Opinion & Analysis

Nike (kind of) passes the torch with new McIlroy/Woods ad

Published

11 years ago

Jan 16, 2013

In January 1993, McDonald’s released an iconic advertisement for their Superbowl submission that featured two of basketball’s greatest athletes in a friendly game of horse, competing for a Big Mac.

It started out with Larry Bird in a gym shooting around. Then Michael Jordan came in to join him for a game of one-on-one, but before he did so he opened up a golden-arch lunch.

First, what the heck is Michael Jordan doing eating McDonald’s before playing basketball and second, what in the heck is he wearing? It looks like he bought a warm-up shirt from a Picasso Showcase of Art souvenir store, but I digress.

Anyways, the always competitive Bird (who is a horrible actor by the way) shows his hunger for food and winning, and challenges Jordan for his Big Mac.

“First one to miss watches the winner eat,” Bird says confidently.

What follows is a crescendo of shotmaking that starts at reasonable and ends up at ridiculous. Each legend says, “Nothing but net,” after describing how it would go through a window, bounce off this and carom off that, hit the floor and drop into the net. Each shot defied physics more than the next, yet it was unbelievably entertaining. Here were two legends hanging out like gym rats competing for a $2 sandwich that they could afford many times over had they sold a fingernail clipping. It was light, it was comical and it gave personality to the athletes and the brand.

Fast forward twenty years to January 14, 2013…the day that the world of golf marketing changed. In what people consider one of the worst kept secrets in sponsorship deals, Nike officially unveiled McIlroy and the swoosh together as one, effectively starting the marriage of one of the most recognizable brands in the world with one of the coveted athlete brands in the world. No one can deny the reach Nike has in the eyes of the consumer, and the expectation is that they can ride their new two-time major champion stallion to unprecedented heights only seen by one of their current and proven commodities, Tiger Woods.

To kick-off the campaign, we were treated to a 60-second glimpse of where Nike sees this brand today and where it will go. Nike has a knack for creating interest and buzz through their advertisement campaigns, and have had an amazing ability to position itself throughout history as a pop culture stalwart using words and pictures as their paintbrush. For a refresher, look back on past campaigns featuring Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, Tiger Woods and absolutely anything with Michael Jordan. Done correctly and with the right personality, the effect could be in the billions of dollars and only stands to make the company and the athlete absurdly wealthy. This new advertisement successfully set the tone for the McIlroy brand while paying due reverence to the established (and extremely valuable) Woods brand.

It starts quietly on a driving range, where McIlroy and Woods are swinging away, both hitting the pin with a precision that is ridiculous, but actually believable. It only takes about 5 seconds to know where this is going. The playful teasing by McIlroy about Tiger being old and the return jab from Tiger about Rory’s hair is refreshing and is something we all know we do to even to the best of our friends. The two then triy to outdo each other, hitting shot after shot and plugging the ball into cups of various types that non-golfers would associate with: drinking cups, glass stemware at a wedding, soup bowls and even a putting mat cup in an office. Yes, it’s unbelievable, but it doesn’t matter. For the first time ever, we see McIlroy and Woods wearing the same brand, teasing the other while playing a game of H-O-R-S-E at the range. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

It ends with a dumbfounded McIlroy asking Woods, “How’d you do that?”(after a seemingly impossible golf shot that even David Copperfield wouldn’t figure out) and a wily Woods responds, “You’ll learn.” Finally the ever important and recognizable Nike swoosh completes the ad — the symbolic entity to which we must thank for this union of golf’s heavyweights.

[youtube id=”2NCDYjHtEcU” width=”620″ height=”360″]

There you go — brilliant marketing at its best and the stage is set for what could be Nike’s most successful marketing campaign ever. They managed to introduce Rory as the next one without giving up an ounce of honor to his predecessor. In what is likely a Mr. Miyagi-Danielsan intended thematic piece, Nike managed to stay true to both athletes and send the message that neither is better than the other, yet one definitely has an edge with experience and wisdom to which the other can learn a thing or two from. Nike also made clear that this necessity of passing of the torch is not going to be a sudden one, but rather an evolution that may take years to build.

Tiger is a beast from a promotional standpoint and before this year, I didn’t think anyone could hold a candle to him off the golf course. Golf’s next brightest star needed the horsepower of a brand like Nike if he could compete for the top spot as the sport’s most bankable athlete. Tiger, in spite of his inability to reach the success from his past, still yields large crowds and the hope is that McIlroy will too. But that takes time and smart marketing to create a personality that fans can attach themselves to, believe in and ride the victories and defeats with “their guy.”

Fortunately, Rory has already seen success and has built a strong following of fans, but the push of a major brand can only help his visibility and marketability to bring in an even greater fan base and generate even more interest for the athlete and his major sponsor. In the meantime, and until Rory reaches the seemingly unachievable commercial stature set by Tiger, the sponsorship deal with Nike will inevitably pit the two superstars together (albeit for promotional purposes) to satiate the desire of fans to see a head to head showdown between the current world No. 1 and arguably the greatest of all time.

“The Showdown” with Larry Bird and Michael Jordan has stood the test of time and remains to be one of my favorite advertisements ever. It featured two accomplished and popular athletes doing the thing they do best (I’m not referring to acting) and selling a product that is accessible to almost anyone. In doing so, the casual fan has the opportunity to enjoy the athlete’s personality that much more. In turn, they might want the product more as well.

There is no mistake that Rory and Tiger’s ad pays homage to Larry and MJ’s, and hopes to accomplish the same success on the business end of things. Nike was clever enough to recognize that this unique opportunity needed a strategy that can be built upon and added to it by using the teacher/pupil theme to carry the brand to the next decade. The hope is that Rory will take over the reigns as golf’s most valuable property and by making sure that Tiger is there along with him, Nike is banking that this transition will be as smooth as Rory’s swing.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans betting preview

Published

3 days ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

The PGA TOUR heads to New Orleans to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. In a welcome change from the usual stroke play, the Zurich Classic is a team event. On Thursday and Saturday, the teams play best ball, and on Friday and Sunday the teams play alternate shot.

TPC Louisiana is a par 72 that measures 7,425 yards. The course features some short par 4s and plenty of water and bunkers, which makes for a lot of exciting risk/reward scenarios for competitors. Pete Dye designed the course in 2004 specifically for the Zurich Classic, although the event didn’t make its debut until 2007 because of Hurricane Katrina.

Coming off of the Masters and a signature event in consecutive weeks, the field this week is a step down, and understandably so. Many of the world’s top players will be using this time to rest after a busy stretch.

However, there are some interesting teams this season with some stars making surprise appearances in the team event. Some notable teams include Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Will Zalatoris and Sahith Theegala as well as a few Canadian teams, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Taylor Pendrith and Corey Conners.

Past Winners at TPC Louisiana

2023: Riley/Hardy (-30)
2022: Cantlay/Schauffele (-29)
2021: Leishman/Smith (-20)
2019: Palmer/Rahm (-26)
2018: Horschel/Piercy (-22)
2017: Blixt/Smith (-27)

2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks

Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy +2500 (DraftKings)

Tom Hoge is coming off of a solid T18 finish at the RBC Heritage and finished T13 at last year’s Zurich Classic alongside Harris English.

This season, Hoge is having one of his best years on Tour in terms of Strokes Gained: Approach. In his last 24 rounds, the only player to top him on the category is Scottie Scheffler. Hoge has been solid on Pete Dye designs, ranking 28th in the field over his past 36 rounds.

McNealy is also having a solid season. He’s finished T6 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open and T9 at the PLAYERS Championship. He recently started working with world renowned swing coach, Butch Harmon, and its seemingly paid dividends in 2024.

Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen +4000 (DraftKings)

Keith Mitchell is having a fantastic season, finishing in the top-20 of five of his past seven starts on Tour. Most recently, Mitchell finished T14 at the Valero Texas Open and gained a whopping 6.0 strokes off the tee. He finished 6th at last year’s Zurich Classic.

Joel Dahmen is having a resurgent year and has been dialed in with his irons. He also has a T11 finish at the PLAYERS Championship at TPC Sawgrass which is another Pete Dye track. With Mitchell’s length and Dahmen’s ability to put it close with his short irons, the Mitchell/Dahmen combination will be dangerous this week.

Taylor Moore/Matt NeSmith +6500 (DraftKings)

Taylor Moore has quickly developed into one of the more consistent players on Tour. He’s finished in the top-20 in three of his past four starts, including a very impressive showing at The Masters, finishing T20. He’s also finished T4 at this event in consecutive seasons alongside Matt NeSmith.

