Tiger Touting Tigger?

There's nothing Mickey Mouse about Tiger Woods's golf game. It's simply stupendous, fantastic, terrific - an achievement beyond adjectives.

But Mr. Woods's commercial endorsement contracts are reportedly about to embrace the world's most famous mouse - plus Tigger, Goofy, and all the other Disney attractions. He'll become one of the few sports figures Walt Disney Co. ever recruited to push its products.

This may be a match made in Fantasyland. Disney long ago shed its founder's avuncular image for one of sleek business acumen. Its products mix family fare with harder-edged stuff. Tiger, too, mixes a basic wholesomeness with fierce competitiveness.

And few public figures seem more an icon of our multicultural, youth-obsessed, wealth-conscious age than Woods. No wonder Disney is willing to add (substantially, no doubt) to the estimated $54 million a year the golfer already makes from product endorsements.

With that kind of income on the side, you might think Tiger would never need to hit another 350-yard drive and add to his growing list of golf laurels. But, of course, he will. That's his raison d'etre, his dream. Mickey's creator would certainly have understood that.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor