Rory McIlroy signs Nike sponsorship deal

Nike has released their latest Tiger Woods commercial, featuring the new VR_S Covert driver. It’s not quite up to the level of the Woods and Rory McIlroy debut ad, but it’s still better than your typical golf equipment commercial. Nike does their best to make the game seem cool, and this short ad features recreational players ripping their drives off the tee and hitting into the groups ahead of them. Here’s the full ad via Nike’s YouTube channel:

It’s not a bad ad for a brief 30-second spot, particularly the “Mr. Tiger” moniker.

Golf is not cool, which is really just another way of saying that no sport on earth benefits more from the Nike commercial treatment, where just about anything in the world can look cool for at least 60 seconds. EXHIBIT A:

Other scenes that Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods should interrupt with wayward teeshots: United States Congress, a dramatic showdown between Taylor Swift and a boyfriend, Kim Jong-un touring a North Korean nuclear testing facility, Phill Simms’ face in the CBS broadcast booth, any Anne Hathaway acceptance speech, and then maybe a Lakers game, where thousands of golf balls would come raining down from the rafters to put everyone out of their misery. Because if we’re gonna live in this Nike-sponsored alternate universe where golf is fun to watch, we may as well take it to the next level and have Nike make golf the coolest sport on earth. WATCH YOUR BACK, PHIL SIMMS.

After months of speculation, Rory McIlroy on Monday let the golf world in on what had become the worst kept secret in sports: He is the once and future crown prince of Nike golf.

King of the empire that Tiger Woods built might be a more appropriate appellation since Nike, which did not divulge the specifics of the long-awaited, much-hyped deal, likely paid a royal ransom to keep the world’s best golfer in Swoosh-emblazoned gear and togs for years to come.

Hey kids! The PGA season is now two weeks old and growing before our eyes. It’s sad, really. Time just flies when you’re having fun watching PGA Tour rookies win tournaments in paradise. Or when you’ve drank seven beers watching the NFL Playoffs as you wait for golf to come on television. Not that I would do that.

Here’s this week’s Bunker Rake!

It’s official. The worst kept secret in golf is out of the bag: Rory McIlroy will have Nike clubs in his bag from now until the foreseeable future.

McIlroy announced Monday in a glitzy, 23-minute Golf Channel-broadcast informercial that he would join Tiger Woods as a Nike staffer.

When Rory McIlroy finally announces on Monday that he’s signed with Tiger Woods’ Team Nike, the golf world will expel a collective, “So what else is new?” But for those who harbor any residual doubt about the former Titleist and Oakley pitchman moving to Beaverton, the ending of his long-term contract with Jumeirah Group provides one more hint about what No. 1 will be wearing when he and Woods kick off their 2013 seasons next week at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.

The Dubai-based hotel chain’s insignia has burnished the front of McIlroy’s cap for five years, but he’ll trade that in for one with a swoosh after Jumeirah Group confirmed Tuesday it would not renew its endorsement deal with the marketable young lad from Northern Ireland.

It’s not the equipment news the golf world was waiting for, but Nike officially kicked off the free-agent signing season by unveiling on Tuesday the most recent members of its PGA Tour stable of golfers: Nick Watney and Kyle Stanley.

Rumors have been flying for months that Rory McIlroy was switching teams, from Titleist to Nike, and that announcement will, no doubt, come out of Beaverton soon. In the meantime, Tiger Woods’ gear supplier of choice formally welcomed Watney and Stanley -- each of whom is in the field at this week’s season-opening Tournament of Champions -- into the fold on January 1.