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Seventeen years ago, when Nike signed 20-year-old Tiger Woods to an equipment/apparel deal reportedly worth $40 million, Woods declared, “Hello world,’’ as the main message of his initial advertising campaign with the company.
Yesterday, Nike showed a congratulatory video clip at an Abu Dhabi press conference announcing its long-expected, reported 10-year, $200 million deal with Rory McIlroy. Woods’ message to the No. 1 ranked player in the world: “Welcome to the family.’’
How welcoming the No. 2-ranked Woods will be to McIlroy if the 23-year-old Northern Irishman wins another major championship this year while Woods is shut out for a fifth consecutive year remains to be seen.
For now, Woods and McIlroy appear to be very friendly.
Nike’s first McIlroy commercial, which will debut tomorrow, features both players on the driving range, with each trying to one-up the other, first by aiming at the practice hole and then at more outlandish targets like wedding wine glasses and soup bowls at a restaurant.
The ad ends with McIlroy grabbing his water glass where he finds Woods’ ball.
“How’d you do that?’’ he asks. “You’ll learn,’’ Woods answers.
Woods’ first Nike contract paid him $40 million over five years. That was elevated to $30 million per year in the mid-2000s before reportedly being scaled back after his rampant marital infidelities became public in 2009.
A real rivalry has yet to materialize, despite their 1-2 status.The two are expected to be paired at this week’s HSBC Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi when the tournament begins Thursday.
Woods, who makes his PGA Tour season debut next week at Torrey Pines, the site of his last major championship victory in 2008, and McIlroy will not play in the same event in America until the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship on Feb. 20.
The first full-field tour event the two will play in is the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on Feb. 28.
“I don’t know if you can call it a rivalry yet because we haven’t battled each other down the stretch of a major,” McIlroy told the Associated Press. “It’s not like we have been playing in the final group of a tournament and we are battling each other. Hopefully at some point that can happen this year and it would be great to be part of that.”