Editor's Note: Here is the transcript of the Dec. 3 Nike Golf media presentation at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Participants from Nike Golf included Tiger Woods, Cindy Davis, Gidge Moody and James Thomas, along with PGA of America Vice-President Jim Remy and moderator Kelly Tilghman.
KELLY TILGHMAN: Good morning. What a great day to be here in Port St. Lucie at the PGA Learning Center. Thank you all for coming. We have a lot in store. I'm here on behalf of Nike, Kelly Tilghman.
Nike as you know is the leading sports brand in the industry. Couple that with the fact that it has the single most recognizable athlete on the planet and you have quite a one-two punch. We're here today to talk about a couple of other one-two punches that get you a lot of distance and accuracy off the tee, and that is to come.
We're going to do so many great things today. We're going to look at a new fitting system. You've had a chance to catch a glimpse of it behind you there. We're going to introduce you to the latest technology on the tee. The world No. 1, Tiger Woods, is here to give a personal demonstration. He will also be taking your questions today and giving you, I'm sure, some very thought-provoking answers.
It is my privilege to be here just because Nike had the most wins on TOUR this year as far drivers are concerned. They are really spearheading a cause here. They're a growing force in the golf industry. 13 PGA TOUR wins, K.J. Choi, that familiar sound off the tee with the driver and the SUMO, two times on the PGA TOUR, internationally he grabbed one, as well; Trevor Immelman just captured a win overseas; Tiger Woods, of course, won seven times this year, including a major championship, and the inaugural FedExCup.
So there is a lot of ground to cover today, literally and figuratively as we watch him blast balls off the tee. I'd like to introduce someone right now who's very special to the program, used to be a member of our Golf Channel team and is now a growing force, as well, in the industry with Nike Golf. Her name is Cindy Davis. She is the U.S. General Manager for Nike Golf.
CINDY DAVIS: Thank you, Kelly, and thank you for taking time out of your busy Golf Channel schedule to be here. Appreciate that. We're excited to be here. I think some of us at Nike Golf were actually just chatting and saying that we're on to something. If you have an event that you invite Tiger Woods, you get this great weather, people are going to show up. So thank you for being here, and on behalf of Nike Golf, we welcome you. We're not only excited to be here because of the weather but also we're excited to be here because this is a phenomenal facility, the PGA Learning Center, and we have our friends at the PGA of America to thank for that, and their wonderful staff have been an absolute delight to work with.
We have the CEO of the PGA of America Joe Steranka, and thank you, Joe, for rolling out and opening the doors for us to be here. We, of course, at Nike Golf value our relationship, as you know, I think it goes without saying, with you, the organization and the entire membership. So thank you for having us here.
Along with Joe, we also have some other dignitaries from the PGA of America. We have the president, Brian Whitcomb; we have the vice-president, Jim Remy, who's also a Nike Golf staff member. You'll hear from him shortly. And another board member, Frank Gumpert, so thank you all for being here and supporting us.
Along with those folks we have our president of Nike Golf, Bob Wood, and Bob is really credited for being the driving force and inspiration for establishing Nike Golf as one of the leaders in the golf industry, and that all in just a short decade. I can tell you, when Bob moved over from a long-time career at Nike over to Nike Golf, he brought a lot of very powerful Nike assets, one of which that we're going to talk about today, which is the Nike mindset of innovation.
Innovation really is the core of everything we do, and we have something that we call the Nike Maxims at Nike. You may have heard us talk about that before. It's the 11 truths that we live by as a company. The very first one says, "it's in our nature to innovate." Innovation is part of who we are. It's been the driving force for Nike's success. It's at the heart of everything we do at Nike Golf, and we're going to talk about innovation and two specific innovations we are launching today.
But to give you a sense of how innovation is part of the Nike Heritage, and it's been the foundation from which we at Nike Golf have shaped a lot of the direction we have gone with at the company, take a look at this Nike video.
(Video shown.)
CINDY DAVIS: I think that gives you a sense of sort of the spirit and the commitment we have at Nike towards innovation, and it's really in the DNA of Nike Golf, as well. If you get a chance, there are three displays in the back, and you'll see two of them actually are great examples of innovation at Nike, and really those kind of things serve as inspiration for us at Nike Golf in thinking about the golfer and what we can do for them.
The first one is Nike+, and for those of you who are runners, I pretend to be, and I have this. It's awesome. It's a collaboration we did with Apple where your running shoe communicates with your Nano iPod and tells you how many miles you've run, pace, calories burned, all while you're listening to music. Download it and you can be part of an on-line running community. A global success for us at Nike.
