Nike has been trumpeting the fact that the Darrell Survey found that more players used Nike clubs at the Masters than any other brand.
But several news organizations are reporting that the numbers are inflated because Nike paid a number of aging past champions $20,000 each to play their clubs. Billy Casper shot his famous 106 using Nike clubs—apparently the first time he has used that brand.
I don’t expect Nike to stop there. Having the top spot on the survey is worth a lot. And Nike is perhaps the best sports marketing organization in existence. Look for them to spend a heap of money signing up players on every tour they can get to.
I’ll even write their copy for them now:
Nike: Number one on the PGA, Champions, Nationwide and Hooters Tours. Number one with the LPGA. Shouldn’t it be number one with you?
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Well, no other tournaments allow former champions to play no matter what their age. At the MCI Heritage, they were back down to 6th place with 8 sets in play. They’ll be lucky to get 4th place in the count at the US Open.
You’re right, of course. I was thinking—and should have made this more clear—that they could steal the more marginal pros away from their current contracts by throwing money at them. If they’re interested in being number one, they really don’t care if they’re number one with the bottom 50 or the top 50, so long as it averages out to number one.