A Fourth Woman for Tiger Woods is Coming Forward...Is This the Breaking Point for His Sponsors?

About ten days ago, the notion that Tiger Woods might be having an affair shocked the world; today, the world is barely shocked at all that there is a fourth woman coming forth to claim she had an affair with the golfing legend.
At some point there will be an end to these stories (in theory, anyway), and more than a few days will pass without yet another Woods affair revelation. For right now, however, it is difficult to predict where and when this will stop. Would anybody right now be completely confident that all of Woods' mistresses have already come forward now that this fourth one is preparing to do so? While Woods and his suffering wife Elin Nordegren Woods worked on their marriage this week, both from a financial and presumably emotional standpoint, the revelation of a fourth woman may or may not have much effect at this point on the health of Woods' marriage.

What will be interesting to watch, however, is Woods' sponsors, who have made him the wealthiest athlete in history. While all have reportedly stood by him until this point, when exactly will they reach the tipping point and decide to cut ties with Woods? From a business standpoint, Woods has at least benefited from the timing of these revelations; if they had occurred during golf season, his sponsors would undoubtedly be in a much trickier situation as Woods would be wearing and discussing their brands while being much more in the public eye than he is now. If this fourth alleged Woods' mistress is indeed the final one to come forward, there is plenty of time between now and the start of the golf season and the major tournaments that Woods covets to allow the 'noise' level to subside a bit. At that point, Woods' sponsors may very well be able to justify sticking with him as the story fades from view.

But if this fourth woman is merely something like the end of the first act of a very long play that will take a year or more to play out, the sponsors may very well have their hands forced. If even a small percentage of their customers boycott Woods' endorsed products, the sponsors could feel a very real hit to their bottom lines.

Source: TMZ Staff, "4th Alleged Tiger Mistress Lawyers Up", TMZ.com