Tiger Woods announces his 1st equipment deal of the post-Nike era

The first big piece of Tiger Woods’ golf bag in the post-Nike era is now official. Woods signed a multi-year deal to play with a Bridgestone golf ball, the two parties making the announcement on Thursday morning after what Tiger called “extensive testing.”

The move to a Bridgestone ball was a bit of a stunner. It wasn’t on this Thursday when it became official, but it was back in October when Chris Solomon of No Laying Up reported that Tiger planned to play it for his originally scheduled return at the Safeway Open (a Bridgestone spokesman revealed Tiger’s testing began back in August).

Most assumed Woods would make a switch to Titleist, which owns the market as the oft hailed “No. 1 ball in the golf.” Bridgestone has a fine stable of players but no one close to the caliber of Woods, the biggest draw in the history of the game. They’ll now push his chinstrap-bearded face all over their commercials and store displays.

When Tiger returned at the Hero World Challenge, he insisted that the golf ball was “the most important club in the bag.” Woods played Bridgestone’s B330-S all four rounds in the Bahamas, but maintained everything, from his new TaylorMade M1 woods to his irons to his ball, was still in the testing stage.

The Thursday announcement officially moves us out of the testing stage and into Tiger’s first post-Nike deal. Tiger obviously feels comfortable enough with the ball but it will still be a jarring to see him playing something other than a swoosh.

Permit us to talk about #Brands for a second. Golfers don’t have a team uniform — the brands they wear and play are the closest facsimile to the uniforms of other sports. The legends and icons of the game are usually associated with one or perhaps two brands. With Tiger, the swoosh was just part of the package, head-to-toe and throughout the bag, and part-and-parcel of 20-years of memories. It’s a part, a significant one, of this iconic moment in the sport. It’s this ...

Not this ...

Bridgestone may have been an underdog to land Tiger but they’re probably paying him a truckload of money to play and endorse their product. Woods, however, would not play it if he wasn’t totally comfortable with the ball. He boosted the product, saying, “the Bridgestone B330-S ball is hands-down the best for my game.”

That doesn’t mean there won’t be an adjustment period. As Tiger noted, it’s the “most important” item in the bag and, at the highest level, often takes more time getting used to than a club change.

The regular weekend hacks may not notice much difference between different model golf balls, and it probably doesn’t affect their chop game. But changing make and model golf balls can throw a Tour player off dramatically, and Tiger will have to adjust, a process that’s already in development after months of testing.

Now when do we find out about the sexiest club in the bag, the driver?