Tiger Woods golf hiatus makes no sense, says public relations expert

On December 11, 2009, Tiger Woods announced that he was taking an indefinite break from golf. Howard Bragman, the founder of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations was on Anderson Cooper 360 sharing his views and opinions regarding the announcement.

Anderson Cooper asked whether or not Tiger’s golf hiatus made sense from a public relations point of view. Howard Bragman replied, “It makes no sense, but, you know, I expected him to do something stupid, because every decision he's made has made no sense.”

The comment inspired cross talk and then Anderson asked specifically why Tiger’s taking a break from golf didn’t make sense. Howard Bragman replied, “Because what he wants to do is make, make the story go away. And now it's the lead story on every newscast, not just in the U.S., but in the world.

It's one of those situations that raises more questions than answers. And instead of stopping the story, it's perpetuating the story. And it's just a horrible P.R. strategy. It may, you know, I want to say, it may be a good life strategy, it may save his marriage, and, for that, it's good. I think there were more elegant ways to handle it.”

Howard Bragman noted that it may be a good life strategy, but indicated that the move is not good for his business.

Jim Moret sat in for Larry King, where the topic of discussion was reaction to Tiger’s announcement. David Dusek, who serves as deputy editor for Golf.com, said that he believed Tiger’s golf hiatus would hurt the game in the short run, but not in the long run.

He stated, “His absence will hurt the sport, and will hurt the PGA Tour and will hurt television ratings and you can make the argument, that potentially it's going to hurt some of his sponsors by Tiger Woods not being out in front and being seen and pitching products and doing what he does best, which has been golf tournaments. Then the brands that are associated with him don't get the exposure that they would hope to get. So that is certainly a downside.”

Recent reports state that Elin Nordegren and Tiger Woods are leaving on their yacht, the Privacy to attempt to reconcile their marriage.
 

Tiger Woods golf hiatus makes no sense, says public relations expert