The other one is Nike iD, and for those of you who fashion yourselves to be product designers, you can go on-line and customize your own Nike product, so it's your Nike. Same thing there, very outstanding success.
So that kind of innovation mindset we today are going to unveil in our interpretation with Nike Golf. And it's going to be, as Kelly referenced, our Nike Golf 360 fitting system, full bag fitting system, first of its kind in the industry. So it fits from driver to lob wedge, takes care of those gap yardages when you don't know with wedges, you've got that gap yardage issue, even helps you determine what you should put in your bag between hybrids, irons, every other product. Very innovative technology. You're going to hear about it in a moment.
The other innovation we're launching today, and I'm flanked by it, are two new drivers. This is the third generation of the Sasquatch SUMO family, second of the SUMO franchise, and those of you remember, SUMO stands for Super Moment of Inertia, so we've got the SUMO2 5900, for those who want to hit it long and straight, and then the SUMO 5000, for those who want to hit it long and with shape.
So our interpretation with innovation, it's our nature to innovate, it's our maxim, and today you're going to hear about the Nike Golf innovation, so thank you for coming and learning more about this.
One last thing before I move off the stage, I'm going to bring you -- I introduced him as the vice president of the PGA of America, but we know him as a member of the Nike Golf family, and that's Jim Remy, that's been part of the Nike Golf staff for years now and resides in -- I think he's happy to be here because he traveled down from Vermont where he's the general manager, vice president and general manager of Okemo Golf and Country Club. Jim, I welcome you to the stage.
JIM REMY: Well, good morning, everyone, and first let me thank Cindy and Bob for inviting me to be here today. It really is really nice to be involved with Nike and to be down here in Florida, especially when it's snowing. I called my wife this morning and told her where the shovel was, and I think she'll be out shoveling. I think we're going to get 18 inches or something overnight tonight, so I'm really, really glad to be here with you.
Cindy and Bob asked me to come up and just speak a little bit about PGA members and their involvement with Nike and my role as a staff member. I've been a staff member with Nike for the last couple years, and I'm really proud to say that I am. For the previous 22 years I was a member of another company staff who basically the company got sold and it was a time for change, and we looked around and I talked to a lot of different companies.
You know, I found out that Nike, although it is a mega-company, a giant company, it really is the smallest large company I've ever seen. I got to know Mike O'Donnell from the professional relationship staff and Cindy and Bob, and found out that this company really did bring itself down to a really small area and is really trying to help PGA Professionals to make money in their golf shops and to work with innovative products to bring the best forward.
In the PGA of America we are all, 28,000 of us, pretty much affiliated with different companies. That's the nature of this business. Right now Nike has made great strides over just the last few years, not only in research and development but in innovation and new products, trying to make products that players can hit better, hit straighter, hit longer and have more fun playing the game. And I can tell you that as a PGA Professional, that's what's most important to me because if they have products that they can enjoy the game and play better golf, they're going to play more golf, and we're all going to benefit from this game, whether it be PGA Professionals teaching more lessons or PGA Professionals selling more product or manufacturers selling more product. I think that's where we're going with this.
You know, what's happening in the industry today, along with my friend and the president of the PGA of America Brian Whitcomb, we as PGA members are trying to bring this industry together the best we can. We really want to take the lead on bringing this industry together as one and working for the betterment of the game because if we improve the game and we make it more fun and rounds increase, we will all prosper, and yes, even you'll have more stories to write about. So we're really excited about it.
I'm happy to be involved with Nike. I'll be around if anybody has any questions after. We're very excited to have you here. I know as a PGA member, just as a PGA member, we're very, very proud of the PGA Learning Center and very proud of the PGA Golf Club right down the road. Brian headed up a great renovation project over the last few years. We've updated it and made it up to today's standards. It's ready for your play. I hope you get a chance to get out there and play this great golf course and use a Nike golf ball, I guess.
But we're glad to have you here. We're proud of this facility and we're very, very happy to have a gentleman coming to see you in a little bit, who by the way happens to be a four-time PGA champion and the No. 1 player in the world and a Nike -- someone I know I'm very, very proud to have myself aligned with through Nike, Tiger Woods. It's going to be a great day. I hope you enjoy it.
Again, I want to thank Cindy and Bob for the opportunity to be involved with Nike. It's a great company. We all support companies in this business, and I happen to be very, very proud of my relationship with Nike.
I'll be around later if anybody has any questions or whatever. I'll be glad to answer them. Stay warm down here. I hope I can stay for the rest of the winter. Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy the day.
