You would not want to spend thousands of dollars on floor space and hauling your sales team off the road, only for them to stand there repeating the official statement all day long to half of America’s pro fraternity.
Nike finds itself in a difficult spot. The list of companies to have backed away from associations with the world number one is pretty illustrious: Accenture, AT&T, Gillette and Gatorade, while Tag Heuer is “standing by” Woods, but scaling back his involvement.
But has there ever been a brand on this scale that has entwined itself so completely with a single athlete? Nike Golf’s marketing dependence on Woods is even greater than Greg Norman Collection’s is on Norman! The situation begs the question; where would Nike Golf be without Tiger Woods? We probably won’t find out the answer to that for quite a few years.
Despite Tiger’s absence from the PGA Show, there was tonnes to talk about, and we are publishing our show review online, to coincide with the launch of our new website, www.sgbgolf.co.uk.
Please do click on later this month.
Robin Barwick, Editor
