To his credit, Tiger has done his part to keep the brand name squeaky-clean. Although some people find Tiger’s public persona somewhat cold and brittle at times, he’s about as far removed from the stereotype of a troubled celebrity athlete as you can get. There have been no arrests, incidents involving strippers, gunshots, drug or alcohol episodes, etc. He has always conducted himself as if he has long-term interests in mind, and not as someone who is out to have a good time while the going is good.

I don’t know how much of that is attributable to having good business sense (i.e., trying to protect his brand name) and how much is due to having good character and values (i.e., his upbringing). Regardless, if he keeps it up, there’s no limit to the influence he can have over the rest of his life. Arnold Palmer last won a major in like 1964, yet STILL makes something like $30 million a year. He makes that money today, but he really EARNED it by cultivating a an image over the last 50 years or so.

Phil, he’s a reference I think you’ll appreciate … there’s a line in “The Hustler” (the book, I don’t remember if it was in the film) that says, “When whales fight whales it’s never because one is hungry.” The point being that money, at the highest levels, is simply another way of keeping score. I suspect Tiger cares less about the dollar figures per se than he does about building the biggest business empire.

He also doesn’t SEEM to be overly focused on setting an eye-popping (100?) record for career wins. If he were, he would play in more events, and include on his schedule many of the lesser tournaments that are currently capable of crowning the likes of Jerry Kelly as victors. As it is, Tiger seems content to let Snead’s record come to him, which it will in fairly short order if he continues to win 4-5 tournaments a year.

This raises the question of what Tiger DOES wish to accomplish, either within or without the world of golf, other than capture Jack’s record for major victories. Does he have a master plan that goes beyond that record or is he going to wait until he gets the record to decide what comes next?

Personally, I don’t think Tiger’s goal is simply to amass as much money as possible. Tiger can make money so easily, there just wouldn’t be enough of a challenge in trying to make money to get him out of bed in the morning. It would be like me making it my life’s goal to collect as many plastic shopping bags as I can. It would quickly become a pointless and tedious exercise.

My guess is that, to the extent Tiger is trying to maximize his earnings, it’s with some other, long-term goal in mind. I’d love to know what that is, but I doubt very much he’s going to open up any time soon and reveal what his real objectives are in life.