Normally when you think of SUMO, at least back in the day, you thought of an oversized man wearing a diaper held together with safety pins going after another oversized man wearing a diaper rolling around on the floor. That's not the case anymore, especially in the golf industry. You think of these two beauties right here, the SUMO 5900 and the SUMO 5000, and right now I want to invite someone up to present these clubs to you and get your look at them, Gidge Moody. Welcome, Gidge.
GIDGE MOODY: Thank you, Kelly. Good morning. So I hope everybody is doing well. It's very nice to see some old friends again. It's always a pleasure coming down here to Florida. It's always nice leaving Portland when it's a little rainy, and I talked to my wife yesterday and the gutters are completely filled with water, and three or four inches were expected yesterday and another three or four today. So like Vermont, we're having some of our own issues up in the Portland area.
But today it's really a special day. It's always fun introducing new products to all of you, and it's always fun, especially when the innovations keep moving forward and we're pushing it to make the game better for so many players. Today we're going to talk about the two new drivers that we're seeing here, the SUMO2 5900 and the new SUMO 5000. We're going to talk about the effect of MOI.
There's been a lot of conversation about MOI. A lot of people aren't really sure what it stands for, what it means, but we want to make sure that you understand why we focus on it so much and why we believe that it's very important.
The other thing we want to talk about then is the drivers themselves, the 5900 and the 5000. I'll also talk briefly about the new SUMO2 fairway wood, which really you're going to see at the PGA Show. We won't do much conversation today. And then I want to talk just a little bit about the performance that we see from improving the MOI.
But first a little bit of history, and Cindy alluded to it earlier. What's really special is that a few years ago we introduced the Sasquatch driver. What was special about this driver for Nike is that it was an evolution into the 460 realm, and we were one of the first companies to achieve 460. We made two versions, the 460 and the 460 Tour, which Tiger has played through his career over the past few years, so we're very pleased about that.
It wasn't just 460 that was special, it was the power bow that was put on the back. The reason that was significant is because it was a demonstration of where the weight was repositioned. It was a very, very strong communication to both the retailer and to the consumer where we put the weight.
Well, then last year we had introduced two new drivers. One was another SUMO, the first SUMO 460, and the second was the original SUMO2 driver, the original square that we've brought out.
Now, the original SUMO was about 4900 MOI and the SUMO2 was about 5300 MOI. Again, a big evolution because we evolved the power bow, and that evolution of the power bow allowed us to increase the MOI. That also allowed us to make the shape of square and to really put the weight where we really needed it most to make it as stable a product as possible, and that's one thing that was very, very special was we developed two separate performances from these. We didn't just develop two different shapes with the same performance. Our goal was to separate the performances so we'd meet the players' needs a lot better, as well as the retailers' needs to try and fit the players much better, and that's where the SUMO2 was very stable and the SUMO was very forgiving but yet more workable so you could control the shot shape even more.
This year we've had the pleasure of introducing an entire SUMO line, and it all surrounds forgiveness, MOI, ease of performance and distance, and the entire SUMO line as we see up here, the hybrids and the irons we introduced to you a couple months ago, and now we're bringing to you the drivers and a brief glimpse at the fairway wood.
Well, first I really want to talk about the significance of MOI because I think it's very important that we understand the significance and why we spend so much time on it. There are a few questions up here that I'd like you to ask yourself and hopefully we can answer throughout the day. One is why is MOI important just in general? Two, why should Nike Golf engineers even care about MOI with all the other things that make a golf ball move? Three, how does it really benefit the player? Four, how does it benefit the retailer from knowing about MOI? And five, what is the relationship between MOI and our engineering staff in our overall product philosophy?
Hopefully I'll answer most of these questions during the presentation, but if I don't get to it, please stop me on the range while you're trying the products, or Don Reardon, who's joined us from (the Nike R&D facility in) Fort Worth today, and he'll help answer all these questions for you.
First, the significance of MOI, basically depending on the height of MOI, or the larger the number, the more stability you get. The more stability you get, the limited twisting that you get on off-centered hits, so it stays stable at impact. So it can be a good thing to some players. It can be a detriment to other players. I'll talk about that in a minute.
As we get more stable, we get more accuracy, so it's again a bigger benefit to higher handicap players as well as a lot of TOUR players. Cindy mentioned K.J. Choi, and even TOUR players want to set up and they want to hit the ball just straight. Some players do want to work the ball, and that's the difference that we're talking about between the drivers.
And then overall distance. As you get a more stable environment, you get a greater energy return back to the golf ball. As more energy is returned from the club back to the golf ball, we inherently get more distance. These are part of the building blocks for Nike Golf, and it's not just MOI but it's a multitude of things that MOI is just a part of.
