After a 10-year partnership, Tiger Woods and American Express have parted ways. Woods' second of two five year deals ended recently. Woods and AMEX decided not to sign another deal, thus ending the partnership.

American Express will still be very much involved with golf though, as the company signed a deal with the PGA of America. Amex vice president Rich Lehrfeld told the AP that while the relationship with Woods was strong, the company's marketing strategy has shifted to become even more geared toward consumers.

"He brought a lot of value to Amex. He's an incredible athlete with an incredible work ethic, and that runs well with what our brand is all about," Lehrfeld said. "Sometimes strategies change. We wanted to move our dollars to build a broader base of consumer experiences."

Woods was very visible in AMEX's ad campaigns and even appeared in a commercial in which he played the role of groundskeeper Carl Spackler in a spoof of the movie "Caddyshack."

"It was a good 10-year run," Mark Steinberg, his agent at IMG, said Friday while following Woods at Firestone.

"I know that sounds like a cop-out," Steinberg said. "But this was one of those deals that had run its course. If they wanted to be more consumer-driver, that might require more of Tiger's time. And it still might not hit the right demographics for them. We talked about doing something smaller, but why downsize?"

What's my take on this? I think American Express blew it big time. They had 10-years invested with the world's greatest athlete endorser and now they decide they want to shift their focus? Come on. Now they'll sponsor the tour and in doing so, I think they'll lose people. With Tiger, their efforts were very targeted. By sponsoring the tour, while they may get a lot more signage at events and such, I think they'll get lost amongst the many PGA sponsors. People identified Tiger with American Express and vice-versa. I think it will be tough for people to identify the PGA Tour with American Express and vice-versa because both entities have so many other partnership deals in place.

As Tiger's sponsor AMEX was able to target a unique audience. And let's face it, its wealthy people and corporations who are using American Express cards. One example of how they used Tiger was at Oakmont, where American Express allowed 82 card members to play the course two months before the U.S. Open, then tag along as Woods played a practice round and explained how he prepared for majors.

That's a one-of-a-kind experience that was incentive for cardmembers. As a PGA Tour sponsor, maybe they'll be able to offer similar incentives, but without Tiger, who is the FACE of golf, I think they're going to miss their mark.

The other thing to remember is that Tiger Woods is going to be playing golf for the next 25-30 years most likely because of the Champions Tour. He's a LONG term investment. American Express got in early on him (10 years ago), so why would they part ways with their tremendous investment now? Pretty short sighted in my opinion......and by the way, I am an American Express card holder, so I am being critical of a company that I personally have been tied to for the past 8 or so years.

I think AMEX should have done everything in their power to keep Woods on as an endorser.

Tiger Woods and his agent Mark Steinberg have companies lining up to sign long term partnership deals with Tiger, so I'm sure AMEX will be easily replaced in Tiger's endorsement portfolio. Will American Express be able to replace Tiger though? That will be interesting to watch.

I'll also be interested to see if a company like Visa tries to swoop in and sign Tiger now. Visa has also been rumored to be wooing NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr.