KAPALUA, Hawaii (AP) — The red shirt on Sunday came to identify Tiger Woods.
So did the swoosh.
Woods and Nike were partners from the time he stepped to a podium at the Greater Milwaukee Open in August 1996, a 20-year-old fresh off his unprecedented third straight U.S. Amateur title. With a swoosh on his striped shirt, he gazed at the room and said, “I guess, hello world, huh?”
It all sounded so innocent until Nike launched its “Hello, World” campaign a few days later. That wasn’t put together overnight, but so what? It worked.
Just about everything did when it came to Woods and Nike.
“Amazing run. Great partnership,” said Mark Steinberg, his agent at Excel Sports.
There was some downtime during a commercial shoot in Florida in 1999 when Woods began bouncing a golf ball off his wedge and a producer decided to catch it on camera. The result was a 30-second spot of Woods bouncing the ball while switching hands, going through the legs, behind the back and then popping it up in the air and making solid contact with a baseball swing. Pure magic.
One of the most famous shots in Masters history was his pitch up the slope on the 16th green, back down the slope toward the hole and then the ball comes to a stop — with the swoosh in full view — before dropping for birdie. That wasn’t scripted, of course. It just seemed that way.
Woods had switched to the Nike golf ball in May 2000 and then won the next four majors, the only player in history to hold them all at the same time.
He switched to Nike irons a week before the Ryder Cup in 2002. Asked about the timing of the change, Woods said: “Off the record? Because the majors are over.” Asked for a comment on the record, he thought for a minute, laughed and said, “Because the majors are over.”
And now the partnership is over after 27 years.
Woods has had three regular caddies and two agents during that time. He has had six corporate sponsors on his bag and four swing coaches. He has used three golf balls and and four brands of irons.
What never changed was his relationship with Nike.
“I would have thought without a doubt he would have been a lifer,” Curtis Strange said.
Strange has his own history with Nike Golf. He and Peter Jacobsen wore the swoosh when it was best known for sneakers, particularly the Air Jordan created for Michael Jordan, who remains the one athlete forever linked with Nike.
