Tiger Woods starts the next chapter of his career with 'TGR' business enterprise

Woods already has a plan in motion for when he finally decides to hang up his spikes

The next chapter of Tiger Woods' life has officially begun. Not that the previous one is over or that this new one hadn't already been on going for years, but Tiger made it official recently by giving a name to the company he has started and will launch him into the next 20-30 years of his life: TGR.

"Today marks an exciting moment for me," Woods wrote on his website. "As I work toward returning to the sport I love, I'm also taking the next step in what I like to call Chapter 2: my evolution as a competitor off the course. That next step -- and my next chapter -- is TGR. I've spent nearly two years developing TGR with my team. And this is what we are about: the pursuit of excellence beyond all limits."

Woods announced the company on Monday, unveiled a new logo, re-branded TigerWoods.com and has plans for the future. TGR (for now) is little more than an umbrella corporation for several businesses Woods already had in existence. Here's FastCompany.

The company gives Woods a unified corporate structure that will serve as a home base for all of his businesses moving forward. Woods is wagering that the move will help define his legacy and keep him in the game long after he's done bringing home golf titles. TGR will now oversee TGR Live, his events company that organizes PGA Tour tournaments; his The Woods restaurant, which opened last year (its name will stay the same); TGR Design, a golf-course firm he launched a decade ago; and his charity, the Tiger Woods Foundation, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month. Several new endeavors are set to be announced over the next few months.

Woods and his team hired an outside company called Sub Rosa whose COO, Jeff Kempler, is helping launch TGR. "If chapter one began when he was first on national television playing golf, now it's Tiger, the enterprise or Tiger, the portfolio activator," Kempler told FastCompany. "He has a really clear mind-set about what his personal brand means."

None of this should be a surprise. Woods has clearly always cared about his Tiger Woods Foundation (which doesn't get enough credit) and has been insistent on designing courses for years. His trajectory has always been that of a Gary Player or Arnold Palmer who dug deep into business ventures long after the last shot was hit and the last putt fell.

What will be interesting now is what this means for Woods' playing career. Is this a sign that it's over, that he's done? Some might see it that way. I don't, necessarily.

Woods is still just 40. He's an old 40, but he's 40. This launch simply coincides with whatever the end of his career might look like. Whether it lasts 10 years or 10 months, this was the smart move as Woods slowly (or quickly) transitions into the next phase.

The other intriguing part that was touched on in that FastCompany article, and something I have been wondering about myself, is equipment. Woods has the cash to purchase an equipment company or start his own. With Nike out of the picture now in terms of clubs and balls, will Woods go that route, or will he sign elsewhere? That is the sort of underrated story in all of this so far.