Tiger equipment change for Memorial.

[RichF]

Using a 10° driver and back to old Nike Forged Blades :

http://blogs.golf.com/equipment/2009...-memorial.html

[Comeback City]

Cool. Thanks for the heads up...can't imagine Nike's too thrilled with him not using the VR Blades though...but I guess '08 was a good year for Woods.

[RichF]

I always thought he used a 8.5° driver as well...

[DavidFehertysBike]

They seem like rather minute changes. A half degreem in loft probably isnt much difference, and the old nike blades dont seem at all much different than the VR's...

[Cooker]

Seems to be working for him... Maybe he needs to change his putter too, that hurt him yesterday...

[Marinemike]

Woah! A pro isn't using an almost zero lofted driver? Perhaps my friends with 90mph swing speeds should take note and stop complaining how they can hit their 3W longer than their driver.

I'm quite looking forward to watching PGA golf in the next few weeks. I hope Phil and Tiger are both contenders at Bethpage. I want Stricker to rise to the top, too.

[sp33d]

I think nike would rather see him win, than bitch about what clubs hes hitting. He is their star #1 money maker and he hasnt done much all year.

btw pga.com has got the nike 2008 blades on sale for 450 :)

[deronsizemore]

...and he hasnt done much all year.

Hasn't done much? Six events played, five top 10's and one win. That's pretty good if you ask me considering he had knee surgery and didn't swing a club or play competitively for around nine months.

[RCF]

Thanks for the link RichF. It will be iteresting to see how he does today. Maybe he'll have a comment tonight.

[Laxplayer201092]

I think nike would rather see him win, than bitch about what clubs hes hitting. He is their star #1 money maker and

Your right, winning a tournament and a couple top tens isnt much at all...

Seems to be working for him... Maybe he needs to change his putter too, that hurt him yesterday...

Your right, winning 14 majors on one putter means it hasnt been a good stick..

Some of the replys on here i cant decide if they are sarcastic or if you are being serious

[mutadayen]

The driver is one thing to change out as alot of pro's do, but alot of pro's stick with a set of irons that works for them. I guess where i'm going with this is what does it say about Nike's irons when your most prominent athlete decides to go back to older clubs and away from the ones "built specifically for tiger"? Honestly, this doesnt bode well for Nike irons. Their reputation was getting better in my mind, but I think this is a major blow to Nike's overall product line. If he continues to use the old clubs and not the VR, or if say Anthony Kim, Steward Cink, Paul Casey, or Trevor Immelman revert back to older clubs, Nike's image as a clubmaker is doomed.

http://blogs.golf.com/equipment/2009...-memorial.html

In my humble opinion, I think Nike has Tiger because they have the bigger wallets. If money wasnt an issue, I could very see him being a Callaway, TaylorMade, or Mizuno man. My two cents...

[sp33d]

Ok I'm glad the anal-litics are out...

Let me rephrase, compared to previous years in "tiger-terms" he isnt back to his top form.

I'm not trying to take away from his accomplishments this year after having knee surgery. But this is Tiger, "#1 golfer" he works out, and works on his game more in a week than most of us do in a year.

More or less what I was trying to say if you were Nike paying him millions of dollars to play I think you would like him to perform a bit better than he has.

But that doesnt stop sergio from making millions of dollars from TM and Adidas :)

[deronsizemore]

The driver is one thing to change out as alot of pro's do, but alot of pro's stick with a set of irons that works for them. I guess where i'm going with this is what does it say about Nike's irons when your most prominent athlete decides to go back to older clubs and away from the ones "built specifically for tiger"? Honestly, this doesnt bode well for Nike irons. Their reputation was getting better in my mind, but I think this is a major blow to Nike's overall product line. If he continues to use the old clubs and not the VR, or if say Anthony Kim, Steward Cink, Paul Casey, or Trevor Immelman revert back to older clubs, Nike's image as a clubmaker is doomed.

I don't see this really hurting Nike at all. Maybe he just wanted something different to look at for a round or two and he plans to go back to the other irons in a week or so? Plus, it's not like he put down his current irons for a set of Callaways. Yes, then I'd agree, Nike is in trouble. But, he just went back to a previous set of Nike's.

I don't know, I can't see Tiger going to Callaway or TaylorMade, but maybe Mizuno or Titleist?

[mutadayen]

Ya know, I never thought about Titlest as I completely spaced on them for a moment. He use to use a Titlest driver so I think you're right on track there. It's one tournament granted, but I think if he never picks up a VR iron for the rest of the year, that's would be a blow to Nike's golf equipment line and maybe image....

[colin007]

i would have to guess that most of Nikes revenue comes from average hackers. they will never know that tiger switched back, nor will they care.

[deronsizemore]

Ok I'm glad the anal-litics are out...

Sorry for being anal-litic.

You're exactly right, he isn't back to his top form because he just came off surgery and a nine month layoff from even touching a golf club let alone playing in a competitive environment. Yes it's Tiger and yes he's one hell of an athlete and is able to put more time into golf in one week than all of us do in a year, but he's still human and it just takes time to get everything back. Look at Ernie Els who had similar surgery and he's not been the same since he came back. Tiger generally doesn't start being "Tiger-like" until later in the year anyway. He typically plays in 15-20 tournaments per year so him only having played six thus far and he's already off to this good of a start, I'm optimistic we'll see the Tiger of old at some point this year. Hopefully the executives at Nike won't be as quick to place Tiger on the chopping block because he's not won all six tournaments he's played in this year.

[deronsizemore]

Ya know, I never thought about Titlest as I completely spaced on them for a moment. He use to use a Titlest driver so I think you're right on track there. It's one tournament granted, but I think if he never picks up a VR iron for the rest of the year, that's would be a blow to Nike's golf equipment line and maybe image....

Yeah for sure because you know people are going out and buying those irons simply because "it's what Tiger plays with." Of course, they could probably take Tiger's old irons from 08 (that he has in the bag now) make a few changes to make them resemble the new VR's and no one would ever know the difference and they would still sell like hot cakes.

[shankapotamus]

The driver is one thing to change out as alot of pro's do, but alot of pro's stick with a set of irons that works for them. I guess where i'm going with this is what does it say about Nike's irons when your most prominent athlete decides to go back to older clubs and away from the ones "built specifically for tiger"? Honestly, this doesnt bode well for Nike irons. Their reputation was getting better in my mind, but I think this is a major blow to Nike's overall product line. If he continues to use the old clubs and not the VR, or if say Anthony Kim, Steward Cink, Paul Casey, or Trevor Immelman revert back to older clubs, Nike's image as a clubmaker is doomed.

Yeah, because he has won 14 majors with nike, that isn't good enough. And the pro's would be resorting back to older but still Nike clubs. <.<