While he may not be the upstanding individual the public once thought he was, Tiger Woods will most likely be at the top of his game once again as he steps on the greens at Augusta this week.

Brands that look to Tiger for his high caliber performance on the golf course will not be disappointed - his legendary play will surely live longer than his indiscretions. And, after all, that is what brands want - longevity. Because brands should be selecting athletes as endorsers for what they’ve accomplished in their profession, not based on their personal life.

Tiger lost AT&T and Accenture, among others, as his sponsors most likely due to his recently publicized family matter, however I’m not surprised that several consumer package goods brands remain his sponsor.

B2B companies seem to be more on the conservative side and tend to put more emphasis on the values of who they are doing business with.

On the other hand, consumer packaged good brands are selling a product and many of those are performance based. Nike and LVMH’s TAG Heuer, have stuck with Tiger since last year’s mishaps. And Tiger still stands for what these brands are looking for - performance and luxury.

Will some brands have difficulty using him as an endorser in the future? Absolutely. But if a brand is choosing a celebrity endorser for anything other than the reason why he/she achieved celebrity status, these brands should strongly reconsider aligning themselves with ANY endorser.

Conversely, while Tiger may be working on repairing his marriage, De Beers (they sell the giant diamonds), Hallmark and 1-800-flowers.com may now be more relevant brands for him to endorse, I think Tiger will be more selective of the endorsements he makes in the future.

Even over the past few months during his break from professional greens, Tiger has remained a fantastic golfer. He’s been a bad husband, a bad dad and maybe even a bad friend to those that know him best. But really, other than taking a hiatus from the game of golf, we have yet to see it negatively affect his profession. After all, he is a professional golfer and this weekend’s Masters will be the ultimate test of his professionalism…at least for now.

Tiger is an athlete. And history shows that athletes are forgiven their indiscretions as they continue to perform at a professional level. As long as the indiscretion doesn’t directly tarnish the integrity of the game (e.g., Pete Rose), Tiger will most likely be forgiven by the fans over time.  Tiger is not a politician and he’s not a priest - he’s an athlete and an entertainer. And the question isn’t whether he’s done right or wrong. Or whether he will win or lose this weekend. The real question is:  “Were you watching?” And the brands that stuck by him are banking that we will be.