Rory McIlroy is now Nike

Rory McIlroy is the world’s number one golfer. Previously, prior to about three weeks ago, Rory’s main sponsors were Titleist and Oakley. He was very happy at these companies until Nike came up to him and offered him a new deal. Nike is most famously known for sponsoring Tiger Woods, one of the greats of the game. Nike offered McIlroy a 250 million dollar sponsorship. Rory obviously took this 250 million dollar deal and is now signed on with Nike. "I've always associated Nike with the best," McIlroy said at the announcement. "Growing up, whether it was golf, tennis, football, the best athletes were with Nike. I've watched Tiger Woods make history with Nike, and Roger Federer, and Rafael Nadal. Now I want to create my own history with Nike. Nike is a company and a brand that really resonates with me. It's young. It's athletic. It's innovative. They are committed to being the best." This deal was signed to last 10 years and, as I said, is in the ball park of around 200 to 250 million dollars. Rory made his Nike debut at the Abu Dubai Open overseas and he didn’t play very well. He missed the cut and in the middle of one of his rounds, Rory switched back to his Titleist putter. After the round, Rory said that he didn’t like the weight of the putter and that it threw him off his game. Nike didn’t have any comments on this story. My take on this story is that if Rory remains to be unhappy with this new switch over to Nike then he should trade back and see if he can make a new deal with Titleist once more. I wish that professional sports weren’t all about the money. It should be about what the players feel comfortable with and what they feel makes them win the most tournaments. When the money starts to manipulate the players, they begin to lose focus and in turn, lose reputation. What do you think would be the ideal way for players to make money in sports? What do you think they should do about their equipment changes? Should they be frequent? What impact does pop culture have on sports? Leave your comments below.

 

Here is a link to the story: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2013/01/14/rory-mcilroy-tiger-woods-nike-golf/1832579/