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Rory to Nike?

Great move by Nike. Rory will never be as big as Tiger, but he could absolutely be the #1 player in the world for a decade. Plus it cleans up their image.

It's an invaluable plus for their equipment and their premium ball if he switches and keeps winning. Blades are blades, and Nike's new putters are fantastic, but the new Titleist 913's versus Nike's wood lineup is a step down - albeit a small one.

I bet he flips the irons immediately and gradually switches the rest like Tiger did, but who knows.
 
DCDeac said:
Great move by Nike. Rory will never be as big as Tiger, but he could absolutely be the #1 player in the world for a decade. Plus it cleans up their image.

It's an invaluable plus for their equipment and their premium ball if he switches and keeps winning. Blades are blades, and Nike's new putters are fantastic, but the new Titleist 913's versus Nike's wood lineup is a step down - albeit a small one.

I bet he flips the irons immediately and gradually switches the rest like Tiger did, but who knows.
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Looks like Rory has made the complete equipment switch minus the putter. The method is okay, but it's no scotty.
http://www.golfcentraldaily.com/2013/01/exclusive-pics-whats-in-rory-mcilroys.html?utm_campaign=GolfCentralDaily&utm_content=Golf&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
 
Hogie said:
That is not great. That is the opposite of great. I searched for this thread specifically to talk about how awful that commercial is. Actually, it's beyond awful. I can't believe that came from Nike.
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That commercial is awesome.

BacktoBack said:
Or not. He's already back to the Scotty Cameron.
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DeacsPop said:
Ha; that didn't take long.
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Tiger says he went back and forth when he first tried that putter too. Rory also said Florida greens, where he tested it are faster and greener, where the putter works better. Dubai probably wasn't as fast or as green(or so he says). Will probably use Nike putter in Masters, US Open, and PGA.
 
Liquid Karma said:
This is really all that needs to be said right now. Growth in Asia is the main vehicle for making money in golf in the next decade, and Tiger has a tremendous advantage in marketability there right now. Take yesterday's exhibition match for example. Tiger got twice the appearance fee that McIlroy did. Tiger still moves the needle for viewers and consumers in a way that McIlroy doesn't.

And domestically, Tiger has a much greater hold on the demographic that actually spends money on golf: middle aged men.
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Tiger's appearance fees at Dubai would be a career for most pros.
 
Rory is pretty huge in Asia and has a longer shelf life than El Tigre. Rory won't duplicate 2012 with his shit Nike equipment.
 
As a Rory fan that's what I'm afraid of CP. I keep recalling a comment by Phil years ago when he said "Tiger is the only one good enough to overcome his equipment". As a semi serious amateur golfer I can promise you don't see much Nike gear in high level amateur bags....
 
gusmcrae said:
As a Rory fan that's what I'm afraid of CP. I keep recalling a comment by Phil years ago when he said "Tiger is the only one good enough to overcome his equipment". As a semi serious amateur golfer I can promise you don't see much Nike gear in high level amateur bags....
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I don't think what Rory has an amateur can get. Aren't they all prototypes and stuff? Remember when Tiger first joined Nike, he basically used his same irons with a Nike logo on them.
 
Rory will adapt to his putter, irons and wedges quickly but the woods are a whole other story. Nike woods are terrible, total trash. Name a player who improved after incorporating Nike woods. Rory's biggest advantage is he can bomb it off the tee and hit his long irons a mile in the air giving him more eagle chances than anyone else. His putting is erratic, his strokes gained against field putting stats are mediocre. But he's a great momentum player. When he gets hot he's on a whole other level than anyone. I think he wins twice this year with no majors. Tiger won't win a major either.
 
Ball, Driver, putter. Not sure what order, but to me those are the biggest issues.. Not a marketing expert but I wonder if it could actually backfire on Nike if Rors struggles? Every cut he misses will lead to these questions and remember while he is the best player on the planet right now he is more Phil Mickelson than 2000 Tiger when it comes to consistency..
 
Some real ignorance going on in this thread. These guys get unlimited resources and dedicated designers to build clubs to their exact specifications. When you get into tour issued equipment it's a completely different world.

Nike's blades have been some of the best in the business for a long while now - hiring Tom Stites saw to that at the outset. I've never been a big fan of their retail line, but then again Taylormade's retail line is pretty mediocre as well until you get to the tour preferred stuff and people eat that shit up because of the advertising rush.

Reports are that Rory's ball speed is gone up to over 180 with the new Nike driver by the way.
 
DCDeac said:
Some real ignorance going on in this thread. These guys get unlimited resources and dedicated designers to build clubs to their exact specifications. When you get into tour issued equipment it's a completely different world.

Nike's blades have been some of the best in the business for a long while now - hiring Tom Stites saw to that at the outset. I've never been a big fan of their retail line, but then again Taylormade's retail line is pretty mediocre as well until you get to the tour preferred stuff and people eat that shit up because of the advertising rush.

Reports are that Rory's ball speed is gone up to over 180 with the new Nike driver by the way.
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That sounds nice and I get the point you are making but if your specific brand (in this case Nike) hasn't produced a certain technology then they can't just magically add it to their product. I happen to really like the RocketBallz hybrids. Nike can't just make a club like that with the slit out the bottom and have the same results as Taylor Made. Sure they can add weight here or there and change bounce and make the club more or less upright, but they can't completely add new technology to a club that their designers have never used before. A lot of the differences are proprietary. To act like there is no difference in what clubs a tour player signs on with is silly.
 
BacktoBack said:
That sounds nice and I get the point you are making but if your specific brand (in this case Nike) hasn't produced a certain technology then they can't just magically add it to their product. I happen to really like the RocketBallz hybrids. Nike can't just make a club like that with the slit out the bottom and have the same results as Taylor Made. Sure they can add weight here or there and change bounce and make the club more or less upright, but they can't completely add new technology to a club that their designers have never used before. A lot of the differences are proprietary. To act like there is no difference in what clubs a tour player signs on with is silly.
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That's funny, because the RocketBallz design is exactly what you're describing - a pure ripoff of the Adams slot design which was simply added as a new technology their designers had never used before. And Nike in fact copied it before TM did with their compression channel.

Once they limited COR the driver game became all about the shaft and the head is about dispersion. OEM's don't control the shaft choices, and that's where the past decade of gains have really come from outside of the ball. If you really believe that guys playing Nike or Cleveland or Adams equipment win in spite of "inferior" stuff you're just swallowing the marketing or the comments from guys who get paid millions to play a competitor's brand. It's a simple equation - TM dwarfs all other companies in Driver payouts per tournament - so TM leads in drivers. Titleist is all about the Pro V1 and clubs are secondary - so they dominate ball numbers and trail in clubs. You might notice that when guys drop off sponsorships a lot of Ping stuff sneaks into their bags...
 
DCDeac said:
That's funny, because the RocketBallz design is exactly what you're describing - a pure ripoff of the Adams slot design which was simply added as a new technology their designers had never used before. And Nike in fact copied it before TM did with their compression channel.

Once they limited COR the driver game became all about the shaft and the head is about dispersion. OEM's don't control the shaft choices, and that's where the past decade of gains have really come from outside of the ball. If you really believe that guys playing Nike or Cleveland or Adams equipment win in spite of "inferior" stuff you're just swallowing the marketing or the comments from guys who get paid millions to play a competitor's brand. It's a simple equation - TM dwarfs all other companies in Driver payouts per tournament - so TM leads in drivers. Titleist is all about the Pro V1 and clubs are secondary - so they dominate ball numbers and trail in clubs. You might notice that when guys drop off sponsorships a lot of Ping stuff sneaks into their bags...
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I understand a huge amount of this is marketing. And I don't think I ever said they win in spite of inferior stuff. I am pointing out that some of the design elements for each company are proprietary and can't be transitioned to another club maker that easily. But your points about shaft changes and marketing are certainly valid.
 
BacktoBack said:
I understand a huge amount of this is marketing. And I don't think I ever said they win in spite of inferior stuff. I am pointing out that some of the design elements for each company are proprietary and can't be transitioned to another club maker that easily. But your points about shaft changes and marketing are certainly valid.
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I get what you're saying, but the design elements just aren't that important to professional golfers. As I mentioned - the speed slot thing is from Adams and is very old. TM just threw marketing at it and suddenly people like you (no offense) think the rocketballz stuff is new technology when it's not. Most of the tech right now is for amateurs - the loft/lie changes on the fly have been around forever for pros - VJ was bending his driver open 4 degrees a decade ago. Same with adding/removing weight to the head, it was just hotmelt instead of screws. Square drivers, cavity backed, multi-compound heads, etc - none of it has improved a well struck shot since they locked down the COR. It's not like Low spin/high trajectory is a new idea, it's just being advertised as such.

If you compare the "innovations" between Ping, Taylormade, Titleist, Callaway, Nike, Adams, and Cleveland right now - I'd like to hear who has "proprietary technology" that actually matters to a pro. Because pretty much all the pros bounce around between equipment companies at different points in their careers, and there's no way they'd do that if anyone gave them an actual advantage or disadvantage (minus the guys pulling down Rory money).

I'm certainly not arguing that flipping your entire bag to a new manufacturer won't have a negative affect for a while - but it's usually just because you've messed with what was working and these guys are extremely meticulous in their equipment setups. It'll take a while for Rory to get dialed in, and when you're working on your equipment you're not working on your game as much, but after a few months my guess is he'll be back to normal.
 
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