It’s not cheap to put on a big-name golf tournament, especially when it’s the Tiger Woods World Challenge, which pays out $1 million to whoever finishes first (this year, it was Graeme McDowell, above) and $120,000 to the golfer who finishes in last place.

Eighteen of the top players in the world take part in the event which started in 1999, a decade before he banged his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and a tree outside his Florida home at 2:30 in the morning and his life began to unravel as news of his many mistresses began to spill out. Woods has since had his personal life opened up for pretty much everybody to see and gone through a divorce. Many of his endorsement deals disappeared (see ya, Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade, and GM) and a few stuck with him (Nike, Electronic Arts). Tiger did his best to lay low for a bit.

And even though it appears that Woods has gotten his golf game back in action and he’s moving forward with his life, there is still some fallout from the scandal. Chevron pulled out as the title sponsor of the World Challenge, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, after last year’s event and “a deal with a major company unexpectedly fell through at the last minute in early September,” according to the Associated Press.Continue reading...

America loves a winner with a redemption story. Well, at least marketers think they do. That would explain how Philadelphia Eagles star quarterback Michael Vick, who spent nearly two years in prison for his part in an interstate dog-fighting ring, has managed to get another endorsement deal.

His hometown Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Vick, treated like a complete pariah when he was released from jail two years ago, has added to his post-prison endorsement deals by signing a new contract this week with a nutritional-supplement company, Fuse Science.

As part of the deal, the parent company of Fuse, Double Eagle Holdings Ltd., has a new equity partner. You guessed it: Vick.

"He's a changed man," Fuse Science CEO Adam Adler told the Associated Press.Continue reading...