majors. “The whole year was an unknown,” Woods said yesterday after finishing second to Phil Mickelson at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. “I didn’t know how the knee would respond. To play as well as I have the entire year is something I’m very proud of.” The 33-year-old Woods has earned $92.9 million during his career and another $20 million in bonus money for twice winning the FedEx Cup. Yesterday’s second-place finish at the U.S. PGA Tour’s finale allowed him to win the FedEx Cup title for the second time in three years. Vijay Singh is second on the career earnings list with almost $62 million in prize money. He made a $10 million bonus in 2008 by winning the FedEx Cup when Woods cut his season short to have surgery on his knee. Mickelson is third in career earnings with $55.9 million. Woods won $10.9 million in purses in 2007 and $10.6 million in 2005. Following are the PGA Tour’s money leaders for 2009 through the Tour Championship. To contact the reporter on this story: Vince Golle in Washington at vgolle@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Video: O’Hair Leads Tiger By A Hair

September 25, 2009

Tiger Woods is just a stroke behind the leader, O’Hair. (Bloomberg News)

Read the full article →

Atlanta Rain Closes East Lake, Plagues PGA Tour’s Season-End Championship

September 21, 2009

By Michael Buteau Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — The golf course where this week’s U.S. PGA Tour was planning to hold its season-ending championship was closed today after as much as 15 inches of rain drenched the Atlanta area over the weekend. With the practice range and course at East Lake Golf Club shut down, only a few of the 30 players in the field of the Tour Championship came out this morning to work on their putting on a small green behind the clubhouse. The tournament will determine the winner of the FedEx Cup and its $10 million first prize. The rain has caused at least two deaths in the area. A woman drowned after her car was swept away in rising flood waters in Gwinnett County, according to the Atlanta Journal- Constitution. In Douglas County, a man’s body was found downstream from where a car was swept into a creek, the newspaper reported, citing county spokesman Wes Tallon. Flooding also washed out the county’s main line of the Norfolk Southern railroad. East Lake, about five miles east of downtown Atlanta, escaped most of the heavy rain. As much as 15 inches of rain fell in Douglas and Paulding counties, west of the city, since Sept. 18, leading to flooding and school closings. More storms may bring between 1 and 5 inches of rain to the area today, local forecasters said. The tournament is scheduled to begin on Sept. 24. Tiger Woods , who won the inaugural FedEx Cup title in 2007, leads the standings heading into the competition. Woods captured the BMW Championship for his sixth title of the season two weeks ago. Only the top 30 players after the first three playoff events qualify for this week. Woods didn’t play last year while recovering from knee surgery. To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Pine Valley Legend Lures New Jersey’s Weekend Hackers to No. 1 Golf Course

