World No. 1 Rory McIlroy will shortly announce to the world he will be using Nike equipment from the start of the 2013 season.
Joining McIlroy in switching to the ‘swoosh’ will be Kyle Stanley, Gary Woodland, Bill Haas and exciting young Korean Seung-yul Noh.
Tiger Woods signed on with Nike in turning pro in September 1996 and then in 2000 made another big change in changing golf balls.
Rory McIlroy tees off in front of a giant picture of Nike footwear during the recent Duel at Lake Jinsha. (Photo – Jenny Matthews/www.golffile.ie)
And while many observers, including McIlroy’s long-time coach Michael Bannon, sees no real concern in McIlroy’s change from Titleist to Nike, Woods believes a successful switch will all hinge on getting the 23-year old’s pre-season correct.
“Any time you make a change in equipment, it’s certainly a big deal,” said Woods.
“I think it’s about how you go at it. Going through the testing process, you know, trying to get the right shaft and the club head, plus ball, you know, it’s a challenge, and there’s a lot of hitting of golf balls or a lot of testing, a lot of days out there spending by yourself testing.
“But when you get it right, it’s pretty good. I remember for me in 2000 it turned out pretty good with that ball change. I went through just a huge process to get to that point.
“It was very time‑consuming, but when things go right and you test properly and you find equipment that’s better than what you were playing, then you can do some pretty neat things on the golf course.
“But it’s going through that process sometimes, it’s tiring quite frankly because it takes a long time, but as I said, it’s worth it in the end if you get it right, and over the course of my career I haven’t put anything in my bag unless I knew it was already better.
“That’s just because of all the testing I’ve done prior to that.”
McIlroy will start testing seriously on January 7th at the Els Club in Dubai ahead of his first event 10 days later where he meets Woods in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
