We're not sure if Tiger Woods can see the humour in his situation, but — judging from the traffic in cyberspace — it appears El Tigre has joined Hugh Grant, Bill Clinton and other famous adulterers as the punchline to an ongoing joke.

Sample: What's the difference between a car and a golf ball?

Tiger can drive a ball 400 yards.

There are also Tiger Woods mock-holiday pictures on the Internet, along with entire files of one-liners, and the fun has just started. It seems there is a subgroup within our species which enjoys seeing the high- and-mighty humbled and Tiger has never been more mortal than he is right now.

When you get beyond the more prurient elements of this story, however, there is one question which is absolutely fascinating; one question which can be addressed without another tiresome examination of modern-day morality and the gutter press.

That question revolves around the $100 million or so in endorsements which Tiger pulls in annually. I mean, as much as you'd like to be a fly on the wall for some of the conversations in the Woods-Nordegren domicile these days, the more interesting dialogue has to be taking place in the offices of Nike, Buick, Electronic Arts, AT&T and other mega-companies which use him as a spokesman.

Elin, after all, might be able to forgive him. But will the corporate world be as sympathetic?

Now, it goes without saying that Tiger's is one of the most- recognizable faces on the planet and the enormity of his

Q-factor is almost incalculable.

As big as he is in North America — and there's no one close in the world of sports — he's equally as big in China, in Japan, in Korea, in parts of India, all over Europe and into South America.

A couple of years ago, I landed at Heathrow, just outside of London, for the first time. I made my way to the baggage carousel and was greeted by three gargantuan images of Tiger in adverts for Accenture.

Think about that for a moment. Think of the international traffic that area receives. Think of what that space must cost. Now think of the message Accenture is sending — that Woods is part of the team and his values represents theirs.

And now consider all those other companies which employ Woods to sell their products and represent their values.

Like we said, interesting.

Wednesday, as this story picked up more steam, a number of those corporations issued statements saying their relationship with Woods hasn't changed and that's about what you'd expect. This isn't the time to appear to be panicking. This is the time for sober judgment and a display of loyalty.

The Nikes of the world employ thousands for this purpose; thousands who are expert in crisis management, thousands who know how to manipulate the message and the media. They'll ride this out before they assess the damage.

And that's when you'll want to be paying attention.

The business world threw itself at Tiger's feet because he's one of the most extraordinary athletes in the history of our games. This point needs no further amplification here, but the Woods' package is also about more than all those majors. It's about the aura. It's about the mythology. It's also about the presumption he's a pretty-good guy.

Why else would all those companies line up to throw money at Woods? He represented something and while the precise nature of that something wasn't clearly defined, it wasn't a serial adulterer.

There's also a part of you which wonders how all this will affect Woods, the golfer. His ability to concentrate his energies into winning tournaments is legendary but this story is a little more distracting than, say, someone taking his picture in mid-swing.

If he can block it all out — the damage to his reputation, the snide commentary, the sense that people are looking at him differently — he really is of a different breed.

If he can't, you wonder if all those corporations will still find him as attractive.

ewilles@theprovince.com