Tiger Woods has signed a deal with TaylorMade to play its clubs for the foreseeable future.
Woods, currently ranked 650th in the world following his near 15-month absence from the game, will play with a TaylorMade driver, fairway woods, irons and wedges in a 13-club deal, while he will continue to use his Scotty Cameron putter and play with a Bridgestone ball.
“I am proud to announce I am joining the TaylorMade family,” Woods said in a statement on his website. “Throughout my career, I’ve always been meticulous about my equipment. Over the past few months, I’ve had clubs from every brand sent to me to test. When it came to making a final decision, the choice was easy — it all came down to performance, which is why I chose TaylorMade.”
Woods played with TaylorMade’s M2 driver, M2 3-wood and M1 5-wood at the recent Farmers Insurance Open, where he missed the cut by four shots after rounds of 76 and 72, although he was still using a set of Nike irons, while he waits for a custom set of TaylorMade irons to be finished.
“With the irons, we’re going to take our time and build up an iron that I like not only in the playing position, but how it feels and how it performs,” Woods said at Torrey Pines. “There’s no rush on that. I’ll be playing my current Nike irons and the blades I’ve been using for years until TaylorMade builds me the irons that I want.”
Woods had been with Nike since 2000, but they left the club- and ball-making industry last summer, which left players Woods and Rory McIlroy without a club contract. Woods was sent clubs from all the major brands over the winter, and tested them all before settling on the deal with TaylorMade.