Tiger equipment that never made it big

No player can generate as much buzz for golf equipment as Tiger. So much of his gear is now ubiquitous, whether he started the trend or just continued it. Golf Pride tour velvet grips and Dynamic Gold shafts are everywhere. Mizuno irons are still universally praised. His drivers have had commercial success. Scotty Cameron Newport putters are in tons of bags. Graphite Design Tour AD DI and Mitsubishi Diamana shafts are still popular. I think you would see far fewer blades if Tiger bagged a CB. The money making opportunity when he puts something in the bag is endless. Why TM doesn't release a MG TW grind wedge blows my mind. At least they finally released the Ardmore 3 putter with a slant neck like the one he briefly bagged..... So much of his bag is classic and timeless.

The things that didn't stick:

1) The putter sight dot. The only way you can get one is a custom order. So many good tour putters have a limited or no sightline. Jason Day's blank spider (TM got rid of it with the Spider X series...yes I know you can order one custom). Jordan Spieth with a small line on top of the blade (where it should be), and not the flange (TM had one like this with the Juno, but got rid of it with the Patina collection). Why is it that no OEM offers a stock putter with a sight dot? Why are there so few putters with a reduced, or no, alignment aid?

2) The Bridestone ball. A great ball endorsed by Tiger publicly/secretly for years. His switch to a solid core ball in 2000 completed killed the wound ball. And yet when you find a ball on the course, when you buy one in the store, it probably isn't a Bridgestone. How Bridgestone managed to completely blow Tiger's endorsement is mind bending. Having 4 tour balls is a mistake and confusing for sure. Callaway vaulted to #2 in ball sales while Bridgestone seems to lag with such a good ball suggests their marketing has been a total failure. But hey...at least they are releasing a mini-doc: http://www.golfwrx.com/602556/bridgestone-releases-mini-documentary-on-tiger-woods-golf-ball/

Oh don't forget the Nike One Platinum

Basically the worst performing ball on the market for mere mortals LOL. Remember the Golf Digest ball test where it performed so badly distance wise that they actually allowed Nike to make a special statement regarding it not being applicable for weekend golfers.

I think it spun so much because Tiger wanted that for his short game. It was essentially a custom ball IIRC

I'm not sure about this. Nike irons were not very successful. On another note: I think Nike thought everyone would be buying red shirts to look like Tiger. Instead, no one bought red shirts because they weren't Tiger.

I’m glad no one else besides me plays Bridgestone balls so I can buy up all the overstock on closeout.

Ditto on the Bridgestones. Great ball. Was given a sleeve of the last year's XS (had Tigers pic on the sleeve and "TIGER" printed on the ball). Loved it. Now moved on to the B RX or the B X.

dynamic gold had been the gold standard (pun intended) for decades. It is reliable and cheap to produce and was and still is the stock shaft in many many sets. Tiger deciding to use them really didn’t influence popularity that much. At least not near as much as him using that AD DI when it first came out. Everyone wanted that shaft.

the sight dot on the putter was never a big deal to the average consumer because they had no idea Tiger’s putter had a sight dot instead of a line. Major OEM’s build stock clubs for the masses, not the small percent that gets on a site daily to catch up on every little detail of their favorite players clubs. I love sight dots and wish they were more prominent so I didn’t have to jump through hoops to attain them but these companies just know that the average golfer wants all the help they think they need with alignment so that’s what we get at retail.

"whether he started the trend or just continued it." No doubt Dynamic Gold had been a standard, and continued to be a standard, iron shaft before and after Tiger had it in the bag. My point was that his endorsement will never hurt, and probably enhance the success of a product.

And no doubt some of his equipment choices didn't take off. Most of that was Nike experimentation. It's hard to imagine a brand new golf company, Nike, attempting to make equipment to compete at the highest level from day one. I never cared for Nike golf equipment and always assumed that Tiger's Nike gear was nothing like the retail product.

My interest has more to do with the non-Nike golf gear Tiger used, but never gained traction.

Never ever have seen a person wearing the TW hat either.

Tiger responsible for the success of Dynamic Gold shafts? Have to chuckle at that. Tour Velvet grips? Not much to do with Tiger. Sight dots some sort of Tiger failure? Didn't even know it was a thing, but I've seen some pretty big sight dots.

His dg shaft is likely his largest cont on the equipment side.

Tiger has not sold a lot of hard goods, no pro's do despite what everyone says. I sold several million dollars worth of hard goods and had two instances people came in and said "I want what that one guy is using"

Faldo winning the masters with an Odyssey Rossie II, phone rang off the hook next day and we sold em like hotcakes. Pavin wins the us open, and those hideous irons that we couldn't sell became a big deal.

Tour guys sell shirts and shoes and headgear, the avg golf galaxy customer couldn't tell you what irons Justin Thomas plays if his life depended on it. They can't tell you which ones Tiger plays either.

100% agree. The only people who notice/care enough to buy what their favorite tour pro is playing are the gear heads (ie WRXers), and that’s such a small segment of the market. An example that comes to mind is a couple years ago when tiger bagged the PO shaft and it was the talk of the town here. Go ask anyone outside this forum and they have absolutely no idea 1) what shaft he plays 2) that changing shafts is even a thing

Sight dots on putter are extremely popular. For some reason OEMs do not do it though. Look at any boutique customer putter. They almost always have site dots or a site line on the top of the blade. Flang lines is a terrible way to align a putter.

yet every oem does it. Never understood why.

