“He expressed an interest in growing his own Tiger brand and we have been looking for marketing savings.”

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According to this Marketwatch story the timing is "coincidental," but as Bloomberg's Greg Bensinger reports, the Tiger-GM split obviously comes at a time when the car company needs to save money to fuel its fleet of private executive jets. Thanks to readers Adam and Chuck for the heads up.

Woods, 32, endorsed GM products including the Buick brand for the past 9 years, Pete Ternes, a spokesman for the Detroit- based automaker, said today. The golfer had been under contract through 2009.

“We began speaking with Woods earlier this year,” Ternes said in an interview. “He expressed an interest in growing his own Tiger brand and we have been looking for marketing savings.”

The announcement comes as GM seeks to cut marketing expenses by 20 percent in the U.S. A weakening U.S. economy that’s taken a toll on auto sales is prompting GM’s Chevrolet brand to “significantly” reduce spending on sports sponsorships, the company said last month.

Woods’s agent, Mark Steinberg, wouldn’t comment on the golfer’s future endorsements. “We’ve put together a plan, but it’s nothing that I’m going to discuss at this time,” Steinberg said in a telephone interview.

Not to worry, I'm sure Tiger will always return to Warwick Hills out of his love for the spending time studying Michigan's finest architecture.

Here's the early Golfweek take on the split.