Tiger Leaving IMG Not A Surprise

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Tiger Woods walks alongside his manager Mark Steinberg of IMG during a practice round prior to the start of THE TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, Georgia.

On Monday morning, Tiger Woods tweetedthat he'd be going with Mark Steinberg, who headed up IMG's golf division until last month.

It makes sense for a couple reasons.

Steinberg and Woods are close and, given how much Tiger's world has been shaken up since Thanksgiving of 2009, more change probably isn't a good thing.

Then there's IMG, which doesn't really care that Woods is leaving. As IMG has moved away from representation and more towards more profitable entities like its broadcasting arm, its event division and its building of sports leagues in emerging markets like India and China, the cache of having Woods isn't appealing enough to fight for him.

Going with Steinberg, wherever he winds up, isn't a risk either.

Agents do deals, agencies don't. Steinberg knows how to play this game and has the relationship and smarts to negotiate deals.

Unfortunately for Tiger, blue chip deals are harder to come by given that he still hasn't won since his world unraveled more than a year and a half ago. On Monday, Woods—a staple atop the World Golf Rankings—found himself ranked 15th.

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