Rory moving to Nike...?

First topic message reminder :

No, not yeat, anyway... But the rumours are now mounting and people are throwing around all sorts of numbers.

http://www.irishgolfdesk.com/news-files/2012/10/18/rory-to-nike-i-hadnt-even-heard-that.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IrishGolfDesk+%28Irish+Golf+Desk%29

This is not the first time I come across this figure in recent weeks... $250,000,000 for 10 years !!!!!

Is he worth it? Does it matter? Anyone knows what kind of deal Tiger had with Nike at his peak and how it compares to this?

Can't say for sure this will happen, but the reality is that his Titleist deal comes to an end at the end of this year, and by January we shall find out for sure...

Didnt Gmac shoot a course record in his 1st round with the new sticks?

I remember racking up 7 birdies in the first round with a new putter. Then we got to know one another

super_realist wrote:

beninho wrote:Who says Nike have got an image problem in golf? What is this based on?

Sounds like Rory is making a great deal, will it make any real difference overall what clubs he plays. Just go with the highest bidder.

They certainly do have an image problem, dowdy, old hat, style-less gear, just look at who they kit out Stewart Cink and Nine Chins Woods. Some of the worst dressed players on tour.

As for whether it makes a difference to the clubs. Ask G Fat, Phil Mick, Ernie, Monty etc how changing clubs takes a period of adjustment.

Where is the evidence to back up what you say about nike?

It seems more likely that market research would show nike to be a very desirable brand.

Desirable by whom Mac? Touche with evidence.
It used to be as a brand absolutely massive in Golf Mac, you don't need statistics to see that they have been usurped from their previous position to where they are now. You just need to play golf and see. Under Armour for example have taken a huge bite out of their market.

Also in terms of innovation and desirable gear they just don't have it anymore, fallen behind the times in technical gear and still in 2008 with their clothing.

Not yet dead, but in serious need of an uplift. Just another average manufacturer, that spend all their money on endorsing people rather than development.

Agreed re: Under Armour, like alot of their kit, not necessarily polo's as I wouldn't call any polo's manufacturer by any of the leading brands as desirable (they all look/feel fairly similar only with different branding), but the outer/over-gear, windbreakers and baselayers produced by UA are quality.

Rumours are growing that Rory has signed with Nike already...

Spoiler:

Sounds like a done deal. Now of course until he wins with nike clubs he will be hounded for making the wrong move.

Got to be honest, a fair proportion of my golf wardrobe is Nike and there is not one garment (shirt or trouser) that I don't feel completely comfortable in. What do I look like in Nike gear... I really couldn't give a crap. If I score well in it, it's available next week, if I have a Poopie round it'll be 3 months before its out the wardrobe again...simple philosophy

Must admit I love Greg Norman golf shirts, and when I do not play well, then it could be a long time before that shirt sees the light of day (I have about 20 shirts, but might need to buy some more very soon)

I have a plum Nike golf shirt which I think is great. Now this worries me. Until I came back to golf, plum was a flavour of jam, now apparently it's a bona fide colour. Where will it end...

So it's official. $200-$250m, advert already shot for the new Nike driver with Woods, and apparently Watney and Stanley have also made the move. Where does this leave Titleist as a club maker? Pretty much finished, it would seem.

SmithersJones wrote:...Where does this leave Titleist as a club maker? Pretty much finished, it would seem.

I guess they don't have any other staffers in their stable?

navyblueshorts wrote:

SmithersJones wrote:...Where does this leave Titleist as a club maker? Pretty much finished, it would seem.

I guess they don't have any other staffers in their stable?

They have, of course. But in terms of attracting new players, or retaining successful ones, it appears the Koreans are even less interested than the Americans were. General consensus seems to be that they're happy to maintain ball sales and will be less competitive in the club market going forward. The desertion of 3 high profile players at once would seem to echo that.

I hope I'm wrong, I've always been a fan of their clubs and indeed my woods and wedges are Titleist.

I've just heard Lionel Messi has signed for Gola, and Cristiano Ronaldo for Tesco Twostripe.

I think the departure of some staffers is unlikely to make a colossal difference (albeit Rory as current world #1 is probably a bit of a profile blow). They simply can't or won't compete in terms of money.

If they can keep the quality (or the impression of quality) in their products I imagine that they'll continue to be held as a "top" marque in the market.

Not sure of the exact nature of the relationship with Titleist but the defections I think they'd struggle most with would be Vokey and Cameron were that to happen. Does anyone know the setup there?

Apart from the money, a move to Nike is a backwards move in my opinion. Truly average clubs and acceptable but very out of date clothing. I suppose McIlroy will at least model it better than Nine Chins or Cink though. Bit like moving from a BMW to a Ford.

super_realist wrote:Apart from the money, a move to Nike is a backwards move in my opinion. Truly average clubs and acceptable but very out of date clothing. I suppose McIlroy will at least model it better than Nine Chins or Cink though. Bit like moving from a BMW to a Ford.

