McIlroy signs with TaylorMade

[nevets88]

Well, the tweet's right below, all clubs, ball and bag. I don't know if he's been testing TM recently, so maybe it's already common knowledge that he was going to switch, I just remember the last time seeing him play it was w/Callaways?

Update - here's a lot more info: 

http://www.pgatour.com/equipmentreport/2017/05/09/rory-mcilroy-taylormade-equipment-players-championship.html

 

[TN94z]

300 million over 10 years, I think I read?  Not a bad deal

[NCGolfer]

54 minutes ago, nevets88 said:

 I just remember the last time seeing him play it was w/Callaways?

You're not crazy.  He was playing with he Epic sub zero driver and I also remember him toying around with the Apex irons as well.  I guess he's finally settled on a brand.

This doesn't affect his 10 year deal with Nike for apparel though.

2 minutes ago, TN94z said:

300 million over 10 years, I think I read?  Not a bad deal

Looks like it's $100M over next 10 years.  It's $300M if you add in the Nike deal.

That's some serious coin.  

[TN94z]

3 minutes ago, NCGolfer said:

Looks like it's $100M over next 10 years.  It's $300M if you add in the Nike deal.

That's some serious coin.  

That makes sense. I read it quickly on my phone at lunch. For sure some serious coin!

[Wally Fairway]

I'd better look to see if I picked him for my fantasy team, don't like to have guys who are switching gear - even if he is one of the top players in the world

[skydog]

1 hour ago, Wally Fairway said:

I'd better look to see if I picked him for my fantasy team, don't like to have guys who are switching gear - even if he is one of the top players in the world

Yep...granted the last time he switched to the worst club maker in the game (IMO) but in 2013 he went T25, T41, CUT in the three majors following his change.

With the amount of talent he has he should have been able to tin cup-it with a shovel and a baseball bat and done better than that.

Edited May 9, 2017 by skydog

[David in FL]

6 hours ago, NCGolfer said:

You're not crazy.  He was playing with he Epic sub zero driver and I also remember him toying around with the Apex irons as well.  I guess he's finally settled on a brand.

This doesn't affect his 10 year deal with Nike for apparel though.

Looks like it's $100M over next 10 years.  It's $300M if you add in the Nike deal.

That's some serious coin.  

Hell, they could've had me for half that!  

[ZappyAd]

It couldn't be TM article without a distance gain - 'Rory picks up 10 yards on his 6 iron by moving to TM'.  

Hope they didn't just give him a 5 iron with the gap on the 5 scratched closed to make it look like a 6

[JetFan1983]

18 hours ago, Wally Fairway said:

I'd better look to see if I picked him for my fantasy team, don't like to have guys who are switching gear - even if he is one of the top players in the world

Good point. When you consider how much he struggled with the new equipment in 2013, logic dictates he won't win this week. He also just got married. He played by far the best golf of his career after he broke it off with Carolina Wozniacki. Combine these things together, and he in theory should play poorly this week haha.

On the counter-intuitive side of things however, marriage can really settle a person down and get them in a good place, so he could end up playing really well too. I know he'll probably be lower owned on Draftkings because of the equipment change, so that reason alone is grounds for using him.

I'll probably be avoiding him though. Bombers are neutralized at TPC Sawgrass because it's much more about placing it to a certain area of the fairway than just gripping it and ripping it. The fairways are too narrow at 300+ to have driver in your hands as much as a player like Rory would want to.

Fun to think about though for sure.

[Divotmaker77]

Nice to see a company who is financially struggling and for sale have all this money to pay out to Rory, Tiger, etc.   

Not a hater of any brand, but these guys are at a level where I highly doubt putting an Epic Driver or an M2 in Rory's hand is going to greatly change his performance.  Unless TM invents a miracle putter I doubt Rory is going to start winning a bunch more majors and tournaments all of the sudden.  TM was willing to pay him the most cash.  Pure and simple.

