The Rebranding of Tiger Woods

I'd already been thinking quite a lot about the trend of personal branding, especially among savvy young artists, singers, writers and athletes trying to distinguish themselves in their highly competitive markets, when Tiger Woods drove his Cadillac SUV over a hydrant and into a tree and began the near-overnight unraveling of his own carefully designed image and label.

As a household name, Tiger Woods has been synonymous with superhuman self-control, self-discipline and focus, essential qualities for such success in a game as precise and demanding as professional golf. As a seemingly reluctant celebrity, his rare appearances with the media only added to his stature and dignity in the hearts and minds of his fans.

My husband has been such a devotee of Tiger Woods that we've sometimes had to cancel plans so he could stay home and catch the guy win another tournament. I would often remind him that there were other players on the course who deserved some attention and respect; instead, he would change the channel rather than waste time watching second-rate "chumps" like Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker or Padraig Harrington address their ball.

Tiger didn't always win, but he prevailed often enough to become the highest-paid and most famous athlete on earth.

Add to his astounding skill with a stick and a ball his reputation as a serious and devoted family man, and you have the perfect one-man show to help peddle big American cars, oil companies, financial consultants, sports drinks, cell phones, running shoes, video games, razor blades and fancy watches, not to mention laser eye surgery and private jets.

So why did he get so sloppy with his personal life? Why did he risk his empire for a few extra rolls in the hay? Why did he allow himself this ignoble fall from grace?

I'll let others speculate on those questions.

Personally, I don't care one way or the other what Tiger Woods has been doing in his free time. I was never caught up in the hero worship, and usually rooted for other players to win -- don't tell my mate! -- because I found Tiger's constant winning a bit of a snore, really. And because sitting around on a beautiful weekend afternoon watching little white balls soar through the air is rarely my idea of a smashing good time.

But many people do care about what he's been doing in his leisure hours, and that's where his brand will suffer greatly. Tiger is now -- for the first time in his life -- an object of ridicule. Did you hear the one about his new name -- Cheetah? Or about how his three alleged mistresses add up to a triple bogey for the world's best golfer? Or have you seen the music video with Tiger's alleged voice mail to a girlfriend playing over women singers softly repeating his words again and again?

The jokes and puns have only just begun. Tiger's new image, alas, is of a sex addict.

One once-devoted but now furious fan, who had run his tigerwoodsisgod.com blog since 1997, just shut down the site after posting a series of diatribes against his now fallen deity. Where once he had built this "First Church of Tiger Woods" in homage to the one he believed came closest to a perfect human being, he has now slammed the door on all of those illusions -- pumped up by the PR machine behind Tiger's brand -- and his love has turned to hate.

Like so many others, this groupie discovered that Tiger Woods never really was an icon or a hero or an idol or a god, but that all along he was just your basic run-of-the-mill human being -- as Tiger pretty much told us in his first statement to the press last Friday -- and as susceptible to "transgressions" as the rest of us.

Hard to know if and when he'll hit the links again, but Tiger will never again be viewed as impeccable and flawless, even if his game stays winning and strong.

And that, frankly, could come as a relief to those of us who have never been and never will be anything close to perfect.

And to those of us who might have other plans for a golf-season weekend.