Jan 12 Tiger Nike Deal

Tiger Woods on his new deal with Nike, square drivers, rocket scientists… and 9-woods

Can you talk about how your relationship with Nike has evolved from ’96 to now?
It’s very interesting, because we were not really in the golf business. Now we are a leader in the golf industry. We did not have any hard goods at all and now we have clubs and balls. That’s totally changed. Going from basically a person who is just happy to be a part of the Nike company, to now helping out as much as I possibly can.

Are you going to put that thing in your bag next year?
Sumo or Sumo2?

The one that makes the weird noise?
Like KJ is playing? I’ve tried it and I do hit it further but launching it a little too high. I don’t quite penetrate enough, the ones they have given me to try. That’s what this off-season is for… to try to dial it in.

Just curious as you go into next year, what’s the weakest part of your game do you think?
Probably driving. Probably my short game is not as consistent as I would like it to be. And certainly my putting is not as consistent as I would like it to be.

And in regards to the Nike driver you talked about earlier, you said you’re launching it a little bit higher and it’s not quite dialed in for you yet. Nike and Callaway, they have come out with the square drivers, Titleist has one that’s almost shaped like a triangle. Can you comment in general about the new driver technology and the new orthodox look that many of the other companies are getting involved with now?
Well, they are actually going and just using pure physics. It’s not about a classic shape. The classic shape, it’s classic to us as players, but if you’re a rocket scientist and a physicist, you wouldn’t design the drivers we’ve been playing. That’s probably the biggest difference. The ball, if you want to hit the ball straight and launch it consistently at a certain angle with the least amount of spin, well, that’s not going to be the drivers that are shaped what we’ve been playing. You look at all the different innovations we’ve seen in just the shortest club we have in our bag is our putter, just how we can actually produce more of an efficient roll by going through something that’s not a classical shape. So that’s obviously changed the game quite dramatic and then obviously now with these drivers, it’s doing the same thing.

In the last five years or so, we’ve seen a lot of I guess explosion really of utility, hybrid types of clubs, even on the Tour players teeing off with them from time to time. I’m curious if you’ve experimented with any of the hybrid technology and why you have or have not put it into your bag?
Why I haven’t put it in my bag? I think I’m still strong enough to hit a 3-iron in the air.

No, the game has changed and you’re right, a lot of it has to do with the golf ball. A lot of it, it launches higher, yes, but it produces a lot less spin. So in order it get the ball in the air, you’ve got to have spin. You’ve got to have lift and that’s changed. You know, with the opportunity to produce less spin, most amateurs cannot get a 3- or 4-iron up in the air. That’s one of the reasons why I changed to 5-wood instead of a 2-iron is because the balls just are not quite lifting as high. If I went back to my old golf ball, the balls I used to play, even a few years ago, I would hit them higher.

But the balls nowadays, we’ve sacrificed spin for distance and that’s kind of the nature of the game is trying to hit the ball, the game has been pushed to go further and further and because of that, anything that has less spin launches higher and obviously it’s going to carry further and roll further and that’s kind of where the game is headed.

Have you even tinkered at all with the hybrid or is it something you wouldn’t even bother with?
I’ve certainly tried like anybody just because that might improve my game. I actually had a hard time keeping the ball down. For me and playing in cross-winds, you know, I’d like to flatten my shot out. But the hybrid, I wasn’t able to do it consistently, so I guess as I get older, every ten years, I’ll put in a new wood. (Laughter) 40 is a 7-wood and 50 is a 9-wood.