The Tiger economy

BBC Sport Online's Sophie Brown looks at the seemingly unlimited money-making potential of Tiger Woods.

Tiger Woods may have lost his air of invincibility as far as his fellow pro golfers are concerned - but to the rest of the world he still has an almost god-like status.

Why else would amateurs cough up $80,000 (£55,000) a hole to play golf with him?

For that is what members of the Mission Hills club are doing when Woods jets in for a weekend which will see him play in China for the first time.

Woods will play a round with 72 amateurs, paying a total of $5,760,000 (£3,940,000) - not bad for a morning's work.

And organisers say that there has been overwhelming interest just to catch a glimpse of Woods.

Woods is almost as happy as his bank manager

Tickets to watch the 26-year-old play with the amateurs, who come from Hong Kong, China, Singapore and Taiwan, cost $128 (£87) each.

It is just the latest example of the sort of money that the Woods phenomenon generates.

Last year, a mystery bidder forked out £1.1m to play a round with him - that's about £60,000 a hole.

On that occasion, it was all for charity but whether it is for a good cause or not, Tiger is a money-spinner.

In 2000, Woods topped the PGA money list, winning $9.1m (£6.2m).

Forbes magazine estimated that he earned five times this amount in endorsements and sponsorship, giving him a yearly total of $53m (£36m).

'The' Rich List

Woods even featured on Fortune magazine's Under-40s Americans Rich List a few months ago.

The youngest person on the list, he scraped in at number 40, with his net worth estimated at £110.7m.

Woods' income was given another huge boost when he signed a new deal with Nike, said to be worth around $100m (£68m) over five years.

That deal came months after the player signed a £21m five-year contract with Buick - and comes on top of numerous other endorsement contracts Woods has with the likes of American Express.

Woods has not had a good finish to the 2001 season

Golf World reckoned he could make $54m (£37m) a year without hitting a ball.

Mind-boggling sums but it must also be noted that Woods has raised a huge amount of money for charity - most notably through the Tiger Woods Foundation.

And perhaps the figures involved become more palatable when Woods' achievements during his record-breaking season in 2000 are remembered.

Yet he signed a $40m (£27m) deal with Nike as early as 1996.

Like other manufacturers, the company saw his potential both as a player and as a marketing tool - a new role model.

Woods was young and cool and of African-Asian heritage - the antithesis to the image of golf as a game for white, middle-class, middle-aged men in garishly patterned sweaters.

His huge popularity has boosted the game's profile - and he is the player the fans want to see.

This is evident from tournament organisers happily offering him sums of $1m-plus just to appear at their event.

  Companies who have endorsed Tiger Woods

Nike, Buick, EA Sports, American Express, Rolex, Wheaties, Titleist, Upper Deck, Disney, Warner Bros, Asahi Beverages

And he has opened up new and lucrative markets for his sponsors - both in the US and across the globe.

Nike estimates that its market share for golf balls grew from 1% to 4% from April-September 2000.

It believes he could prove to be a bigger asset to the company than basketball legend Michael Jordan was during the 1980s and 1990s.

And with the popularity of golf booming worldwide, particularly in the Far East, Woods looks set turn the millions into billions.

But as his dad Earl once pointed out: "Money has never been important to Tiger."