The square geometry that we're talking about, really it's overall geometry which helps position the center of gravity as well as the MOI. It inherits the stability of the golf club, which is good depending on what the player is looking for. Some define stability and accuracy, again, as the ability to carve the ball into the fairway. Some define stability and accuracy as the ability just to line up and hit it straight.
Now, what you're going to see here is a demonstration of what we're talking about at impact. First is the SUMO 5000, and what you'll see, these are off-center hits on the toe, that's about 16 degrees of open or twisting at impact. Now with the SUMO2 5900, you'll see at impact that the driver twists a lot less, about six degrees less. That means that there's more energy transferred back to the ball. It also means because the driver is more square at impact we're going to get a straighter shot.
Now, this is from behind the ball at impact. Here's a traditional shaped driver that we see. Notice the amount of twisting at impact. That happens every time we hit a golf ball. It's pretty impressive to see the violence that a golf club goes through at impact. You notice the ball went off to the right, as predicted.
Here's the SUMO2. Again, you're going to see violent twisting at impact and the ball will go off to the right but not nearly as much. This is the benefit of squared geometry with high MOI and with the CG (center of gravity) in the far back position.
So the overall effect that we see with the drivers is about 14 yards, 15 yards of dispersion off to the right with the SUMO2 and our traditional drivers with less MOI. This is the important factor here. A lower MOI we get more twisting and the ball goes farther to the right.
The same initial thought goes for the fairway woods, and generally what we see, even though we have the ground to get in the way, is with a squared fairway wood, and that type of geometry we see about 10 yards of dispersion versus the 20 yards of dispersion with a lower MOI.
So with that, we're introducing today, as I mentioned before, two new drivers and the glimpse of a fairway wood, the 5900 square, and that really means for us, very simple, straight and long. So squared means straight and long and round means workable and round. It really depends what the player is looking for, and players on all levels are looking for that type of performance that we can fit in them.
The 5900, what is that about? As I mentioned, straight and long. It's a beautiful new driver for us. We got up to the 5900 by expanding the MOI and expanding the design. You'll notice that it's thicker than the original SUMO2. You'll notice a different sound when you hit the ball. You'll notice that it's very active off the face. You get a lot of great distance and power.
There's also another question around square that people have been asking, and that really surrounds the market, is square dead. Is square geometry beyond round really a dying entity?
What we've seen from some of our data over the last few months or over this year is that square geometry or geometry in general is a growing entity in the business. It has not slowed down at all. It is not a fad. It's something that the players are seeing a performance difference and a benefit, and they're starting to buy it, and that's why we continue to innovate around this realm.
Then there's the 5000 driver. Now, the 5000 driver, we purposely named that from the 5900. That was to show and communicate the ability to work the ball versus stability and straight and accuracy because again, there are players that are looking for that type of performance out there, so we wanted to clearly demonstrate that. Again, a beautiful-looking design.
So round is designed to be workable. It's got Diamana shafts in it, a new Diamana Yellow Board shaft that we've designed for both the 5900 and the 5000 with the Diamana Blue platform and shape on it. The main difference that by flex, we've changed the weights. So your X shaft is 73 grams, your R and S shafts are 54 grams, and your senior flex and your women's flex are now 55 grams.
Why did we go to that length of separating the weight so much? Well, it's because all those players require different feel. Obviously you've got different club head speeds, and to maximize the performance for all those players with their slower and higher club head speeds and maximized feel, the benefit comes from the shaft weight. So we've really focused often that and we've delivered a very nice product with the help of MRC, Mitsubishi Rayon, excuse me.
So what's the overall benefit that we see from this? Well, as we can see from the slide up here, as we have the original SUMO2 on top and the 5900 on the bottom. As we can see, the center hits in blue are relatively about the same distance from that. But if you notice the toe hits in the burgundy, there we get a significant jump in distance. That's where I was talking about that energy return coming back. We also get a positive response on the heel, as well, where we get a significant energy return there.
That is a huge benefit of MOI. I don't know many players that really can't benefit from a golf club that offers so much across -- off the face. I know I hit it off-center quite a bit, and I know a lot of friends that hit it maybe slightly off-center every now and then, but even slightly off-center there's a tremendous benefit. And with the SUMO 5000, a very similar effect. Even though it's 5000 and much more workable, even over our original SUMO, we still have improved the toe and heel hits significantly. But the main difference is versus the 5900, it's significantly more workable. So with that I'd like to thank you very much for your time today and we'll see you out on the range.
KELLY TILGHMAN: Gidge Moody will be out there to answer any questions you have, as he said before. Violent twisting at impact, not familiar with that (laughter). I know some of you guys are. It's all relative to who's hitting the ball. Very exciting stuff. Next we're going to talk about this 360 fitting system, and it is not going to guarantee that you hit the ball in every direction, it's going to guarantee that you hit it in the direction you want to hit it by perfecting the clubs to your swing and your specs, and to talk about that, we're going to welcome James Thomas.
