Woods, a global icon in sports with his 14 major championships, has been carrying the Buick logo on his golf bag for the last nine years and still had one year left on his contract.
But General Motors Corp. was looking to cut costs and hoard cash while trying to survive the worst sales downturn in a quarter-century. And it said Monday the world’s No. 1 golfer wanted more time for himself, especially with a second child on the way.
“Timing is everything,” said Larry Peck, golf marketing manager for Buick. “We’ve had such a great partnership with Tiger. It’s hard for us to walk away from that. But this frees up time for him. And it sure frees up a lot of money for us.”
The endorsement deal, believed to be worth at least $7 million a year, was to expire at the end of 2009.
“We attribute awareness of our product to Tiger,” he said.
Buick’s U.S. sales have dropped 54 percent from 2000, the first full year Woods worked with GM, to 2007, according to Ward’s AutoInfoBank. The brand’s global sales, however, rose 17 percent during that span, according to GM. Buick is particularly popular in China.
GM has been making dramatic cuts in advertising as it tries to conserve cash. The nation’s largest automaker spent nearly $7 billion more than it took in last quarter and has warned that without federal help, it may reach the minimum amount of cash required to run the company by the end of the year.
Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president for North American marketing, said GM and Woods started discussing an end to the deal earlier this year, and it had nothing to do with the Detroit Three automakers’ quest for $25 billion in federal loans.
But GM’s statement said the decision was made as part of “the search for budget efficiencies during a difficult economy for General Motors.”
Woods’ agent at IMG, Mark Steinberg, said the decision to end the relationship one year early was “absolutely mutual.”
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