Blame Nike for Taming Tiger

Nike's Faulty Clubs Hamper Woods' Career By George Burnette Fore!BlackGolfers Co-Editor In Chief

Mizuno was founded 106 years ago in 1906 Titleist was founded 102 years ago in 1910. PING Golf was founded 53 years ago in 1959. Cobra Golf was founded 39 years ago in 1973. Cleveland Golf was founded 33 years ago in 1979. Nike Golf was founded a mere 14 years ago in 1998. I recently made mention of the fact that Tiger, because of his propensity for long, straight and eardrum-popping shots off the tee made popular the term “300 yard drive.” Our first widespread exposure to his rocket launches was the 1997 Masters where he captivated golf fans and non-golf fans alike with his length and accuracy off the tee. Those gargantuan tee shots were courtesy of a stainless steel, 9-degree, deep faced King Cobra driver fitted with a True Temper X-100 steel shaft. The rest of his bag was rounded out with Mizuno MP forged blade irons, Cleveland wedges and a Ping Anser putter. The irons were carried over from his college days. When Tiger turned pro, he had a shoe deal with Nike and a golf ball deal with Titleist but he wanted the freedom to choose whichever clubs performed best for him so he avoided being tethered to a particular club maker. The forged muscle backs actually set him apart from the majority of tour pros at that time. Most pros had graduated to game improvement cavity backs, but Tiger’s swing has rarely needed added help from golf’s technological advances so the blades were right up his alley. In fact Jack Nicklaus proclaimed very early in Tiger’s pro career that he was delighted and relieved to see the young phenom was employing “a nice set of forges.” Tileist then upped the ante with a deliberate and calculated “perfect equipment storm”. They dusted off their old forging presses in an effort to lure Tiger but not before taking the golf world by storm with the ultra-popular and effective 975 Drivers. The combination of a lucrative equipment deal, forged blades whose performance rivaled Mizuno, the extremely long and forgiving 975 driver and the best ball in the business (the Titleist Professional) made it impossible for Tiger to say no. He made the switch to Titleist. Tiger has always preferred an Anser-style putter; so add to the mix rising superstar putter designer, Scotty Cameron’s custom Anser-style putter and Bob Vokey’s Cleveland inspired wedges and Titleist now completes a full blown coup d’etat. In the grand scheme of things, Tiger’s switch was not a stretch. He went from one company who had been making basic forged blades for decades to another. He went from a classic putter and wedge design to something almost identical. And he kept the steel shaft in the new, slightly oversized Titleist titanium driver head. It was all very familiar territory for him. Cobra, PING, Mizuno, Cleveland and Titleist were brands he grew up with. The proof in the pudding was that his success, after switching to Titleist equipment, never waned; in fact, it blossomed. Then along came the entrepreneurial juggernaut, Phil Knight, and his ocean-deep pockets. In no way was Knight going to pass on an opportunity to bring Tiger, who had by this time become an economy unto his own, wholly into the Nike fold. Knight had Tiger’s feet (Tiger has had a Nike shoe contract ever since he turned pro) but he wanted the rest of his body, to boot. Knight didn’t need to perform any venture capital maneuvers to raise the kind of scratch needed to start a golf equipment company from scratch. He just needed a reason and Tiger’s immeasurable popularity and talent provided it. Nike’s foray into golf equipment manufacturing made no bones about the fact that they were catering solely to Tiger and his needs. Instead of trying to appeal to the masses with an investment cast, cavity back iron with lots of offset they came out of the gate with a compromise; the offset was there but in a forged blade rather than another PING clone. If you are scratching your head at the thought of a forged blade with offset, you should be. The die-hard Tiger fanatics never once considered the fact that effective use of a forged blade iron requires a on-plane, grooved swing and considerable swing speed just to get the ball off the ground, let alone onto the green. But it didn’t stop them from plopping down 700 bucks for an opportunity to channel the swashbuckling young Californian who was taking the world by storm. Tiger did, however, put up some resistance to Knight’s desire for him to have an all-Nike bag. He kept his Titleist driver within arms reach until the introduction of the Nike IGNITE driver in 2004 and his Scotty Cameron putter remained in his bag until 2010.

Close examination of his tournament victories before and after his move to Nike clubs doesn’t suggest any drop off as a result of the move, but those of us who follow him closely have noticed a distinct uptick in drives that find the woods and mid to short iron shots that have missed greens. One of Tiger’s rivals and closest competitors, Phil Mickelson, drew the ire of Tiger when, during one of Tiger’s slumps, he offered the following explanation, “He hates that I can fly it past him now. He has a faster swing speed than I do, but he has inferior equipment. Tiger is the only player who is good enough to overcome the equipment he’s stuck with.” Nike shot back. “We question Phil Mickelson’s judgement for his statement regarding Tiger Woods and his equipment. It’s not only laughable, but completely unsupported by the facts.” Nike went on to chronicle Tiger’s success after each equipment change. They noted that he won four straight majors after changing to the Nike golf ball. He won the Masters and the U.S. Open after switching to the driver and he won a WGC event in Ireland immediately after putting the Nike irons in his bag. Upon close examination of his playing record after the switch one could easily conclude that equipment had no effect on his winning or losing. In fact his sharp decline, chronologically, began after that fateful 2009 Thanksgiving night domestic dispute and has continued up until now. Nonetheless, there is still room for Nike equipment detractors to make an unscientific case that a switch back to equipment manufacturers who aren’t engaged in their first rodeo will improve his chances for a return to his previous form and winning ways. For example: what do the following golf pro’s have in common? Check out the list of "athletes" Nike has under golf contracts (past and present). Stewart Cink.Lucas Glover. Michelle Wiel TrevorImmelman.Paul Casey. Anthony Kim. Charl Schwartze.Stephen Ames. They all use Nike equipment and although they have each enjoyed some degree of success, it has all been temporary. Nike has all the resources they need to bring in the best club designers, materials and research facilities but money can’t buy experience which is where Mizuno, Titleist, et. al. have a distinct advantage. They were forging irons when the only golf clubs available were forged blades. They have been getting feedback from the best golfers in the world since before World War II and using that feedback to make improvements. They’ve been at the forefront of almost every phase of golf equipment evolution. Nike can’t lay claim to this kind of legacy. You cannot ignore Nike’s success as a newcomer in the sport or the fact that Tiger is an aging 36-year old, 15-year veteran on tour (which is an eternity for a Football, Baseball, Basketball, Ice Hockey or Tennis player), I believe a return to an equipment manufacturer who has been there, done that and garnered trophy cases full of very old and very new trophies, would only improve Tiger’s prospects for a return to glory.