Golfers scattered through most powerful business athletes

When you think of powerful athletes in the business world, Steve Stricker probably doesn’t spring to mind.

But there is Stricker’s name at No. 100 on the Bloomberg/BusinessWeek Power 100 list of the most powerful athletes. Stricker ranks just below Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton.

In all, eight golfers are on the list, and the surprise is that the top golfer is not Tiger Woods. It’s been a tough couple of years for Woods in the business world, so he has slipped to 12th overall on the list, one spot behind the top golfers, Luke Donald. Tiger is still one spot ahead of Kobe Bryant.

Other golfers on the list include Phil Mickelson at 18, Lee Westwood at 19, Rory McIlroy at 21, Martin Kaymer at 71, Adam Scott at 84 and Stricker. McIlroy, by the way, is 19 spots higher on the list than his girlfriend, tennis star Caroline Wozniacki.

With Woods falling, it’s kind of amazing to see this list without a single golfer in the top 10. Golfers from the dawn of Arnold palmer have traditionally been very high on such lists.

No. 1 is football’s Drew Brees, followed by Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Shaquille O’Neal, Shaun White, Novak Djokovic and football’s Calvin Johnson.

The list is based on a formula that include 50 percent on-field performance and 50 percent “off-field” measurements.