Tiger Woods is one of the most famous and successful men in sport. In 2010, he earned more than $90 million (just under £58 million) from both sponsorship and winnings, making him the highest paid athlete in the world. This is despite the highly publicised scandal revealed at the end of 2009.
Tiger Woods’ personal trouble coincided with his temporary retirement from golf, and it was not until very recently that he has managed to win a tournament again. His victory in the Chevron World Challenge at the end of 2011 brought to an end the losing streak that had gone on for more than 100 weeks.
Although it is possible that his sporting form has taken a turn for the better, his personal life could be going the other way, as his former coach has recently published a book. “The Big Miss”, by Hank Haney, describes the six years that Woods and Haney worked together.
The timing of the book’s release is particularly unfavourable, coming out before the Masters, when Woods will be wanting to focus on his performance on the course. The six years together coincided with a run of utter excellence by Woods that any golfer would be envious of.
The book is described by Woods as being all about money, and he is said to think that Haney has been very unprofessional to hurt their friendship as well as their working relationship with this book.
Last year, Wood’s former caddie, Steve Williams, caused headlines with a comment perceived by many to be racist. This came after having been dismissed by Tiger in July 2011, and starting to caddy for Adam Scott, the Australian golfer. With Williams as his caddy, Woods won 13 majors in 12 years.
With all the off-course scandal, the release of a new book just before the start of the 2012 season is not something that Woods would ever have wished for. He heads to Abu Dhabi next week looking to back up last month’s victory with a good run in the European tour.
This will be Tiger’s 16th professional season, and he will be hoping that he can win another major. He will not be playing in the Torrey Pines event, part of the PGA Tour, which he has won 7 times in the past, and was the scene of his last victorious major in the 2008 US Open.
In the past, when Woods has claimed the green jacket, he had already got a victory in the season, so if he wants to win this 15th title then history dictates he will need to win an event en route.
It seems like an awful long time since we regularly saw Tiger Woods in his red shirt doing his traditional fist pump, and if he can keep the off-course trouble to a minimum then he could be making a habit of it once again. Having spent months away from it, Tiger will be desperately striving to regain his place on top of the World Rankings.
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