Monster Energy VP’s Story About Sticking With Tiger Woods Through Adversity Is A Master Class In Great Business

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When Tiger Woods won The Masters in 2019, snapping a 10 year and 304 day drought between major championship wins, Monster Energy was front and center as Tiger’s golf bag sponsor with their neon green logo. They stuck with Tiger through his 2017 DUI arrest after Woods was found asleep at the wheel of his car due to driving on a combination of sleeping pills and other medications.

After that happened, sponsors dropped Tiger Woods, the most famous athlete in the world at that time, and they didn’t look back. Only a few sponsors stuck with Tiger: Monster Energy, Rolex, Nike, and maybe one or two others. If you think Tiger ever forgot who was there for him after that you’d be sorely mistaken because this story below, which is two-par, is about how they stuck with Tiger Woods following his accident but then they discuss renegotiating his contract later down the road.

Here is the YouTube video with the story but the TikTok clip below the YT video has the isolated portion of the interview as well. The TikTok clip is the one that caught my attention and brought me to the full Gypsy Tales Podcast interview:

After winning The Masters in 2019, Tiger Woods was asked how many sponsors he thought would come to him following his triumphant comeback, and how much of an increase in sponsorship earnings Tiger thought he might see. Tiger’s response speaks volumes. He said he wasn’t going to take a single new sponsor because he was not going to answer the phone for a single one of them. Woods said “I’ve got three people (brands) that stuck with me: Monster Energy, Rolex, and Nike. Nobody else needs to call.”

Then came the renegotiation of Tiger Woods’ contract with Monster Energy… Following his 2019 win at Augusta, Tiger could’ve hammered them for a lot more money as his golf bag sponsor but he didn’t do that at all.

Monster’s VP of Sports Marketing Mitch Covington says he called Tiger to renew his deal and expected Tiger and his agent to hit him with ‘where do you want to start on this negotiation?’ but Tiger had instructed his agent, Mark Steinberg, but Steinberg told him “I just got off the phone with Tiger… Tiger said to take whatever you’re offering. I’m not negotiating with you. Just tell us what you want to pay. He wants to be with you the rest of your life.”

If there was ever a ‘mic drop’ moment in business, that’s it right there. They stuck with Tiger Woods through adversity and Tiger paid them back with loyalty and a Masters win with Monster on the bag.

Here is that aforementioned TikTok clip with the pertinent parts about Tiger Woods:

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