NeSmith isn’t having a great 2024, but has seemed to elevate his game in this format. He finished T26 at Pete Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, which gives the 30-year-old something to build off of. NeSmith is also a great putter on Bermudagrass, which could help elevate Moore’s ball striking prowess.

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19th Hole

Vincenzi’s 2024 LIV Adelaide betting preview: Cam Smith ready for big week down under

Published

3 days ago

Apr 22, 2024

Matt Vincenzi

After having four of the top twelve players on the leaderboard at The Masters, LIV Golf is set for their fifth event of the season: LIV Adelaide.

For both LIV fans and golf fans in Australia, LIV Adelaide is one of the most anticipated events of the year. With 35,000 people expected to attend each day of the tournament, the Grange Golf Club will be crawling with fans who are passionate about the sport of golf. The 12th hole, better known as “the watering hole”, is sure to have the rowdiest of the fans cheering after a long day of drinking some Leishman Lager.

The Grange Golf Club is a par-72 that measures 6,946 yards. The course features minimal resistance, as golfers went extremely low last season. In 2023, Talor Gooch shot consecutive rounds of 62 on Thursday and Friday, giving himself a gigantic cushion heading into championship Sunday. Things got tight for a while, but in the end, the Oklahoma State product was able to hold off The Crushers’ Anirban Lahiri for a three-shot victory.

The Four Aces won the team competition with the Range Goats finishing second.

*All Images Courtesy of LIV Golf*

Past Winners at LIV Adelaide

2023: Talor Gooch (-19)

Stat Leaders Through LIV Miami

Green in Regulation

Richard Bland
Jon Rahm
Paul Casey

Fairways Hit

Abraham Ancer
Graeme McDowell
Henrik Stenson

Driving Distance

Bryson DeChambeau
Joaquin Niemann
Dean Burmester

Putting

Cameron Smith
Louis Oosthuizen
Matt Jones

2024 LIV Adelaide Picks

Cameron Smith +1400 (DraftKings)

When I pulled up the odds for LIV Adelaide, I was more than a little surprised to see multiple golfers listed ahead of Cameron Smith on the betting board. A few starts ago, Cam finished runner-up at LIV Hong Kong, which is a golf course that absolutely suits his eye. Augusta National in another course that Smith could roll out of bed and finish in the top-ten at, and he did so two weeks ago at The Masters, finishing T6.

At Augusta, he gained strokes on the field on approach, off the tee (slightly), and of course, around the green and putting. Smith able to get in the mix at a major championship despite coming into the week feeling under the weather tells me that his game is once again rounding into form.

The Grange Golf Club is another course that undoubtedly suits the Australian. Smith is obviously incredibly comfortable playing in front of the Aussie faithful and has won three Australian PGA Championship’s. The course is very short and will allow Smith to play conservative off the tee, mitigating his most glaring weakness. With birdies available all over the golf course, there’s a chance the event turns into a putting contest, and there’s no one on the planet I’d rather have in one of those than Cam Smith.

Louis Oosthuizen +2200 (DraftKings)

Louis Oosthuizen has simply been one of the best players on LIV in the 2024 seas0n. The South African has finished in the top-10 on the LIV leaderboard in three of his five starts, with his best coming in Jeddah, where he finished T2. Perhaps more impressively, Oosthuizen finished T7 at LIV Miami, which took place at Doral’s “Blue Monster”, an absolutely massive golf course. Given that Louis is on the shorter side in terms of distance off the tee, his ability to play well in Miami shows how dialed he is with the irons this season.

In addition to the LIV finishes, Oosthuizen won back-to-back starts on the DP World Tour in December at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and the Mauritus Open. He also finished runner-up at the end of February in the International Series Oman. The 41-year-old has been one of the most consistent performers of 2024, regardless of tour.

For the season, Louis ranks 4th on LIV in birdies made, T9 in fairways hit and first in putting. He ranks 32nd in driving distance, but that won’t be an issue at this short course. Last season, he finished T11 at the event, but was in decent position going into the final round but fell back after shooting 70 while the rest of the field went low. This season, Oosthuizen comes into the event in peak form, and the course should be a perfect fit for his smooth swing and hot putter this week.

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Opinion & Analysis

The Wedge Guy: What really makes a wedge work? Part 1

Published

7 days ago

Apr 18, 2024

Terry Koehler

Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.

Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.

But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.

To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.

Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.

If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.

In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.

Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.

While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.

So, what about grooves and face texture?

Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.

Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.

But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?

The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.

So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.

And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.

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