Its not like it takes much to revamp a pair of strides and a t-shirt Super. Hardly the biggest challenge in the world on that front. They will probably bring out a Coco range for younger kids. Giant shoes ?

I wonder if Titleist haved rushed the release of the 913 drivers to get them on tour and in the hands of McIlroy, Watney etc before they defect.

No, but it's very old hat these days. They seem to have stalled and gone backwards in terms of their influence in golf with Woods dwindling popularity.

The real issue is their uninspiring clubs. They make nice blades, but that's it, mind you are anyones blades anything but pretty? Doesn't take much to make a good set as far as I can see.

The swoosh just doesn't really have much cache in the golfing world these days. Lacks exclusivity, just bland bland bland, which is far worse than being a bit risque and bold. The BHS of the golf world (do BHS still exist?)

super_realist wrote:No, but it's very old hat these days. They seem to have stalled and gone backwards in terms of their influence in golf with Woods dwindling popularity.

The real issue is their uninspiring clubs. They make nice blades, but that's it.

The swoosh just doesn't really have much cache in the golfing world these days. Lacks exclusivity, just bland bland bland, which is far worse than being a bit risque and bold. The BHS of the golf world (do BHS still exist?)

So Super, you are suggesting Nike do nothing....but in another thread today you said people had to change with the times and move on. Surely thats what Nike are doing ?

No, I'm not suggesting that they stand still, but they certainly have been lately. Very unusual for a company that size not to be a bit more progressive. Companies like Adidas, their direct competition, haven't hung about and wait to be passed, why have Nike? Too much money on endorsement, not enough in product development.

All companies have dips, its no big deal. They are still huge and he is a massive signing for them so easy to revamp the range. Job done, signing Rory is just the start Im sure.

Has he actually signed?

I take it none of you have seen the twitter & facebook campaigns for their new driver then?

I don't use either.

There's some guff on the nikegolf website about some new driver or something coming early next year (with chins and frizzy hair?).

I think they do product development, and my perception is they are probably sat inbetween Titleist who don't (historically pre Koreans) seem to bring anything new out for ages (909 - 910 - 913) and Taylormade Adidas who bring things out all the time (9.09 - 9.10 and 9.13 this morning!)

Taylormade want to get as much off the consumer as quickly as possible and in the big mass markets such as US / Japan etc people want newer/further/faster every week, Taylormade pander to this. Titleist seem to release something when they have made a development they consider worthwhile (possibly a little bit snooty and maybe elitist).

There will be some top brass in Nike that have made the decision to position their golf branding as it is. Without the numbers we can only speculate whether their chosen method works or not. If the kids buy enough Rory Blades and fuzzy wigged driver covers it's worked, if a lot of top brass get the boot it hasn't!

Novelty head covers. As sad as an adult wearing a football top, especially the "Tiger" ones.

They sell though. Especially to the "yoof" market.

I think its a fantastic deal... for Rory, but Golf I find is just far too much of a niche sport/market for Nike to really get anything out of this. Don't get me wrong they're getting a (...or in some respects "the current") superstar, but I just can't see them starting to shift huge numbers of gear/equipment of the back of signing Rory for a 10 year period, I thinnk their numbers will be minimally better than what they'd ship without him frankly.

raycastleunited wrote:I wonder if Titleist haved rushed the release of the 913 drivers to get them on tour and in the hands of McIlroy, Watney etc before they defect.

I presume Coco can write his own contract (almost) and if he loves the 913s enough, he'll stipulate (or his 'people' will) that he has a contract for maybe 7-8 Nike clubs (i.e. the main irons) but woods, wedges and putters are to come from elsewhere.

are his oakley/jumeriah contracts up too? cant imagine Nike would let him wear that flashly Oakley belt alongside their stuff

It would be like a supermodel smoking a pipe Hendo.
The Oakley stuff is far nicer than the drab Nike stuff. Nike adverts for their golf gear should be accompanied by the Hovis theme.

All this stuff about changing manufacturer being difficult for the pros seems nonsense to me. From what I can gather, as soon as a prototype club is ready it's in the hands of the top players - the 913 went straight into Rory's bag at the same time as all the Titleist players, and just today it seems Casey and Frannie Molinari (that I know of from their tweets) have put the new Nike Covert driver into play in Singapore following its launch on Tuesday. If they can switch a key club like their driver at such short notice then surely a week or two in the off season is more than long enough for a player at that level to get comfortable with a new brand?

