Is Tiger Woods about to lose his biggest sponsor?
Tiger Woods has been playing golf professionally for 27 years now, and he’s had his fair share of ups and downs in both his personal and professional life.
I’m reminded of that famous song by The Byrds called “Turn! Turn! Turn!”.
There’s a great lyric in the song that goes:
“To everything turn, turn, turn
There is a season turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under Heaven
A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep”
Those lyrics pretty much sums up Tiger Woods’ career.
Bear with me.
When Tiger Woods went pro in 1996 he signed a 5 year deal with Nike worth $40 million dollars all at the ripe age of 20.
The same year Nike signed Tiger Woods they launched two brands of golf shoes associated with Tiger Woods called the Air Zoom TW and the Air Zoom Sport TW.
Now at the age of 47 years old Tiger Woods’ most recent deal with Nike is a 10 year contract for $200 Million dollars with a capital M!
Over that time it is estimated that Nike paid Tiger Woods somewhere between $350 to $400 million dollars.
Throughout his career Tiger Woods has won some pretty impressive awards and achievements including:
- Won 82 official PGA Tour events
- Won 15 Majors
- He’s amassed the most career earnings of any player in PGA Tour history
- He’s the only player to have won all 4 professional major championships in a row in the 2000–2001 seasons. This feat even became known as the “Tiger Slam”.
- He’s been the PGA Player of the Year a record 11 times.
- He’s been the PGA Tour Player of the Year a record eleven times.
- He’s been the PGA Tour Money Leader a record ten times.
- He’s been the Vardon Trophy winner a record nine times.
- And he’s been the recipient of the Byron Nelson Award a record nine times.
I could actually go on, and on, and on, but that’s not what I wanted to talk about today.
Back to his contract with Nike.
All things are pointing toward Nike closing down their Golf division, and with that they would be ending their sponsorship deals with Tiger Woods, along with a host of other players including Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Brook Koepka.
But why is Nike shutting down their Golf division if they have a star like Tiger Woods that they are sponsoring?
Well, the answer has to do with both economics and aging. You see, Nike’s Golf division hasn’t been doing too well for years. In 2016 Nike stopped producing golf equipment, and Tiger Woods was forced to switch to TaylorMade clubs and Bridgestone balls as a result.
Nike’s sales of Golf products stopped growing in 2016, and they had their worst sales year since they got into the Golf industry in 2011. Around that same time Tiger Woods was in a rut. He hadn’t played Golf professionally in over a year around that time, and other players on Nike’s roster like Rory McIlroy weren’t doing too hot either.
Things just weren’t going Nike’s way.
And Tiger Woods’ personal and professional life weren’t what they once were. He got divorced in August of 2010 after a tumultuous end to their relationship that I won’t even get into here except to say that when an athlete or public figure with a squeaky clean reputation gets caught having a series of extramarital affairs, then loses a bunch of their blue-chip corporate sponsors, and their significant other divorces them, it tends to have a negative effect on their public image, financial contracts, and quality of their playing.
So that brings us to December of 2023. Tiger Wood’s contract with Nike, that he signed in 2013 for a rumored $200 Million dollars, is set to expire. Most endorsement deals run on a calendar year from January 1 to December 31, which means that in all likelihood Tiger Woods’ contract with Nike was set to expire at the end of 2023.
In December Tiger Woods was spotted wearing Nike clothes, and in an interview he was asked to clarify his current relationship with Nike, and he said “I’m still wearing their product” and just left it at that.
So yea, that sounds like someone that not only doesn’t want to answer the question, but also doesn’t want to do anything to jeopardize his current contract or any hope of it being extended.
So what could happen if Nike doesn’t renew their endorsement deal with Tiger Woods?
Well, it’s probably safe to say another sports brand would be happy to take Nike’s place.
I imagine brands like TaylorMade, Bridgestone, Titleist, and Adidas would be happy to slide a big 10 year, 9-figure contract over to Tiger Woods, but it’s also just as likely that brands may want to play it cautiously. Tiger Woods hasn’t exactly been at the top of his game lately (pun intended). And while he’s had some successes both on and off the green, he’s nothing compared to his old self when he was crushing it at the Masters each year.
Just like those famous lyrics sing “To everything turn, turn, turn” it’s now Tiger Woods turn to choose the next steps in his career.