JAMES THOMAS: Real quick, I'll just show a video, just an overview of our custom fitting cart and the solution that we have there, which is a good cue and lead-in for the rest of the presentation.
(Video shown.)
JAMES THOMAS: So we'll see the Cart later. We haven't perfected the hovering aspect of the Cart yet, something we're working on very hard in Fort Worth. We've got some of the Servo connections down.
Anyway, I'll talk to you a little bit about custom fitting. This was really an initiative project for us and how we develop a custom fitting solution that uses all of our product lines and is meaningful to the consumer and also the retailer. And as Gidge mentioned, the 5900 and the 5000, but the custom fitting also involves fairway woods, hybrids, SUMO, SUMO2 irons, wedges, the full gamut of our product line.
So our fitting goals when we're looking at this project was to develop the best full-bag fitting, meaning from driver to wedge. What is relevant to the consumer? What's going to make him play better golf? We need to develop an easy-to-use component system so the retailer was happy with us so that made his life easier, he had everything at his fingertips, and we wanted to incorporate technology to elevate the fitting experience.
What can we do as engineers and as things that we use in our TOUR shop when you're fitting people like Tiger and the rest of our staff? What can we learn from them and what can we apply to the normal, everyday fitting?
So some of the things that we kept in the back of our minds as we're going through this process is the consumer experience. Fitting is more than just looking at your lie angle and your length. Certainly we can do that, but relevant to the consumer, I have all these options in my bag, and I don't know, should I hit a fairway wood, should I hit a hybrid, should I hit a hybrid, should I hit a long iron. Consumers have a lot of options, more options than they've ever had, and they need help determining what is best for them in their bag, and that's what 360 fitting is all about is a full-bag fitting.
We believe that the said configuration can lead to overall improvement of scores and your average consumer to play better golf.
So as we look at the 360, our baseline custom fitting philosophy, there's a lot of things that you learn when you start a fitting. We like to fit with a driver first, actually beginning with a player questionnaire, what is the consumer looking for, what are they looking to get out of their golf game, what are their needs? And then moving into driver fitting.
We'll go into great detail on the range, but as you move into driver fitting, what can I learn as I move forward from driver fitting to fairway wood fitting and from fairway wood fitting to hybrid fitting? What are some of the key variables that I can learn and key on and bring forward those through the entire fitting? If I'm fitting someone like Scott Symoniak, who's going to be helping me later on the range, and I find that he has a low launch and a high spin, that's probably something that's going to dictate the rest of the fit, as well. He's not going to miraculously be a high launch, low spin guy in his irons. It could happen, but it's not probable.
So then as we go from fairway wood fitting to hybrid fitting, hybrid fitting to long iron fitting, where do you start your set? How do you hit a hybrid versus a 3-iron? How many hybrids should you carry in your set? Do you need a hybrid at all? There's certain players that hybrids aren't beneficial for, and how does the fitter know when to switch gears, more irons, less hybrids, more hybrids, less irons?
Then once you have your set defined, moving into wedge fitting, gap fitting analysis, how many wedges should the player carry, should he carry one, two, three, four? How much room does he have left in the bag based on the rest of the fit? So it's about incorporating the whole bag and elevating the golfer's bag, giving him less decisions on the golf course and giving him more tools to play better golf.
One of the other key variables, we mentioned technology and developing this fitting system was the launch monitor and how can we take launch data and learn as we go, and that's where the 360i fast intelligent fitting software comes into play. It really keyed off with drivers at first. When we look at starting someone with a driver and baselining them with a 10 1/2 (degree) stiff driver, regardless of who it is, and learning from that one variable, and then within six drivers, putting six drivers together and going through that fitting process, 18 shots total, we can come up with a fitting recommendation of what's their longest driver going to be and what driver offers the most control.
Our goal was to give the most options, both to the fitter and to the consumer to give them the confidence that they're going to take the best driver away that fits their game. Some players are looking for control, some players are looking for distance. Some players are looking for a little bit of both. Our goal is to give them that option, and 360i does that.
Also when you're looking at conducting a lot of fittings, the software actually takes you through the full bag fitting of irons and wedges, categories of that data, and keeps it as a record for the fitter so that if he sees 20 people in a week and this guy comes back two weeks later, then he has an opportunity to pull his records up by name and either continue a fitting or move him into retail and get him exactly what he needs.