Quite a few players might be seen to use such clubs in promotional material, but players like Westwood, Mickelson, Garcia etc have been known to use really old models for many seasons.

Personal preference is one thing, Super, but what I don't buy is the idea that these guys would struggle to adapt to new gear when switching manufacturer.

There's probably a transition period, however that's only part of the story. I've bought clubs before that I could play with, but eventually ending up hating the look and feel of so got rid. Plays a big part in how happy you are with it.

Of course, you've got to like what you're looking down at at address. I think that's a given, and if it is Nike then he'll surely like the look of the blades. Feel of course is a different matter but again, I doubt there'll be anything untoward there. Their woods I don't know much about, but I get the impression they're not up to Titleist standard and it wouldn't surprise me if he kept to the Titleist woods and indeed wedges for a while. As for putter, who knows?

Agreed, THe only thing I think that Nike make that looks half decent are the blades. Their other hardware is ghastly.

Actually the method putters ain't too bad at all (he says trying to reassure himself)

super_realist wrote:There's probably a transition period, however that's only part of the story. I've bought clubs before that I could play with, but eventually ending up hating the look and feel of so got rid. Plays a big part in how happy you are with it.

I think comparing the ease or difficulty with which a club golfer can change equipment with that of a tour pro is a bit flawed. Setting aside the purely physical and mechanical, surely it's their ability not to be effected by such things which elevates them to the top echelon in the first place.

I'm thinking more of the effect on how far different clubs go, ball flight, launch angle, spin rates, shot shaping ability etc.
That's why it might take a bit of getting used to for a pro, hence a transition period, especially so for a pro where the margins between a good shot and an excellent shot are so high.
As amateurs we are probably delighted to hit the green, a pro will be disgusted to hit the wrong part of the green. Small differences in clubs, may make that level of accuracy more difficult to achieve. See what I mean? So changing clubs might be more of an issue for a pro, than it would be for the likes of you and me.

Of course, you can get used to the looks of any clubs if it works for you.

Yep - I see what you mean. But every week the pros are already factoring in huge differences in yardage for any given club due to altitude, temperature and wind. I would imagine a period of time with new equipment to calibrate or baseline it is called for, but given how consistent a pro's swing is, I can't think it would take too long. However, this is all speculation as I'm not a pro either. Will be interesting to see how he gets on, assuming all other variables stay the same.

Precisely, their swings are consistent, but the RESULTS are only consistent if the tools in their hand areact in a similarly consistent way to what they used before
It's bound to take time to get used to, and they already have enough to adjust to with the wind , temperature, altitude as you say.
Must make it difficult to add another unknown variable into the picture. Obviosuly they'll settle in. But it must cause some disruption and possibly a confidence knock on one way or the other.

Ask LOOOOOOoook, he changed to the new Mizunos early this year & after several months reverted to last year's model.

Faldo was on Talksport this afternoon saying it was a very risky move to change clubs. No matter what they do everything feels and reacts differently.

Gotta say I respect Faldo though I feel that the difference between 'top' manufacturer's products these days is less than in Faldo's day.

Faldo was also on the irish version of talksport last night pitching his book. he said that this was a possibilty of happening and its how he felt years ago. he mentioned that he would notice the difference between one set of "identical" clubs and the next.

In contrast to this i saw a video clip from Rory discussing all the clubs in his bag (prob 12 months ago). he was dicsussing his driver and how Titlesit sent him one half an inch longer that intended by accident and he liked the feel of it so kept it in his bag.
I think this is pretty clear evidence that Mcilroy will cope better with the new sticks that Nick did back in the good old days

I think it's an overlooked possibility that a change of clubs isn't always a bad thing. It can be good too, I had my own experience this year when as a player who never used a three wood I tested one, didn't like it then tested same club with a regular shaft and it's so good I took to it straight away and it's now replaced my driver in the bag it is so long and straight.

A change can be good, but it can also be bad, I've got clubs in my "identical" set that I don't like as much as some of the others. Almost imperceptible differences, but noticeable nonetheless. I think the better you are the more you'll notice the difference in a clubs characteristics so a pro must really be able to tell the difference.

On a different note, I found Faldo to be very engaging in the interview I heard. I'd always thought him to be a bell end, circa Ryder Cup, but he's really grown on me.

Me too, Super. Read his autobiography and while I enjoyed it, he came off really badly in it. Now, hearing him doing various interviews and speaking on us golf coverage, he has grown on me also.

At the end of the day Faldo is a complete enigma, he won 6 majors so he clearly had something special. I actually like his forthright opinionated ramblings.
He was however far too self centred to ever be considered a good team player/RC captain You sometimes wonder what could have happened at Valhalla if he had been made to serve a couple of vice captaincies and received some wisdom on team building and not being a self obsessed ar5e beforehand.