Yesterday, Darren Rovell of CNBC broke the news that Tiger Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg is no longer an employee of IMG (his contract expires in June 2011), where at one point in time he was director of Global Golf Business. At IMG, Steinberg was responsible for the representation of Woods and LPGA golfer Annika Sorenstam, among others. Interestingly, prior to Rovell’s Tweet concerning Steinberg’s exit from IMG, Sean Martin of Golfweek, Tweeted the following:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/GolfweekSMartin/status/73049422942056448″]
So which one is it? Woods will have to either pick staying with the agency that has represented him since his start on the PGA Tour or the individual agent who personally represented him for most of his career (Woods was first represented by Hughes Norton at IMG). My guess is that he sticks with Steinberg.
In early April, I had started to hear rumors that Mark Steinberg was strongly considering leaving IMG when his contract expires in June. In fact, I was hearing that he was thinking about switching over to powerhouse Creative Artists Agency (CAA) as so many former IMG employees have done in the past. At this point in time, there have been no indications as to if Steinberg will join an existing agency or set up his own shop (a la Dan Lozano). But keep an eye out on CAA. I heard back in April that it was not the first time that Steinberg considered a switch to CAA.
A little more background info on Mark Steinberg’s relationship with IMG:
- He did a summer internship with IMG while in law school at University of Illinois College of Law.
- IMG offered Steinberg a job in his 3L year at UI Law.
- IMG initially had Steinberg working strictly on the women’s golf circuit.