September 21, 2009

By Erik Matuszewski Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — Like many New Jersey golfers, Gregg Patterson knows the legend of Pine Valley Golf Club well and couldn’t pass up an opportunity to see a course that’s ranked the world’s best. The private club in Clementon continued a longtime tradition yesterday by opening its gates to the public for the final day of the 85th Crump Cup, one of the U.S.’s most prestigious amateur golf tournaments. Patterson, a high school golf coach in Lakewood, New Jersey, was among hundreds of weekend golfers who took advantage of the once-a-year opportunity, strolling Pine Valley’s lush fairways, wicked greens and sprawling waste areas. “Pictures don’t do it justice,” Patterson said, shaking his head as he surveyed the lengthy carry over sand and scrub from the elevated tee at the 483-yard par-4 18th hole. “It’s amazing. I didn’t even come to watch the golf, I just wanted to see the course for myself.” The 18 holes meander through 185 of the club’s 623 acres , which is a short drive from Clementon’s strip malls, fast food restaurants and aging amusement park. Pine Valley is its own municipality, with a police station and town hall occupying a small white and green building just inside the back gate. Pine Valley is No. 1 in Golf Magazine’s 2009 world rankings, ahead of Cypress Point in California, Augusta National in Georgia and the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Since Golf Digest started its list of the top-100 courses in 1985, Pine Valley has claimed the top spot all but twice. Crump Cup Skip Berkmeyer of St. Louis beat Gene Elliott of West Des Moines, Iowa, with a birdie on the 18th hole to win the Crump Cup championship yesterday. Pat Tallent of Vienna, Virginia, defeated U.S. Walker Cup captain Buddy Marucci of Villanova, Pennsylvania, in the senior final of the event named for former Philadelphia hotelier George Crump, who built the course. Marucci, a member at Pine Valley and several other elite private clubs, lost to Tiger Woods on the last hole of the 1995 U.S. Amateur Championship. As the match play finals were under way, Patterson was among those wandering the course separately, envisioning how he might fare against “Hell’s Half Acre,” the huge sand and scrub-filled waste area splitting the par-5 7th hole, or the tiny bunker in front of the par-3 10th green that’s deep enough to swallow a grown man and barely allows room to make a swing. Pine Valley’s par-4 second hole has 39 bunkers lining its fairway, 23 on the left and 16 on the right. Trip Kuehne , the 2007 U.S. Mid-Amateur Champion, said he’s played the course around 50 times and during his first Crump Cup took six shots to escape one of those fairway bunkers on his way to a 10. “That’s the kind of golf course it is,” said Kuehne, who runs the hedge fund firm Double Eagle Capital Management in Irving, Texas. “A big number is lurking on every hole.” Pine Valley Stories Kuehne, 37, also has fond memories at Pine Valley, among them a hole-in-one at the par-3 third hole. He’s one of many to have a Pine Valley story. Arnold Palmer , whose 62 U.S. PGA Tour wins rank fifth all- time, was just out of the Coast Guard when he took up a bet from Pine Valley members that he couldn’t break 80 his first time on the course. He shot 68 and used the money to buy an engagement ring for his late wife. When Phil Mickelson was in college, he played Pine Valley with Golf Digest’s Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Jerry Tarde , who bet the left-hander couldn’t go nine holes without a double bogey. Mickelson broke even only because Tarde let him keep doubling the bet until they completed three full rounds, when he completed the last nine holes without a double bogey. Patterson said Pine Valley had lived up to its lore. “You miss anywhere and you’re in trouble. It’s just unbelievably penal,” Patterson said in an interview. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s just an incredible opportunity. I’m hoping to bring my high school team here next year to see it.” To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski at Pine Valley Golf Club at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

