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Rory McIlroy signing with TaylorMade?

arydolphin

arydolphin

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Apparently Rory hitting a TM driver in his Instagram video yesterday was not an accident. From Geoff Shackelford (https://www.geoffshackelford.com/ho....html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter):

Golfweek's Forecaddie reported it and I can confirm: Rory McIlroy is becoming a member of Team TaylorMade this week. He'll be signing a huge money deal to play a full bag of their equipment.
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I guess all of that talk about being free to play whatever he wanted to play didn't last all that long. Will be interested to see what irons and wedges he will play since he wasn't already playing TaylorMade equipment in those spots, along with the ball and putter.

Also, TaylorMade makes another big signing this year. They will have the top 3 players in the world golf ranking in their stable (DJ, Rory, JDay) as well as Rose and Garcia in the top 10. I guess their impending sale isn't hurting their cash flow?
 
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Stenson?
 
My bad, not Stenson. I'll edit my OP. Meant to say Rose and Garcia.
 
Interesting If true. I thought we would see a little departure from building a brand around a top tour stable.

While I think it is important I question if TaylorMade or any company for that matter can get the kind of ROI needed for having a stable full of a bunch of top 10 guys and signing them at their peak instead of finding the hidden gem.

For me I think the company that finds the right personality of tour players/golfer is the company that will succeed and be able to get a huge ROI. The company that just throws money at top players to me is not really building anything but more tying their success to results and results come in waves personality is always there.

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Guy has to pay off those wedding expenses
 
I guess money really does talk.
 
arydolphin said:
I guess all of that talk about being free to play whatever he wanted to play didn't last all that long.
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did he ever say he was going to play whatever he wanted to play until he retired? i always took his comments to be that he would continue to test until he found what worked best for him.

i've seen callaway's 2017 numbers posted. how did tm do in 1q?

i find a signing like this interesting. on one hand, you wonder whether they are just trying to make their portfolio look as attractive as possible to a potential buyer. "look at all these great players who play our equipment." on the other hand, i wouldn't be too thrilled to acquire a company with fledgling earnings and substantial liabilities.
 
Wow I thought he was in pretty deep with Callaway since he had switched over from the M line to the GBBs, AND he was also hitting prototype MBs which Callaway wouldn't normally give away to someone not signed. And then he'll have to switch out of the vokey line, which I assume he liked a lot because he played a full Titleist bag before he signed with Nike. Hopefully he doesn't go through the same bout he did when he switched from Titleist to Nike clubs, that was a little ugly for a while.
 
If true, I'm most interested to see what the irons will be since they don't have a MB in line. And I think he's been playing musclebacks for basically forever. I wonder if he'll be getting the blades they've been working with Tiger on, since he's not going to use them anytime soon.
 
c.a.eleric said:
did he ever say he was going to play whatever he wanted to play until he retired? i always took his comments to be that he would continue to test until he found what worked best for him.

i've seen callaway's 2017 numbers posted. how did tm do in 1q?

i find a signing like this interesting. on one hand, you wonder whether they are just trying to make their portfolio look as attractive as possible to a potential buyer. "look at all these great players who play our equipment." on the other hand, i wouldn't be too thrilled to acquire a company with fledgling earnings and substantial liabilities.
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The timing makes perfect sense.
Plus if he wins this week, the stories are there for a brand that needs stories right now.
 
This may sound crazy but does it make sense for Nike to purchase Taylormade from Adidas? If this comes to fruition they'll have Jason Day and Rory McIlroy swinging Taylormade clubs and wearing Nike clothes. This would also open the door for Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia to eventually endorse the Nike brand. The way I see it, Nike definitely has the cash to do it and they will acquire all of Taylormade's market share, infrastructure, and talent. Nike's biggest flaw was that they didn't have brand recognition in a loyalist golf market, Taylormade would provide that. I think this would be a match made in heaven, even after their very public departure last year from equipment manufacturing.
 
I'm sort of disappointed if this is true. I was hoping he would just play whatever worked best for a while. Granted his driving accuracy reached an all time low at The Masters so maybe he's just done with the Epic.
 
anthony18_7 said:
This may sound crazy but does it make sense for Nike to purchase Taylormade from Adidas? If this comes to fruition they'll have Jason Day and Rory McIlroy swinging Taylormade clubs and wearing Nike clothes. This would also open the door for Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia to eventually endorse the Nike brand. The way I see it, Nike definitely has the cash to do it and they will acquire all of Taylormade's market share, infrastructure, and talent. Nike's biggest flaw was that they didn't have brand recognition in a loyalist golf market, Taylormade would provide that. I think this would be a match made in heaven, even after their very public departure last year from equipment manufacturing.
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I think Nike realizes that the Club/Equipment business is a tough ship to keep afloat. Nike is about the profits, and without a polarizing figure like Tiger it doesn't make sense for them. It'll be interesting to see what happens to TM, they have everything there, I just think they need to downsize and reconsider their business model.
 