[nevets88]

There's a 5W, is that still a popular club with hybrids nowadays?

http://golfweek.com/2017/05/10/rory-mcilroy-close-up-photos-of-his-new-taylormade-gear/

[Champion14]

http://golf.swingbyswing.com/article/rory-mcilroy-signs-taylormade-equipment-mega-deal/?e=DF8B2FF0AB077F624B57949CE05A99C9

 

He talked more about the Taylormade TP5 balls more than the Clubs. He says he even has a 1 iron in the bag for the TPC.  Custom made irons made for him.  Well see if this helps. 

 

[Single Length Irons Guy]

22 hours ago, JetFan1983 said:

Good point. When you consider how much he struggled with the new equipment in 2013, logic dictates he won't win this week. He also just got married. He played by far the best golf of his career after he broke it off with Carolina Wozniacki. Combine these things together, and he in theory should play poorly this week haha.

On the counter-intuitive side of things however, marriage can really settle a person down and get them in a good place, so he could end up playing really well too. I know he'll probably be lower owned on Draftkings because of the equipment change, so that reason alone is grounds for using him.

I'll probably be avoiding him though. Bombers are neutralized at TPC Sawgrass because it's much more about placing it to a certain area of the fairway than just gripping it and ripping it. The fairways are too narrow at 300+ to have driver in your hands as much as a player like Rory would want to.

Fun to think about though for sure.

Yeah, he seemed to play better when he was single and had lots of time to practice -- I remember an interview around that time after he won a tournament that he'd been practicing all the time since he didn't have anything else to do.

Newly married + $300 million over the next 10 years = less practicing

Less practicing + new clubs = less winning 

[skydog]

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/19351857/adidas-sells-golf-businesses-taylormade-adams-golf-ashworth-425-million

This sale price and the drop in the brand's revenue might be the most damning piece of evidence I've seen in support of the 'golf is dying' narrative. $1.7B in revenue in 2012 down to <$500M in 2016?? How the heck does that happen?? And how is a brand that is bringing in that (relatively) little amount of money, think it's a good idea to pay a wildly inconsistent golfer this much money over the next 10 years?

[Single Length Irons Guy]

4 minutes ago, skydog said:

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/19351857/adidas-sells-golf-businesses-taylormade-adams-golf-ashworth-425-million

This sale price and the drop in the brand's revenue might be the most damning piece of evidence I've seen in support of the 'golf is dying' narrative. $1.7B in revenue in 2012 down to <$500M in 2016?? How the heck does that happen?? And how is a brand that is bringing in that (relatively) little amount of money, think it's a good idea to pay a wildly inconsistent golfer this much money over the next 10 years?

I believe that it's called a "hail mary"

[nevets88]

Oh reddit, you so funny

[WUTiger]

Quote

Roughly 24 hours after TaylorMade Golf unveiled Rory McIlroy as its newest staffer, parent company Adidas announced it had reached a definitive agreement to sell TaylorMade, Adams Golf and Ashworth to KPS Capital Partners, LP for a total consideration of $425 million.

For full story, see... Adidas sells Taylormade

CBS Sports video: Rory signs with TM

Golf Channel interview on TaylorMade sale: Golf Central Blog: Matt Adams

Edited May 11, 2017 by WUTiger

[WUTiger]

5 hours ago, skydog said:

This sale price and the drop in the brand's (TM) revenue might be the most damning piece of evidence I've seen in support of the 'golf is dying' narrative. $1.7B in revenue in 2012 down to <$500M in 2016?? How the heck does that happen??

Two converging trends got TM in trouble.

1. Arms race with Callaway. About 2012, TM and Callaway got into a contest for churning out new equipment. This really busted the golf-OEM tradition of a two-year life cycle for most club models. It proved to be a drain on the net profits of both, and upset everyday golfers (see below).
2. 2014 singes Adidas (and TM). Adidas and its TM division both had bad years. Adidas made a major push on World Cup soccer (er, futbol ) and fell well short of sales projections. Likewise, TM had a major push on even newer 2014 club models on the heels of summer 2013 new models. But TM had production and shipping problems and missed supplying a lot of the early spring golf sales. This, plus golfer resentment over the fact that the summer driver had dropped in value by 50%, caused a financial and PR hit on the TM division.

(Product reps say Callaway has since gone to more of a pull product release plan. It waits until a model pretty well sells out before releasing a subsequent replacement model.) 

Edited May 11, 2017 by WUTiger