By Robert Bicknell

Ever since Nike announced it was quitting the golf equipment business, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have been inundated with free equipment from every manufacturer on the planet. Once these two guys make a choice, that manufacturer’s stock price will skyrocket, even if only for a short time.

Name recognition plays a major role in sales and having Tiger or Rory endorsing the product almost guarantees increased sales, regardless of how poor the product is.

Yes, humans are quite shallow and superficial.

The question is who will pay them the most, because, in all honesty, they can play with anything except Nike equipment because it sucked. Yes, I really dislike Nike golf equipment.

But as I have said before, I think their sport shoes are the best on the planet.

The most obvious choices for these two guys would be either Titleist, TaylorMade or Callaway. Those are the three biggies at the moment. They also have deep enough pockets to pay them what they will ask for putting their name alongside the brand.

But the actual question is, do these brands need Tiger or Rory?

When they were touting the Nike brand, the three big manufacturers didn’t suffer much. Titleist and TaylorMade have quite a few top Tour stars under their respective umbrellas at the moment, and to be fair, neither Tiger or Rory has won anything significant lately.

Callaway, on the other hand might need a little boost. I actually happen to have high regard for Callaway, but they slipped a bit since the days of Big Bertha and this could help get them back in solid with the golfing public

Remember when Big Bertha was the hottest driver on the planet?

No? Oh, so I’m the only one old enough to remember that? HMPH! Yeah, I also remember blades and balatas. Hickory is a little old for me, but I still remember how to do windings on wooden headed drivers. I can also reshape wooden headed drivers and fix brass sole plates. Sheesh.

Titleist might actually be the only one who can afford to shell out big money for Tiger and Rory, but do they actually need to? They have a lot of stars playing their brand right now.

TaylorMade could do it, but as their parent company, Adidas, is try to sell off the golf equipment brand, why would they bother? Hmm, here’s an idea, Tiger and Rory BUYING TaylorMade and creating a new brand from it.

That would be interesting.

What is going to even more interesting is how the million of Pro Shops across the world are going to find ways to unload the current stock they now have. Just imagine what kind of advertisements they will come up with…

“NIKE GOLF SALE…Clubs that suck so bad that even Tiger and Rory couldn’t save the company. 80 per cent off.”

“NIKE GOLF SALE, makes great beginner club sets. Reduced to cost price. Get them now while they last.”

What would be funny is if the guys from “Storage Wars” find a bin loaded with Nike clubs and refuse to bid on it.

Yes, I am merciless, but to be honest, I feel that if Tiger had stayed with Titleist he would have already broken Jack Nicklaus’ record. I cannot comment on Rory because (A) I really don’t know why his game is off; and (B) I really don’t care. He was touted to be the next Tiger Woods and never lived up to the hype.
It’s funny though, how everyone who becomes friends with Tiger seems to fall apart. Maybe there is some black cloud following him around which only strikes people near him or something.

Bottom line is that NIKE is going out of the golf equipment business and many pro shops are going to be stuck with stock they cannot move. This isn’t good for anyone except comedians.

If I had to advise Tiger on what clubs to go with, I’d say – it doesn’t matter with the golf swing he’s got right now. Maybe a tennis racquet would be better. Whoops, sorry, I forgot. He cannot run with those knees. Baseball bat might work. Forget bowling, too much strain on the back.

Well, perhaps ping pong or darts might be in his future because it’s almost certain golf isn’t. VNS