Tiger, Buick hit the road

DETROIT - General Motors is bailing out on Tiger Woods.

Woods, a global icon in sports with his 14 major championships, has been carrying the Buick logo on his golf bag for the last nine years and still had one year left on his contract.

But General Motors Corp. was looking to cut costs and hoard cash while trying to survive the worst sales downturn in a quarter-century. And it said yesterday that the world's No. 1 golfer wanted more time for himself, especially with a second child on the way.

"Timing is everything," said Larry Peck, golf-marketing manager for Buick. "We've had such a great partnership with Tiger. It's hard for us to walk away from that, but this frees up time for him. And it sure frees up a lot of money for us."

The endorsement deal, believed to be worth at least $7 million a year, was to expire at the end of 2009.

Woods has endorsed GM products around the world and mainly has been seen in Buick commercials as the company tried to give the nameplate a more youthful image. Peck said that during the launch a few years ago of the Enclave, its research showed that 78 percent of consumers who bought the SUV had not been Buick owners previously.

"We attribute awareness of our product to Tiger," he said.

GM has been making dramatic cuts in advertising as it tries to conserve cash. The nation's largest automaker spent nearly $7 billion more than it took in last quarter and has warned that without federal help, it may reach the minimum amount of cash required to run the company by the end of the year.

Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president for North American marketing, said that GM and Woods started discussing an end to the deal earlier this year, and it had nothing to do with the Detroit Three automakers' quest for $25 billion in federal loans.

But GM's statement said that the decision was made as part of "the search for budget efficiencies during a difficult economy for General Motors."

Woods' agent at IMG, Mark Steinberg, said that the decision to end the relationship one year early was "absolutely mutual."

"It was a combination of things," Steinberg said. "Tiger was looking to gain some more time, and certainly it was an opportunity for GM to reduce its spending with everything going on."

Buick said last week that it would be cutting back on its deal providing courtesy cars at PGA Tour events.

GM is so concerned about costs that it cut advertising during the 2009 Super Bowl, although it still plans to sponsor the NFL and likely air ads before and after the game. GM also has pulled out of the Oscars and Emmy Awards in 2009 - the first time in more than a decade that it is not running ads right before, during or after the two events.

U.S. automakers, the single largest category of advertisers, cut their ad spending 18 percent to $1.37 billion in the second quarter compared with the same period in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence in New York.

Buick remains the title sponsor of two PGA Tour events - the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines, which Woods has won six times; and the Buick Open outside Detroit, which Woods has won twice. *