Video After The JumpTiger Woods took his biggest blow yet as global giant Accenture Sunday dumped the cheating golf great.
Saying Tiger was "no longer the right representative," Accenture backed out of an endorsement deal worth an estimated $7 million a year.
The consulting and accounting firm, which once used Woods in a ubiquitous ad campaign that urged customers to "Go on, be a Tiger," scrubbed his image off its Web site Friday after he admitted to a string of extramarital affairs.
"After careful consideration and analysis, the company has determined that he is no longer the right representative for its advertising," Accenture said, adding that "it wishes only the best for Tiger Woods and his family."
Accenture is now the first giant corporate sponsor known to have cut all ties with the disgraced golf great, and its move could mark the beginning of the end of Woods' career as a pitchman.
AT&T and Gillette have also stopped running ads featuring theonce-beloved sports icon, and analysts say they may also dump him soon.
Woods' Accenture deal, first signed in 2003, is reportedly worth $7 million a year. The Gillette deal is worth $20 million, and other sponsorship deals could cost Tiger tens of millions more.
With Woods off the golf course and still creating damaging headlines, experts say it makes little sense for sponsors to stick with him.
"If he's not golfing, those ads don't make sense,"said Rick Burton, a professor of sports management at Syracuse University.
Nike and video game maker Electronic Arts are standing by Woods - for now.
Woods' agent did his best to play down the Accenture move.
"Accenture has made a decision to not continue with their sponsorship. We are disappointed but respect their decision," said Mark Steinberg of IMG Worldwide. The PGA Tour said it would have no comment on the decision.
The crushing financial blow came as Woods, 33, endured another humiliating bimbo eruption.
One of the women he squired during a serial cheating spree says they were in bed together when he got the call that his beloved dad had succumbed to cancer, she says.
"I was beside him wearing nothing but a pair of panties," Jamie Jungers, 26, told The News of the World in London.
Jungers, who has admitted her 18 months with Tiger Woods ended sourly, revealed that she was on one of her many hookups with Woods at his $3 million Newport Beach, Calif., mansion on May 2, 2006.
Earl Woods, 76, ill with prostate cancer, was on his deathbed in a nearby hospice.
Tiger And His Father
"We were hangin' out and [Tiger] got a phone call from his mother. His father wasn't doing very well," she said.
Tiger went to the hospice for several hours, but when he returned, he was raring to go.
"I could see he was preoccupied and worried about his dad - but when we went to bed he still wanted to have sex as usual," Jungers recalled.
"We went to sleep. I was beside him wearing nothing but a pair of panties. Then at about 3a.m. the phone rang. It was Tiger's mom.
"She called to tell him that his dad had passed away. Tiger looked utterly devastated and didn't say a word.
"He didn't even cry but I could tell he was heartbroken."
Jungers first met Woods at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas in 2005 - mere months after Tiger's wedding to Elin Nordegren.
"He was kinda like a little kid," she said of the time they spent together.
Things ended badly, she said. Jungers recently insisted "she got nothing out of this relationship but a broken heart."
Tiger Woods Wife, Elin Nordegren No Longer Wearing Wedding Ring
In other Tiger tales:
• Florida child welfare investigators visited the Woods family mansion over the weekend, it was reported Sunday.
The agency went to the Windermere, Fla., mansion accompanied by a squad car from the Orange County sheriff's office and stayed for "roughly an hour" Saturday, radaronline reported.
The "well-being check" was triggered by a complaint to the Department of Children and Families, TMZ.com reported.
• Playgirl announced it won't be running any nude snaps of the golfing great.
A woman was asking for $500,000 for up to 10 cell phone camera pics of Tiger, said Daniel Nardicio, director of marketing for the online adult magazine.
Jamie Jungers Claims She Had Sex With Tiger Woods The Night His Dad DiedJamie Jungers Interview With NBC Today Show
Source: NY Daily News
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