Tiger Woods: Will He and Mark Steinberg Follow Arnold Palmer and Mark McCormack?

Mark Steinberg, head of IMG's golf division and Tiger Woods' agent for the past 12 years, has officially parted ways with IMG after contract negotiations broke down on Tuesday evening.

Woods has been with IMG in an official capacity since turning professional in 1996 but has been unofficially linked to IMG since his father, Earl, was paid a yearly salary rumored to be in the six-figure range to serve as a "junior golf scout" for IMG while Woods was still an amateur.

Aside from being the catalyst behind scores of endorsement deals that have netted Woods an obscene amount of money over the past 12 years (Forbes estimates that Woods has earned more than $1 billion in his career), Steinberg is also one of Woods' closest friends and probably one of the few men in this world that Woods actually trusts.

Although it's unlikely that Steinberg had a Jerry Maguire-style meltdown and began frantically hitting the phones at IMG's Cleveland headquarters while yelling, "Show me the money!", the ultimate question is the same—who's coming with me?

Will Woods stay with IMG, or will he stick with Steinberg?

In the over 150-year history of professional golf, no single generation has earned nearly as much money from endorsement deals as this current generation, and Woods and Steinberg have been leading the charge in this arena for more than a decade.

Say what you will about the handling of Woods' 2009 scandal, and believe what you will about whether or not Steinberg was aware of Woods' infidelities. The fact of the matter is that Steinberg has taken a golfer—golf being a sport that many still do not consider to be mainstream—and turned him into the wealthiest athlete of all time.

Peyton Manning, LeBron James, Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter and even Michael Jordan earn peanuts when compared to what Woods was raking in during his prime and what he is still raking in today.

Although the world of sports management and marketing is far different today than it was in the 1960s, one cannot help but speculate that any potential future between Woods and Steinberg might closely resemble a partnership formed between golf's last true mega-star and his agent back in the 1960s.

Arnold Palmer became the first client of an ambitious young sports agent named Mark McCormack in 1960.

Within a very short amount of time, as Palmer's fame and bank account grew exponentially under McCormack's guidance, other top golfers began to take notice, and McCormack wasn't about to let this opportunity to expand his sports management business pass him by. With Palmer's blessing and an agreement that involved nothing more than a handshake, the two men formed IMG, with McCormack running the business and Palmer serving as a silent partner.

Over the next 50 years, IMG evolved into the largest sports and entertainment management company in the world; McCormack became incredibly wealthy, and Palmer himself reaped the financial benefits from his ownership stake in IMG.

Although any future partnership between Woods and Steinberg is unlikely to be secured with a simple handshake, perhaps an agreement similar to the Palmer-McCormack deal could be in the cards for Woods and Steinberg.

Will we see the formation of SMG (Steinberg Sports Management) with Woods serving as a financial backer and silent partner in the coming weeks and months?

Quite possibly.

As the old saying goes—with great change comes great opportunity.

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