Companies like Nike Inc are not expected to sever their ties with golfer Tiger Woods, who has sponsorship deals worth an estimated $100 million a year, after his weekend car accident, analysts and consultants said on Monday.
Early returns showed companies are standing by the popular golfer.
"Tiger Woods is one of the premier athletes in the world and we are proud to have him involved with NetJets," David Sokol, chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc's NetJets private jet unit, said in an e-mail statement.
Nike Golf global public relations manager Beth Gast echoed that sentiment: "Tiger and his family have Nike's full support."
Woods, whom Forbes magazine recently said had become the first athlete to earn more than $1 billion in his career, crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and tree outside his mansion in Florida early Friday morning.
On Sunday, the 33-year-old golfer said in a statement that he was embarrassed by the accident.
Woods, considered the best golfer of his generation, has had numerous sponsorship deals through the years for everything from Nike to automobiles to shave creams to sports drinks.
Officials with PepsiCo Inc brand Gatorade "look forward to seeing him back on the course soon. Our partnership with Tiger continues," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Consultants said Woods' popularity and long record of dominance on the professional golf tour, as well as his charitable activities, make any sponsor defections unlikely.
"It doesn't matter as things stand today," said Marc Ganis, president of consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd. "We'll see what the future brings, (but) he is the reason golf is still on the map.
He's got a heck of a lot of chits in his ledger."
It is not clear what led up to Woods' early morning accident, but there has been speculation he and his wife were arguing shortly before the crash. However, any new reports are not likely to shake sponsors' faith in Woods.
"Unless something comes up that would be completely out of left field, I don't see any sponsor getting out of a current deal with Tiger because of this situation," said Robert Boland, professor of sports management at New York University.
Doug Shabelman, president of Burns Entertainment, which matches celebrities with corporate sponsors, agreed.
"It's going to have very little impact on Tiger's current and future earnings potential unless something extraordinary is uncovered," he said. "He's built up enough goodwill that people will give him the benefit of the doubt."
Procter & Gamble Co's Gillette declined to comment on its deal with Woods. Other sponsors, including AT&T Inc, Electronic Arts Inc, TLC Vision Corp, Upper Deck, Tag Heuer and Accenture could not be reached.
One area where analysts said Woods' usually well-honed public relations skills slipped was his delayed and limited response on Sunday. More of the same could still be damaging to him, they said.
He canceled a Tuesday press conference after saying he would not play in the Chevron World Challenge that he hosts near Los Angeles and which benefits his charitable foundation.
"He missed an opportunity right away to take control of the story," said Paul Argenti, professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. "The longer he lets this go, the lower the reservoir (of goodwill) is getting."
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