Tiger Woods May Be Back in the Masters, But Buick Won't Have Anything to Do With Him

Tiger Woods is coming back to golf -- he announced this week he'll play in the 2010 Masters Tournament next month -- but his old sponsor Buick won't invite him back any time soon.

Asked last night about Woods and about sponsoring professional golf, Craig Bierly, Buick product marketing director, said an emphatic, "No," before the question was quite finished. Golf was a mainstay of Buick marketing for 50 years, including the brand's own professional golf tournament, the Buick Open.

"Absolutely not," said Bierly, in a session with reporters in New York on March 18. Buick announced it was ending its relationship with Woods in November 2008. Woods was central to Buick marketing as recently as 2006, when Woods unveiled the Buick Enclave crossover.

Buick and Woods parted ways a year before the golfer's sex scandal broke, so that wasn't a factor. At the time, GM was heading down the slippery slope to bankruptcy, and GM was canceling sponsorships left, right and center.

Today, a rebounding Buick will stay away from the pro golf to chase a younger, less-exclusive buyer demographic. Assuming that's also a more-female demographic, that could be another strike against Woods.

Buick still has one of the oldest buyer demographics in the auto industry, but it's slowly attracting a younger audience. The company said the average age of its buyers in now 64, down from 72 a few years ago.

Buick's newest and smallest model is the 2011 Buick Regal, which goes on sale in the United States in May. It's based on the German-built Opel Insignia. The company describes the new Buick Regal as a "little brother" to the Buick Lacrosse. The new Regal has a four-cylinder engine, which is smaller but also more fuel-efficient than the rest of the lineup.

Using Woods as a celebrity spokesman was a first step towards attracting a younger, more diverse crowd, but Buick is through with celebrity spokesmen and intends to rely primarily on its product attributes to sell cars, Bierly said.

David Lyon, Buick designer, said that back when Buick first signed Woods, the Buick lineup was pretty much entirely big cars, with no sporty cars and no crossovers. "It turns out it's a much better strategy to make the cars more appealing," he said.