The gap fitting analysis, and we'll see this also outside, is the balance between where your driver starts and where your fairway is, and you see this green area where we actually highlight the recommended slope of where your club should fit, and then as we start plotting each one, and you look at this green dot low on the bottom, that's your 3-iron, then you see a horizontal line, that's your first hybrid. That pink line is a little bit small. But you can see this player hits their hybrid a little bit better than a 3-iron, so it's very easy and very graphical to be able to show the consumer that you're a 20-yard gap between your hybrid and your 3-iron.
The software really helps solve the consumer's ease, put them at ease to know what they need to have in their bag.
Again, back to the Cart, so then we put this all together, you have a component system that has over 80 shafts, over 50 club heads, so how do you manage that? So the concept of a mobile fitting system with cases and quivers has to be modular, has to be easy to use. We came up with the case and quiver concept. So if you're fitting drivers, I reach down in, I pull out my driver case, I pull out my quiver of shafts, I'm ready to go. When I switch to fairway woods, separate case. When I switch to irons, separate case, different quiver.
It's very versatile for -- this is the consumer -- our consumer being the fitter. It makes it easier for them to do their job. They get somebody that walks in the shop at 3:30 on a Friday, hey, can I get fit for a driver? They grab one case, one quiver, they can go to the range. They don't have to bring the whole Cart out. It's about versatility there.
As I mentioned, Scott and I will be on the range doing fittings later, answering any questions you have relative to the presentation. Thanks so much.
KELLY TILGHMAN: As we all know, there are really only a few things that can get people like me and my fellow members of the media out of bed this early in the morning, and that's a free breakfast, coffee and doughnuts, and a chance to go one-on-one with Tiger Woods. 61 PGA TOUR victories, 13 major championships, seven times a winner this year; the PGA Championship in sweltering heat, he was a specimen that week; THE TOUR Championship, he owned the place and captured the inaugural FedExCup.
He's a guy who demands perfection with his clubs, and it speaks volumes to his relationship with Nike. As he continues to tweak his equipment and update his bag, it's going to be exciting to find out what changes are in store for 2008. Without further ado I'm going to bring him out right now. I'm going to open up the floor and go one on one, we'll try to keep these questions as pertinent to Nike as possible because that is the platform that provided him today. That is the reason he is here. Ladies and gentlemen, I welcome the world No. 1, Tiger Woods. How are you?
TIGER WOODS: I'm good.
KELLY TILGHMAN: You had an incredible 2007 season. I mentioned the numbers right there, and that's just seven highlights in a season filled with them. Could you put your year into perspective for us?
TIGER WOODS: Well, this year probably I would describe as a polar opposite of last year, not necessarily because of what I did on the golf course but what happened off it, and I think that's been the most incredible thing is that everything I did on the golf course, it gets put into perspective real quick when something happens last year, and then with (daughter) Sam this year. This is the coolest ride ever.
KELLY TILGHMAN: I know she gripped a club recently. Has she gripped a Nike driver yet?
TIGER WOODS: It's a little long. I've been practicing at home a little bit this past week and she's been out there watching me hit balls. It's interesting, she shakes it every time I hit a shot. She gets excited, like this could be a good thing. She's never going to beat me, though (laughter).
KELLY TILGHMAN: Always the competitor. You joined forces with Nike Golf in 1996. We're approaching the 12th season here, what a run. Why are they so innovative in the industry? Why are they the leaders you choose to be with?
TIGER WOODS: Well, it all starts from the top. Phil Knight, he's the one. He's the one who pushes all of us. What he has done just with the brand itself and then with his attitude, it's spurred us on in golf, as well. Obviously when I first came to Nike Golf it really wasn't Nike Golf. We weren't a leader in the industry, we weren't pushing the envelope, we weren't as focused as we needed to be, and that all changed, thanks to Bob Wood and all the guys at Nike Golf got it turned around, and here we are.
KELLY TILGHMAN: Here we are, the Nike One Platinum ball, the choice of yours, you play the blades, Sasquatch driver, fairway woods. Talk about how involved you are with getting your equipment right where you want it to be.
TIGER WOODS: Well, if it's not going to help my game, it's not going in the bag; that's just the way it is. I've been involved for every single process of it, from tweaks to shaping the irons to shaping the woods to obviously constructing the golf ball. I need to have it do certain things, and if it's not doing it then we have a problem and we work through it.
That's been one of the greatest things about working with Nike is they've allowed me to use my feel and use the things that I know about the game of golf that then they can translate it into numbers. I can only basically tell you by feel what the ball does or how a club feels, but it's actually been a pretty neat relationship because I've learned so much, obviously infinitely more than they've learned from me. But it's really allowed me to play to a different level because obviously now I can make tweaks from a numbers perspective, which I never knew even existed.