I think its because 1 we are not tiger or any of these guys so why should most of us want what they play. 2 most people want to use what they personally like for golf.

3 we just want to see him play thats all.

4 maybe his undies i can duplicate? Maybe this is the true golf power?

Casual golfers might not say “I want Tigers irons” when they walk in the store, but his use of Nike clubs absolutely helped Nike move hard product. Iness, in general. Second on consumers become aware of specific products. For example, hasn’t Dustin Johnson done a ton for the Spider putter among the public?

I'd challenge you on that, they did quite well at my store. They were probably ahead of their time, to be honest. They single-handedly introduced the high MOI driver basically. Remember the Sasquatch (SQ) Max driver? Tiger used that one instead of the SQ Tour, next year every OEM had a high MOI, elongated slightly pancake-like driver, including the ultimate sticklers to tradition, Titleist with the 907D1 in their next release. Callaway introduced the BB06, Cobra had the L4V and their M/F/X speed not too long after. They were one of the first to come out with an adjustable hosel system with the Str8fit, and to this day, one of the only OEMs to decouple face angle and loft in their adapters AND still somehow manage to keep the grip halfway straight as well. They were also one of the first in the hybrid market with the CPR, TM was first with the Burner Rescue but I believe Nike was the second, but this is going back close to 20-22 years now so I might be mistaken.

They definitely had a little bit of growing pains with their first few wood introductions, that were frankly almost impossible to hit for the average guy. However, they really found their stride around 2012-2013 as an equipment designer with the introduction of the VRS, Coverts, and then ultimately the Vapor lines, along with the 2X balls. At one point within about a month of release my store was completely sold out of Vapor Speed drivers and the Vapor Pro Combo irons to this day are still regarded on here and elsewhere as some of the best forgings on the market. Again, a gel-filled hollow long iron released in 2014....hmm...who would have thunk it that this is the norm rather than the exception now?

I stand corrected. Thanks for the insight.

Dustin is probably who you think of when you think of the spider tour but the itzy bitzy spider came out before he even considered using a spider and did well because it was an alternate to the ever popular odyssey #7. I'll stand by my contention that if you pick 100 people in golf galaxy less than 5 will even know Dustin uses a TM putter. I bet more people would guess he used a cameron in fact :) I'd bet lunch on that :) If there is ANY equipment that people go in there to buy what they see on TV it's those things. The camera zooms in, slow mo, and presto, advertising has happened :)

I think wrx forgets you are not normal golf consumers, not in the least. The avg guy who plays once a week doesn't think about his equipment like we do, not even close.

I wear mine all the time. For golf and otherwise (I have a few going back to One and Victory Red series).

They move quickly at the numerous stores in my area (PGATSS, Golf Galaxy, Dick's).

Oddly enough Tiger really didn't move the needle with equipment sales.

Most prefer an 009 to an Newport 2

Nike Clubs never really gained market share commensurate with his TV and gallery draw. Putters and woods were terrible sellers.

The one thing I will promise you all, the AD-DI owes alotttt if it’s success to tiger. Tiger opened peoples eyes to that shaft, which has now taken a life of its own. It’s hands down the best fairway wood and hybrid shaft ever made, but without tiger bagging it, it wouldn’t be what it is today

I will give you $1000 if you poll everyone walking into your local Golf Galaxy/PGASS/DSG if even 3 of them all day, outside of employees, know what a 009 is.

LOL ... "Gear Heads like wrxers.".. Best comment of the day on here ... So true ... I dont think they even play golf , just hang out at the golf shops hitting balls on the simulator or at the driving range ... i always thought Nike stuff was on the ugly side , could never get beyond that to even give it a chance ... As far DG shafts and tour Velvet grips , never thought of Tiger when choosing that stuff so I dunno ... Nike Balls ? ... Pass

His very first pair of "Tiger" shoes were a sales disaster.

For most us, using Tiger equip is like you or me trying to drive a Formula One racing car to work. Or: We all know that PERSONAL FITTING is more important than brand name. Very few people would be able to hit the ball with his equip the same way he did.

The irons, wedges, balls and woods never made it as big as we thought it would. Not enough people would play Nike equipment "just because Tiger does". What did make it big was Scotty Cameron putters and Nike golf apparel.

Tiger's use of the Newport 2 was the huge push that Scotty used to go all the way to the top. Tiger Woods is the reason Scotty Cameron putters are what they are today, not the other way around.

While Tiger's signature TW shoes and apparel might not have been the top seller, Nike Golf became the largest golf apparel brand in the world because of him. Before Tiger, it was Curtis Strange and Peter Jacobson as the face of Nike on Tour. I'm sorry, but nobody is buying Nike shoes and shirts because of Curtis Strange. Tiger gave their gear instant appeal and validation. It also became the must-have gear for youth golfers. Their continued success in the Tour apparel game, apart from the sponsorship money, is largely due to the fact those kids have now grown up and reach for Nike.

Nike Golf became a legitimate, household name because of Tiger Woods.

lol, true- the 009 comment was made in the Golfwrx'r vacuum, but Nike clubs sold like S**T and Tiger was not able to move them, red polos and black pants on the other hand...

I have no idea what a 009 is.

I've never bought anything because of a pro golfer, but I absolutely love my VR Pro blades. Really wish the sheeple who adore his every move would made them even more popular.