If that picture to the left doesn’t speak for a look of frustration, then I don’t know what does. It’s not that they’re in trouble, but let’s just say Nike’s new dynamic duo is off to a bad start. After promoting Tiger and Rory leading up to their first tournament together as the brand’s stablemates, things couldn’t have possibly gone worse for Nike. Once both were sent packing before the weekend, questions immediately began piling up.
Now I know there are simply Nike-haters out there. Many people call Nike bullies, say that they make an inferior product or that they charge too much money simply because they can, not because the product is worth it. Those people have got to be laughing their butts off right now. But it’s certainly a bit early to write them off, no?
I think Nike had a couple of ideas in bringing on Rory. More than just signing the current top player as well as what should be considered the future face of the tour, I’m sure they also know that Tiger’s skills and dominance are certainly fading. So now’s the perfect time to transition the face of Nike golf from Tiger to Rory. Tiger put Nike Golf on the map, and now it will be Rory’s job to keep it there. In the meantime, while Tiger is still one of the top players, why not get the most out of both of them while they can? But when both fail to make the cut in their first tournament, one can see how many would begin to question the Nike product, especially when Rory has already supposedly tossed aside the Nike putter and gone back to his old one.
But one tournament is certainly not enough to judge anything. It’s not like either of them hasn’t missed a cut before. And they certainly will miss more. It’s simply the timing and the fact that they both missed the cut in the same tournament. So what do you say we give them a little more time. But if this somehow becomes a pattern, then you can start to say that something is wrong at Nike.
Swing ’til you’re happy!
