Steiny: Tiger Woods Owns The Name Tiger Woods

In Michael Bamberger's story detailing progress on Tiger's new Jupiter restaurant, the developer was asked about the weird name of the place that sounds like a housing development (The Woods Jupiter: Sports and Dining Club).

Bamberger wrote:

He referred to it as Woods Jupiter and expects that’s what most people will call it. Mastroianni said he was told that Nike “has the rights to the name Tiger Woods,” which prevented Woods using his first and last name in the restaurant name. (Nike and Greenspan, Woods's spokesman, did not immediately respond to inquiries about the rights to use Woods's name in commercial ventures.)

Multiple outlets picked up this portion of the story, seizing on the fascinating notion of someone selling the rights to their name to a corporate partner.

After the story picked up steam, agent Mark Steinberg issued a statement to select news outlets denying the naming rights issue.  Rex Hoggard writes for GolfChannel.com:

“I can’t imagine how this could have been communicated this way. It is wholly inaccurate and categorically false,” Steinberg said. “Tiger owns his own name and always had. He can use his name in any form he chooses. Nike would confirm that if asked.” Later Wednesday, a Nike spokeswoman did just that, saying, "Nike does not own the name 'Tiger Woods.' We can confirm that Mark Steinberg's comments are accurate."

Startling words to see in print! "We can confirm that Mark Steinberg's comments are accurate."

Of course, we don't know how long Bamberger gave Nike and Steinberg to reply for comment, but had they replied promptly the story might have been different.