JB said:
The timing makes perfect sense.
Plus if he wins this week, the stories are there for a brand that needs stories right now.
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that makes sense. big splash before a big tournament. i just wonder about a company amassing so many high profile players with what i would expect are big costs, yet backsliding with consumers.
 
anthony18_7 said:
This may sound crazy but does it make sense for Nike to purchase Taylormade from Adidas? If this comes to fruition they'll have Jason Day and Rory McIlroy swinging Taylormade clubs and wearing Nike clothes. This would also open the door for Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and Sergio Garcia to eventually endorse the Nike brand. The way I see it, Nike definitely has the cash to do it and they will acquire all of Taylormade's market share, infrastructure, and talent. Nike's biggest flaw was that they didn't have brand recognition in a loyalist golf market, Taylormade would provide that. I think this would be a match made in heaven, even after their very public departure last year from equipment manufacturing.
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If this were even a thought, I don't think you'd be seeing them selling patents and the like - I think Nike had enough of running a golf equipment business. If I recall, it was profitable, just not that profitable.
 
Different approach here....but is there any chance these guys have just found equipment that works for them, and the endorsement is just an added bonus? I know money talks and these guys most likely could grab a set of clubs from a pawn shop and still compete on tour, but is there something more to this?
 
Haso said:
I think Nike realizes that the Club/Equipment business is a tough ship to keep afloat. Nike is about the profits, and without a polarizing figure like Tiger it doesn't make sense for them. It'll be interesting to see what happens to TM, they have everything there, I just think they need to downsize and reconsider their business model.
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A couple of things from this... I think Nike had trouble with the club/equipment business because they had to start from scratch and that was really expensive. With Taylormade they will have EVERYTHING they could possibly need to succeed in the equipment segment. Secondly, Tiger is already a member of Team Taylormade, I forgot to mention him somehow. Even though Tiger isn't what he used to be he still moves the needle and they could definitely use this relationship as a marketing tool.

Maybe Nike/Taylormade isn't the perfect match but I wouldn't be stunned if Nike showed interest.
 
c.a.eleric said:
that makes sense. big splash before a big tournament. i just wonder about a company amassing so many high profile players with what i would expect are big costs, yet backsliding with consumers.
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In the grand scheme, the money is not as big as it would appear (the sum of all parts are though).
Q1 results are not out yet (at least I have not seen them), but I would be surprised if it was as strong as a couple of others in terms of growth.
 
anthony18_7 said:
A couple of things from this... I think Nike had trouble with the club/equipment business because they had to start from scratch and that was really expensive. With Taylormade they will have EVERYTHING they could possibly need to succeed in the equipment segment. Secondly, Tiger is already a member of Team Taylormade, I forgot to mention him somehow. Even though Tiger isn't what he used to be he still moves the needle and they could definitely use this relationship as a marketing tool.

Maybe Nike/Taylormade isn't the perfect match but I wouldn't be stunned if Nike showed interest.
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They had everything they needed before too. Tom Stites and then Nate Radcliffe didn't start creating clubs at Nike. Nor did Rock with golf balls. They had a very competent team in place. The marketplace just didn't accept.
 
This does come as a bit of a surprise, but I can't say I'm shocked. Honestly, I just hope that Rory doesn't go into a wicked slump like he did when we moved from Titleist to Nike.
 
JB said:
They had everything they needed before too. Tom Stites and then Nate Radcliffe didn't start creating clubs at Nike. Nor did Rock with golf balls. They had a very competent team in place. The marketplace just didn't accept.
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OK fair enough. Do you think Nike's problem in the equipment business was the lack of recognition within the industry or some other factor? Quality, performance etc...?

I was personally surprised at Nike's move out. They seemingly succeed in every sport so when they "failed" in the golf equipment business I was shocked.

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c.a.eleric said:
did he ever say he was going to play whatever he wanted to play until he retired? i always took his comments to be that he would continue to test until he found what worked best for him.

i've seen callaway's 2017 numbers posted. how did tm do in 1q?

i find a signing like this interesting. on one hand, you wonder whether they are just trying to make their portfolio look as attractive as possible to a potential buyer. "look at all these great players who play our equipment." on the other hand, i wouldn't be too thrilled to acquire a company with fledgling earnings and substantial liabilities.
Click to expand...

TM in Q1: Sales up 4.4%. Source: https://sgbonline.com/adidas-brand-catapults-36-percent-north-america-in-q1/
 
anthony18_7 said:
OK fair enough. Do you think Nike's problem in the equipment business was the lack of recognition within the industry or some other factor? Quality, performance etc...?

I was personally surprised at Nike's move out. They seemingly succeed in every sport so when they "failed" in the golf equipment business I was shocked.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
My personal thoughts are Nike treated golf like every other sport and that is why they Ultimately failed. The performance was there some of the product looked good but they were just off in their approach.

Don't get me wrong the approach works for a certain demographic obviously with the success they have in other sports I just think they failed to reach other demographics in golf/ bring the demographic that it hits into golf and away from other sports.

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Not surprised at all. The cool kids tend to follow each other around and not surprising at all to see Rory follow suit over to TM. Good clubs, good product and I'm sure will work one on one with him in all cases.

Callaway is a big player on the European side so thought there was a chance they could nab him because of that.
 
I'm not sure how much of the overall strategy tour players are to TM, but they sure do have a solid stable of players. DJ, Day, Rose, Tiger, and Rory then you have Rohm, Harman winning the Wells Fargo.

Maybe TM can do some of those commercials with Tiger and Rory like Nike (remember those?) and now those with Tiger, Rory, and Day...

Hey wait a minute... any coincidence to that? All three of them are Nike... now all three at TM...
 
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