Allure of Tiger makes for a circus atmosphere

The slim, sharp figure in sunshades gave instructions to the television crews which were brief and explicit. "Tiger will give three interviews," said Mark Steinberg. "You have two questions each. Nobody asks a third question or he walks."

It was Saturday evening at St Leon-Rot and Woods had just completed a third round 63 in the Deutsche Bank TPC of Europe. A short distance away, vendors were selling the last of the "Tiger" pretzels. With a large portion of the second round carried over from the night before because of rain delays, it had been a long day.

When the centre of attention descended the eight steps from the elevated score-recorder's area like a major showbusiness personality, there were further instructions from Woods' manager. "Okay, this is the order: Sky, German, you (to Ken Brown, representing the US Golf Channel)."

It was a situation in which the interviewer knew he had to pick his questions carefully. Ask something like "Well, Tiger you must be pleased with that round", and question number one could deliver a brief "Yes" in reply. These were practised operators. The opening question was: "Well Tiger, tell us how the round developed for you." No monosyllabic answer to that.

An exasperated TV cameraman exclaimed: "What a circus!" Close by, a German worker was driving wooden stakes into the ground to accommodate additional security ropes. "Crazy," he said to nobody in particular. "All zis for one person."

Brown, who was the last of the interviewers, shared his bemusement. "It's an amazing situation," said the former British Ryder Cup player. "As Tiger turned to be interviewed by me, he had this glazed look in his eyes as if his mind was a million miles away," he said.

"Once I started asking him questions, however, I had his complete attention. But when I had finished, the glazed look came back and he turned automatically as if expecting another interview. Amazing."

Still, he conceded: "Unfortunately, it has to be this way. The demands on Tiger are such that he would never get to the locker-room if all of our requirements were to be satisfied."

The German sponsors have loved every moment of this latest visit, from the shootout last Tuesday, to Wednesday's pro-am appearance with Franz Beckenbauer and Boris Becker and then the "Beat the Pro" television spectacular on Thursday night. And these were peripheral to the success of the tournament itself.

A hot sun beat down on St Leon-Rot for the final round on Sunday, but the onduty bankers still dressed in the mandatory collar, tie and jacket. And they seemed to experience no discomfort, which one could attribute to the manner in which their major investment was delivering a breathtaking final dividend.

"Tiger doesn't make any plans that far in advance, but we will certainly be negotiating to have him back here next year; absolutely right," Hanns Michael Holz, global head of public relations with Deutsche Bank, said yesterday.

"We will be sitting down to assess the impact of this weekend and we are confident it will make sound financial sense. We can measure everything - TV, newspapers and other areas. It will all add up. Yes, Tiger is worth it."

For his part, Woods seemed genuinely pleased to have continued an arrangement started two years ago. "The people here have always been nice," he said. "They have always treated me with respect and that is all you can ever ask. It has made me want to come back."

As his Irish host, JP McManus, discovered when he was organising a charity proam in Limerick last year, Woods can be a very loyal friend. His attitude to new experiences abroad is: "You get to meet a lot of new people and that's one of the things I really cherish - the new friends I've made here. It's pretty cool."

But business is business. And the word is that he charged $2.5 million for this, his third successive appearance in the German tournament, an extra $250,000 being built in for last month's US Masters triumph. On that basis, he could be charging more than $3 million this time next year.

Either way, Deutsche Bank, who have financial links to the International Management Group, Woods' agents, won't blanch. "The first pay-off for us is that we had 3,000 special guests here over the weekend," added Holz. "And we were able to show them the greatest sportsman in the world."

As a consequence, Woods has been treated here in the same manner, one imagines, as German royalty once were. And with Steinberg arranging his every move, even down to hand-signalling which exit route to take from an interview area, everything went according to plan.

Even the tournament result.