Read the full article →

Swiss Bankers Wield `Cleeks’ to Club Golf-Course Clients: A. Craig Copetas

September 21, 2009

By A. Craig Copetas Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) — It appeared to be a routine golfing murder — another disgraced banker bludgeoned to death on the 13th hole at Whiteoaks Golf Club — until the homicide unit on the British television detective series “Midsomer Murders” discovered that the weapon was a 1-iron. “Not even God can hit a 1-iron,” a flummoxed forensic pathologist says, quoting golf champion Lee Trevino’s celebrated explanation for why golfers — and the National Association of Medical Examiners in Atlanta — nowadays only view the venerable “cleek” as an effective method of inducing blunt-force trauma. Pity the poor 1-iron. It’s a primitive blade with a narrow face, the loft of a woolly mammoth, a ruthless reputation and, as mystery writer Rex Stout tells it in “Fer-de-Lance,” best used to camouflage a needle smeared with South African viper venom and only brought into play for assassination. “We stopped making them 12 years ago,” says Joe Gomes , equipment representative at the Titleist golf division of Acushnet Co. in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. Technology killed the 1-iron. It was a quick death. Back in the 1990s, golf-club makers launched a line of fatso steel- and composite-headed maces called hybrids. The clubs promised pros and duffers an accurate, spinning airborne shot more aesthetically pleasing than watching a power-gunned 1-iron dribble a ball down the fairway. Taming a Cleek Trade in cleeks has since gone the way of the rotary telephone, leaving clubs like the Tommy Armour Golden Scot Cavity Balance, Golden Ram Tour Grind and the mean-tempered True-Temper Ping Eye 1-iron as curios for anthropologists and evidence for crime-scene investigators. Yet the great ones knew how to tame a cleek. Chief among them was Ben Hogan . Bandages wrapped beneath his golf clothes, 16 months after surviving a car crash in which he suffered a double fracture of the pelvis, a broken collarbone, a busted ankle and almost died from blood clots, the “Hawk” on June 10, 1950, pulled his APEX 1-iron for a 200-yard shot to make a par-4 on the 18th hole of the U.S. Open in Merion, Pennsylvania. Hogan’s shot forced a playoff, which he won the next day. “There’s just no point in using a 1-iron,” says Mark Calcavecchia , who won the 1989 Open Championship on the gusty links at Royal Troon in Scotland. That’s where golf’s founding players heaped fame on the 1-iron’s ability to bore shots beneath brutal costal winds, allowing the ball to “rabbit-run” toward the green. “With all the hybrids out there, why would you do that?,” Calcavecchia asks. “Intimidation,” says Victor Marechal of SG Private Banking SA after exploding a 200-yard fairway roll toward the 8th green at the Golf de Bossey Chateau de Cervin championship course along the border between France and Switzerland. ‘Black Lake’ For bankers bearing 1-irons, Bossey’s 8th hole, the 527- yard “Black Lake,” is a place of pilgrimage. In 1989, HSBC Holdings Plc banker Denis Marquot teed off with a driver, set his cleek to the fairway and made golf’s penultimate shot: an albatross, three under par. (The only shot more daunting is a condor, a hole-in-one on a par-5 and Tiger Woods might pull that off with the help of a recoilless rifle.) “The 1-iron is a valuable tool for a banker on a golf course,” says Marechal, the 29-year-old private banker. “Pulling out the 1 is an impressive move, it intimidates people, but you must be able to hit the ball.” Marechal is a master of the art known as low-screaming. He played for six years on the Swiss Golf Team, winning three European and one World Championship in the under-18 and under-21 divisions. Marechal said no to the pros and became a banker. Courting Clients “It’s better to be a Swiss banker than a Swiss golfer,” Marechal says, scratching the pampered blade of a Ping Karsten I Toe-Heel Balance cleek. “A four-hour round of golf with a client is worth 10 years of time with him in my office. And you get to know them intimately when you pull out the 1-iron.” Stephane Graf, the 41-year-old assistant director of HSBC in Geneva, says his 1-iron is in a cellar. “I never hit it very well,” rues Graf, who started playing golf when he was 11. “But I keep it, just in case the time comes.” Golf-course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr . says that time is now. The 70-year-old designer has just hooked his 1-iron shot into the mountain that straddles Black Lake. Jones’s ball is lost, yet his defense of the 1-iron remains firm. “Golf was originally a ground game,” Jones says. “It’s now an aerial game of backspin into the green. That style is hard to work on a windy course.” Technically, he says, the 1-iron was created to clip a golf ball with a long swing that ends without a divot. In laymen’s terms, that’s like sticking a butter knife on the end of a broom stick and trying to hit a hard-boiled egg off a sleeping cat without the fur flying. Windswept Courses “It’s becoming a required shot,” Jones says, particularly as golfers continue to prefer playing on blustery links courses, such as Chambers Bay in Tacoma, Washington, site of the 2015 U.S. Open. “When there’s wind, you need a cleek.” Poul Anker Lubker knows about the winds of golf. He’s the 49-year-old president of Lubker Golf A/S , a Danish company that specializes in constructing and managing golf resorts and he’s a principal in Vestas Wind Systems A/S, one of the world’s leading builders of wind farms. “The 1-iron makes for good business,” says Lubker, who since 1994 has globally erected more than 100,000 high-energy windmills. “Market trends indicate the 1-iron is poised for a comeback because investors and customers prefer new courses to be built near the sea. It’s an economic indicator that shows the 1-iron is ready for a comeback.” Professional caddy Jason Hamilton recalls a time when any golfer worth his spikes carried a 1-iron. “Sure, everybody prefers hybrids,” Hamilton, 39, says during a break at the Omega European Masters in Crans Montana, Switzerland. “It’s a shame the 1 isn’t used much these days. The club adds real drama to the game.” Hamilton sees the beginnings of 1-iron weather flowing down the Alps and onto the fairways at Golf Club Crans-Sur-Sierre . “Only the toughest know how to handle a 1-iron,” he says. To contact the writer on the story: A. Craig Copetas in Paris at ccopetas@bloomberg.net .

Read the full article →

Woods, Watson Save Bookies Millions at British Open

July 20, 2009

By Christopher Elser and Ben Martin July 20 (Bloomberg) — Tom Watson and Tiger Woods not only lost golf’s British Open, they cost gamblers millions of pounds. Woods was the pre-tournament favorite at 2-1 with U.K. bookmaker William Hill, while Watson, who was 1,000-1 at Ladbrokes at the outset of the event, closed to 7-1 going into the final round at Turnberry in Scotland

Read the full article →

Next Entries →