Nike ad final straw for Tiger's wife – report

Tiger Woods' marriage with Elin Nordegren is all but over, and the final straw may have been a controversial Nike advertisement featuring the beleaguered golf star and the voice of his late father.

US news show Entertainment Tonight said that the couple have not spoken in quite some time and are in the process of finalising their divorce.

Entertainment Tonight correspondent Kevin Frazier pointed to Ms Nordegren's absence during the final round of the US Masters, which Woods had a chance of winning before finishing in a tie for fourth, as evidence the marriage has reached breaking point.

"Sources have told me that the marriage is indeed over," Frazier said.

"Evidence? Well, the fact that Elin was on a plane, in the air, headed to Arizona during the final round of the Masters. Usually, with her husband in contention at his biggest tournament, she would be there waiting for him in case he won; instead she made a plan so that she would be in the air while Tiger was playing."

A source told People magazine that Nordegren was "violently angry" about the advertisement, which featured a sombre Woods staring at the camera while a recording of his father Earl asked: "I want to find out what your feelings are. Did you learn anything?"

Nordegren thought the ad was "cheesy," the source said.

The advertisement had divided opinions. In a commentary written last week for nzherald.co.nz, former Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand CEO Andrew Stone praised Nike for standing by their fallen star.

"Good on you Nike," he wrote. "Sticking by those you are close to in good times and bad is a quality worth recognising."

By comparison, the Independent's Rupert Cornwell said common descriptions of the advertisement branded it as mawkish, cynical, tacky and tasteless "even by the standards of a saga which has already taxed those adjectives to the extreme."

Woods' squeaky clean image exploded last November when he crashed his SUV into a fire hydrant outside his house after an alleged argument with Nordegren over one of his numerous affairs.

More than a dozen women have since come forward claiming to have had sex with the 14-time major winner during his marriage.

The scandal forced him to take leave from professional golf - a sabbatical which ended when he appeared at the US Masters.

- NZ HERALD STAFF