"We've demonstrated our shareholder value orientation, and quite honestly, we're pretty relaxed."

Maybe the best thing out of this possible Fortune Brands breakup is that I get to beef up my corporatespeak vocabulary. From a Reuters story today quoting Fortune chief executive officer Bruce Carbonari:

The company has hired Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) in preparation for a potential battle with Ackman, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.

"We've demonstrated our shareholder value orientation, and quite honestly, we're pretty relaxed," said Fortune's chief financial officer Craig Omtvedt. "We look forward to having a dialogue with Ackman and his team as much as we do anybody else."

Some Gobble Up Tiger's Mac And Cheese, Some Don't

Those cynics who didn't buy into Tiger's Newsweek column and the anecdote about making the kids mac and cheese will find comfort in knowing my colleague Tim Rosaforte mopped it up!.

So what's the message? That Tiger realized what he lost, and he's doing everything he can to save what's more important than a green jacket, player of the year honors and a $10 million FedEx bonus.

It's easy to say Tiger should have come to this realization earlier, but that's in the past. His renewed commitment to his children seems as real as a side dish of macaroni and cheese on Thanksgiving Day.

Who eats macaroni and cheese on Thanksgiving?

Robert Lusetich wasn't quite as taken by the PR offensive, but he also was not as offended as some.

The knee-jerk reaction among most of my peers was to decry it all as a cynical stunt. Woods, they cried, is a phony.

I disagree.

Each of those acts reveal exactly who he is, just where he’s at a year after his life was deconstructed by a sex scandal, and why from here on out we should only care what he does as a golfer.

The Newsweek piece shows that while he’s trying to reach out to fans, he’s still listening to IMG and that they’re both clinging to the dream of rebuilding the Tiger Woods brand with big sponsors.

Good luck with replacing those 50 rocks a year, fellas.

And John Feinstein unleashes.

It is clearly just another image-rehab attempt by Woods and his sycophants to try to win back corporate money and fans—the fans being important because their support leads to corporate money. It is no coincidence that the latest blitz comes a couple of weeks prior to Woods’ 18-man exhibition event in California which he hasn’t played in for two years. (First year injury; second year, um, injury so to speak). He’s trying to keep his sponsor on board after two disastrous years and unveiling the latest version of his new self all at once.

Do I believe Woods when he says he’s learned the joys of giving his son a bath in the last year? Maybe. But if it is so joyful and SO important to him why was he in Australia chasing appearance money a couple of weeks ago when he could have been playing a couple of miles from his house at Disney? Why is he going to Dubai early next year to chase more appearance money?

"I feel pretty positive that we'll start to slowly build back his partnership base."

Nancy Armour looks at the state of Tiger's endorsement deals and talks to agent Mark Steinberg, who's waiting on the brand rebuilding to have reformulated the platform enough to field metrically value-worthy offers.

Though Steinberg did not give specifics, he said he is talking with an Asian company based outside of China about an endorsement deal. He also said Woods will have a new logo on his bag "at some point next year"; the Tiger Woods Foundation logo was on his bag at the HSBC Champions and Australian Masters.

"I feel pretty positive that we'll start to slowly build back his partnership base," Steinberg said.

Louis Oosthuizen To Surface On The PGA Tour!

The Oxford shirt set must be dancing in the Ponte Vedra hallways over the news of Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen joining the tour in 2011.

Oosthuizen earned the right to join the PGA Tour with his victory at St. Andrews in July while Schwartzel's earnings in 2010 as a non-member were enough that he would have finished in the top 125 on the money list. Schwartzel's effort was buoyed by his second-place finish at the WGC-CA Championship in March where he earned $850,000. That finish alone would have put him at 120th on the final money list.

“With Lee No. 1 in the world, that’s something we’ve got to talk to advertising about."

Michael Smith talks to Ron Rogowski of UPS and they are "pleasantly surprised" to have the world No. 1 and FedExCup holdout under contract. And there was this about UPS on the PGA Tour.