KELLY TILGHMAN: I could imagine or understand why you would be reluctant to change anything, considering the streaks and the runs that you go on with the equipment that you have, incredible stuff. I guess it begs the question have you tested the new drivers yet, the new fairway woods, the SUMO2 5900 and 5000?
TIGER WOODS: I have. I have tested all of it, and it was just like the last square. I hit it straighter, there's no doubt. I hit it straighter, but I enjoy working the golf ball and almost need to for the length that I hit it. I just found a little bit more of a difficult time putting the ball into some of the doglegs because the ball would just go too straight, which is great for all the amateurs out there. You hit it straighter, which I did, and I hit it a little bit further, as well. Everyone who's obviously tested the square and the new one finds the same thing.
KELLY TILGHMAN: So I guess therein lies the answer. What would you tell a consumer as to why they might want to go with these clubs?
TIGER WOODS: Well, you hit it longer and straighter. That's like the greatest combo you could possibly have. Not too many amateurs out there are going to be trying to hit two-yard draws or three-yard fades and change your trajectory by six, eight, 10 feet. That's not what they do. But for them -- for most of the consumers that don't play golf all the time, that don't do it for a living, there's nothing like hitting it longer and straighter.
KELLY TILGHMAN: I'd love to get your opinion on this new 360 fitting system, how close you are to it and how much it's going to help the average golfer.
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it's been great because it's all about getting the equipment to fit you. You don't have to fit the equipment, and I think that's how I learned how to play golf. My dad was ardent about getting the equipment so that I didn't have to make any type of setup adjustments or even swing adjustments just because the clubs were too long or too short or too heavy. And that allowed me to get my fundamentals better and develop them I think more sound at an earlier age, where a lot of the other kids didn't have that luxury, didn't have a person in their life that believed in that.
Well, that's basically what I've always grown up with, and now the amateurs get to experience what we get to experience all the time on TOUR, have the equipment fit them. It's amazing how much further the guys are hitting the golf ball, how much better they're playing because the equipment fits them. It's not like the old days with the persimmon driver where if the face wasn't quite right you'd kink it on your knee, and that was that. You don't have to do that anymore. You have a driver built for your swing, your setup, and off you go.
KELLY TILGHMAN: So note to self, hitting yourself with equipment doesn't work anymore. This is your opportunity to ask Tiger questions that may be burning in your mind. I'll open up the floor right now.
Q. You talked about the square driver. Can you talk about the ball a little bit?
TIGER WOODS: Obviously I like an all-around golf ball, one I can play in the wind, one I can use on hard and soft conditions, and on top of that, one that works with all 14 clubs. A lot of the amateurs and a lot of the consumers out there, they really don't need to have that type of detail. If they hit the ball longer and further, they're going to love it. They don't want the ball to stop.
I want my ball to go a specific number, and that's one of the reasons why I think I've stayed with the golf ball I've been playing with.
And then I think it'll be interesting to see how the market goes, especially in our TOUR industry, if the USGA changes the rules on the grooves. It'll be interesting to see if the guys stick with the firmer cover golf balls or are they going to go back to a little softer ball.
Q. The only non-Nike club in your bag is your putter. Do you ever foresee using a Nike putter?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I travel with all backups, and obviously my backup is a Nike. But my putter has been pretty good to me (laughter). I've won a couple tournaments since -- I put it in play at the Byron Nelson (Championship) of '99. Yeah, 12 majors with one putter is not too bad.
Q. There's one thing that I don't quite understand. If you have a square-faced driver, you can hit the ball quite straight. Why can't you close the club face slightly at impact to make it draw and open it slightly at impact to make it fade?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think, one, the driver being designed to hit the ball straight, you have to make big adjustments. Well, I feel like I have to make big adjustments to curve the ball either way. Instead of making finite changes and then swing path or the shape of it, what you want to do with your hands, what I want to do with the golf ball, you have to make bigger adjustments. Making bigger adjustments with the driver means that you've got to make -- you start tending to make bigger adjustments with the rest of your clubs. I feel like I've got it dialed in to how I like to play golf.
Is there a time where, yeah, I could see myself using a square driver, yes, but I haven't found one that I can quite work as easily. It's designed to hit the ball dead straight, which it does. I hit it longer and I hit it straighter. But working the ball around doglegs, that's one of the things I found was a little bit more difficult for me.
Q. One of the things they've put down with the square driver is great sound. What was your reaction to the old sound of the other square and what's your reaction when you hear the new one? We all knew when K.J. was on the range.
