Tiger Woods scandal could cost PGA millions - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The sex-related scandal involving golfing great Tiger Woods could have a crippling effect on the PGA tour, and according to some estimates, the loss could be in millions of dollars and pounds. According to a CBS assessment, reports of Wood's alleged nine extra-marital affairs plus front-page headlines bearing steamy text messages are likely to compound both his and the PGA's problems. At the Chevron World Challenge golf tournament Sunday, the most famous face in golf was the man who wasn't there. Nor was there a single commercial featuring the golfer whose commercial endorsements are a large part of the estimated 130 million dollars that he earned this year. Woods has pleaded for privacy to deal with what he has called "transgressions." But the private conduct - or misconduct - of Tiger Woods has brought with it potentially devastating public consequences to the sport of golf he has come to dominate, consequences that could add up to hundreds of millions of dollars. "Tiger Woods is the face of golf. He dominates the sport as no athlete says since the 1920's and Babe Ruth," said Kurt Badenhausen, an editor at Forbes magazine. Badenhausen says numbers dramatically measure the impact. When an injury kept Woods out of the 2008 PGA Championship, ratings dropped 55 percent. When he came back this year, ratings for the Tour Championship jumped 83 percent. Counting PGA events and major tournaments, Woods' presence led to a 136 percent jump in ratings. "He transcends," Badenahusen said. "Young people, old people like him." Woods himself is facing any financial worries. He's already earned a billion dollars or more, and companies like Nike, which has built a whole product line around him, and the video game maker EA are standing by their long-term contracts. "In the long term, tiger will be fine," said John Rowaday, an expert on sports marketing.