At the moment he won’t. And nor should he. Right now, these rumours about his personal life are just that, rumours only until proven otherwise.
In any case, its not always easy for a sponsor to walk away from a contract. They have to execute an escape clause which usually involves the athlete bringing the sponsor into disrepute.
So what are the common escape clauses in personal endorsements? Here are the major ones.
- Being charged or convicted of a crime.
- A positive test to drugs.
- Breaking the laws of the sporting body (in this case the PGA).
- Engaging in conduct that is obscene, indecent, immoral or unprofessional.
- Doing anything that restricts the ability of the brand to promote the athlete or diminishes the commercial benefits provided to the sponsor.
- Becoming of unsound mind therefore unable to fulfil sponsorship duties.
- Not maintaining your elitist position in your sport eg. losing your PGA Tour card.
There are a myriad of others clauses but these are the most common in any contract.
If you know anything about legal contracts, the aim of the game is to make things so black and white in writing that there can be no dispute about a breach.
Tiger would have a strong case against any sponsor who wanted to pull the plug over this news story. There are simply too many grey areas for a sponsor to successfully argue a breach.
