Tiger Woods Now Gearing Up For Life After Golf?

Tiger Woods knows and knows well that he is getting closer to the end of his playing career with each passing day.

Finding yourself ranked No. 802 in the world just might convince you that it’s time to think about life after golf.

Woods is there, lucky No. 802, down from 786 and he’s falling with each week of inactivity, and there will be more before he attempts to tee it up in the oh-so-controlled environment of his Hero World Challenge where he selects the field and he makes up the pairings.

There are at least six weeks that will pass before that Dec. 1 date, which means Woods could fall past 900. Ouch.

With his comeback hitting the pause button, Woods may be giving himself a stiff dose of reality.

He did that this week when he announced what he termed:   “A momentous occasion.”

Woods told us that he has totally overhauled his kingdom, of sorts.  From this day forward, say hello to:  Tiger Woods Ventures.  Say hello to his new logo.  It features those three weird triangles that he says stand for:  Mindset, Method and Mastery.  Very well. Okay.  Roger that.

Mindset?  Method?  Mastery?  Sounds like something out of the classrooms at the Tiger Woods Foundation, which is good, it’s about education rather than sports.  It’s about encouraging children to excel in the classroom.  Nice.

Woods is throwing all his business ventures in the deal as well.

He’s got that fancy-schmancy sports bar of his over in Jupiter, they call it Woods Jupiter.  We know a lot of folks over in that neck of the woods, excuse the pun, but no one’s ever seen him there.  He wasn’t even there on opening night.  Nice.

You know the old saying:  How to you make a small fortune?  Take a medium fortune and open a restaurant.

Okay, add Woods Jupiter into the “conglomerate.”

Then there’s Woods Design.  Yes, Tiger wants to build golf courses.  But with the slowdown in golf in this country, designers have to go chasing jobs around the globe.  It’s an expensive venture and at some point, there are too many designers chasing too few jobs.

“I’m about taking the next step in what I like to call Chapters 2:  my evolution as a competitor off the course.”

Does that sound like a guy who is certain about his remaining career ON the course?

When you look at where Tiger’s come from financially, he’s got more money than he could spend in the next 100 years.  His endorsement gold mine has virtually run its course.

Which brings us to Tiger’s endorsement power after golf.  Is there any?

Arnold Palmer was the ultimate people-person and it showed in his endorsement power, long after he hit his last golf shot, he was still all over the television screens putting his popularity behind product.

Woods is just the opposite.  He is the ultimate “non-people” person.  He despises people.  He is seldom seen anywhere in Jupiter unless he’s taking his children somewhere.  He is a virtual recluse.  Which begs us to wonder who will be the face of this Tiger Woods Ventures deal?

If Woods is going to “compete” off the course, he’s going to have to emerge from this shell where he hides out most of the time.

With Nike’s exit from golf, except for clothes, you wonder what his role will be with the behemoth company?

You wonder a lot of things about Tiger Woods.

The one good thing that comes out of all this is the Tiger Woods Learning Centers will continue to thrive.  To date, over the past 20 years, they have had 145,000 children go through the learning center.

And that’s a great thing.

So forget restaurants where you’re never seen, Tiger.

Keep providing funds for the kids.

And show up to see them once in a while.

That would be the best “venture” you could undertake.