• by Tanya Gazdik , Yesterday

Tiger Woods was historically the most heavily sponsored athlete in the world, leading Forbes’ annual list of the world's highest-paid athletes for a record 11 consecutive years from 2001 to 2011.

Now, the mostly retired golfer is making even more money on an old investment.

“Full Swing, the golf simulator company that Tiger Woods has backed and promoted for a decade, is being sold to the owner of the Golf Channel for about $530 million, handing the billionaire golfer and his fellow investors a payday and tightening the ties between his indoor golf league and a major broadcaster,” according to Billionaires Africa.

Woods invested in Full Swing in 2015 and has served as its ambassador ever since.

“The 15-time major winner had about a 1%-2% stake in the company,” according to Heavy. “His investment after the acquisition would be worth close to $10.6 million. That is massive money.”

The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to regulatory clearance.

At the close of 2025, Golf Channel reached 49 million domestic TV homes, which marked a 22% drop compared to the 62.7 million subs the network boasted in December 2022.

“Versant Media Group said the move will strengthen its positioning in golf and across interactive sports experiences and will provide new pathways in content, commerce, training, venues and performance data,” according to Yahoo Finance. 

Founded in 1986, Full Swing is best known for producing golf simulators used at commercial, residential and entertainment venues. 

“The company is an official PGA Tour licensee and its products are used by several leading professionals, including Woods,” according to SportsPro. “Full Swing’s technology is also integral to TMRW Sports’ tech-infused TGL golf competition. The firm’s virtual world environment powers digital courses used at the SoFi Center, while the three virtual greens – each equipped 189 actuators and jacks to dynamically alter slopes and gradients – are among the largest ever constructed.”

“Diversification of the Versant model is particularly crucial, as the legacy pay-TV bundle has been whittled down to just 40.9 million U.S. households,” according to Sportico. “In the last 10 years alone, 57.1 million subscribers have ditched the bundle, a loss which has been offset somewhat by the conversion of 22.3 million customers to virtual MVPDs such as YouTube TV, Sling TV and Hulu/Fubo.”