Besides, with its chief competitor, FedEx, having locked up the top sponsorship position with the PGA Tour domestically, there really wasn’t a fit for UPS in the U.S.

“The intent was never to go head-to-head with what our competitor was doing,” Rogowski said. “We just put the best plan together that met our objectives. For us, it’s about bringing the right assets together and crafting it to fit your needs. … This really has turned into a global format that offers us a lot of flexibility. Anything we get, in terms of branding, in the U.S., that’s a bonus.”

Got that?

Speaking of crafting to fit your needs,Ryan Ballengee raises the lingering question of whether Westwood's decision to not play the FedExCup is influenced by his deal with UPS. Of course, considering UPS barely knew he was on their team, perhaps not!

If We Could Just Get Tiger To Add An Event...

....ya, that's the ticket!

In a Golf World Monday item on the Tiger accident anniversary, Ron Sirak reports that Camp Ponte Vedra and specifically Tim Finchem are feeling the pressure to get ratings up in early 2011 as they head into television contract negotiations. Part of the grand plan is to beg Tiger to add a west coast event.

That ought to really make the networks forget all about ratings decline and the money lost in the last deal.

Manwhile, Geoff Russell follows up on the designated tournaments' demise and quotes a tournament director pinning Tiger and Phil for its fall, while a source in Tiger's camp says the decision came from the tour. Which is probably true. Right after they received word that a pair of certain somebodies were not in favor!

Saban And The Golf Channel

I'm so glad I don't live in Tuscaloosa to hear Nick Saban yammer every day. But it was nice that he threw in a jab that included the Golf Channel for no apparent reason. What follows from the in-studio team at Golf Channel will not be remembered as one of the supreme moments in humor history.

Rate This Viral Golf Video

It seems so real and these bulletin board comments prove there are suckers everywhere, as does the fact I got this in an email titled "Don't Mess With Old Guys."

But the advertisement at the end gives away an entertaining viral video involving lads provoking old guys on a golf course and having it all go so horribly wrong (as cameras roll).

Because this is a family values website, I'm not embedding the video due to the severe abuse of the King's English during the making of this commercial.

Honest Assessments Of The Race To Dubai Forthcoming? **

The UK writers have feasted on Lee Westwood and Rory McIlroy's rejection of the PGA Tour and eagerly await Martin Kaymer's decision as another nail in the American tour's demise.

Now, will we get some realistic assessments of the European Tour's teetering Road Race To Dubai as the boys arrive in the desert for their season-ending championship? Three years ago and fresh off a free jet ride, a few scribes fawned over the prospects for the Road to overtake the FedExCup and even lure Tiger to join the European Tour. And now stocked with most of the big names in golf the event should be at its zenith with years of prosperity in the cards, yet merely surviving the end of its five-year contract will be an impressive feat.

We'll be watching scribblers!

Update on Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 08:33 PM by Geoff

**The SI/golf.com Confidential gang touched on the state of the event and competing tours in this week's edition.

Commissioner-Bashing Free Zone?

The always engaging Mark Heisler tackles the NBA's crackdown on complaining in this week's L.A. Times NBA column and dropped this juicy little item:

If commentators like Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy slash away boldly, Stern's name never comes up, even on edgy, freewheeling shows like ESPN's "SportsCenter."

Of course, ESPN is a broadcast partner — and I've heard the NBA deal includes language barring any criticism of Stern.

If it doesn't, then it's a curious, universal omission.

(It's also true for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, whose name never comes up in the gnashing of teeth over his more frequent and controversial moves.)

Needless to say, I think Tim Finchem should demand similar language in the next golf television contract since he appears to be following the Castro succession model.

$68 Million Golf Course Needs To Be More Fun

At least that is what a consultant has told the city of Carlsbad, proud developers of the $68 million Crossings at Carlsbad. Barbara Henry reports on calls to change the course by "famed" architect Greg Nash.

Fate Of Fortune Brands Should Be Known In A Month

According to the Financial Times, "activist" hedge funder William Ackman has been given a month to propose changes to the board and therefore, the possible breakup of conglomerate Fortune Brands and its Acushnet golf division.