TIGER WOODS: The first one I think was good and bad. It was good in the sense that it was eye-opening. It got your attention. It brought awareness to what we were doing. But also people laughed at the sound, as well, so I think that would be the bad part of it. But the functionality of the club was far superior to anything else out there, and I think that's why a lot of the consumers did buy it, even though we had issues with the sound.
Audio-wise that's been fixed, and the functionality of the driver has gotten even better, which is even more scary.
Q. Last year at The Masters when you broke your 4-iron there was a lot of talk about somebody running in and getting you an extra one and bringing it out. What sort of extra equipment do you take with you when you are at a tournament and how likely are you to maybe switch something in between rounds?
TIGER WOODS: No, no one brought anything out. When I go to tournaments I always bring a backup putter, wedges, fairway woods and driver, and they're always sitting in my locker. I don't really carry a backup set of irons. I don't really foresee myself breaking any irons.
But my wedges are slightly different for different conditions, different grasses, different bunkers, things like that. And then obviously my 2-iron, I've got a couple different 2-irons with different lofts, one for like a British Open, one for normal tournaments. My fairways woods are slightly different lofts, depending on how windy it is or carry distance, what I need for the week. And then driver, always carry a backup just in case I crack it.
Q. In the last few years with all the technological changes that have been going through, how much do you change your clubs when you take one or two or three out of your bag at a time, and what is your philosophy on not wanting or wanting to make a bunch of changes with your equipment?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I change wedges probably a little more frequently. The amount of practicing I'm doing on my short game, the amount of bunker shots I hit, I'll wear down my grooves pretty quickly. I change my full set of irons probably nine, 10 months. I started hitting -- because of the nature of my warmup sessions and the nature of my practice sessions, I tend to practice or warm up with -- I go sand wedge, 8-iron, so my 8-iron gets a lot of pounding. And then my 7-iron, 6-iron, 9-iron seem to be like practice clubs. I'll eventually start hitting some hot balls. The grooves will start getting a little worn, just the nature of the amount of balls I hit.
Q. How has technology elevated your game through the years? Could you talk about that a little bit?
TIGER WOODS: Well, the game has changed so much. I mean, from -- my first tournament I ever won was in Vegas. I remember playing against Davis Love in a playoff, he used a persimmon driver, so time has changed even in my era. It's amazing how the standard of golf clubs has gone from 43 1/2 (inches) to now 45 and 45+ in length. Everybody had steel shaft; now no one has a steel-shafted driver. The drivers back when I was growing up were I think smaller than the 3-woods nowadays.
Things have changed. Things have gravitated towards the average golfer and has made the average golfer play golf better and easier and more enjoyable. I think that's why people are actually probably shooting better scores than they used to, because obviously the game of golf has become a little bit easier. But it's still hard.
Then again, golf courses have become designed harder, a lot more difficult now. Bunkers are deeper, golf courses are a lot longer than what I ever grew up playing. I remember back when I was young, it was like a long par 4 was 420 yards. That was a long hole. Now in every U.S. Open there's a par 4 over 500 yards. That's just the way it is; it's changed.
Q. You once said that Moe Norman and Ben Hogan were the two guys that owned their golf swings and you wanted to be the third. As you seek to be that third individual that owns his swing, where does equipment fit into that equation?
TIGER WOODS: Well, obviously you have to have sound mechanics and you have to have a golf swing that's repeatable day in and day out, but having equipment that obviously fits you and fits your personality. There's no way that Hogan could have swung with Moe Norman's clubs and vice versa. I could never swing with Jack's clubs and he couldn't swing with mine. Everyone's equipment is going to be slightly different.
But it's finding that equipment that enhances your skills and how you believe you should play. That's the trick of it. And having the availability of all the Nike staff here to help me along the way, as I said earlier, helped me understand numbers.
I understand feel, but I didn't understand the numbers behind it. They've shown me just a ton of detail how I could get better and they've enhanced that. They've enhanced my ability to understand how to fix things. That's why I said, with my backup clubs I have variances in style of play because I didn't understand that before. I would just do it with my hands. But now equipment allows me to do it, as well.
Q. Any thoughts of putting a hybrid in the bag?
TIGER WOODS: I can still hit my 2-iron halfway decent.
KELLY TILGHMAN: I'm always looking forward to the reaction on that question.
TIGER WOODS: You know what, I can see that happening because in my teens I used a 1-iron, in my 20s a 2-iron, and now as soon as I turned 30 I put a 5-wood in, so obviously 40 will be a hybrid or a 7-wood. Senior Tour will be some kind of 9-wood or some kind of 11-thing (laughter). Maybe my bag will start looking like Allen Doyle's or something.
KELLY TILGHMAN: Belly putter on the way?
TIGER WOODS: Belly putter, cross-handed saw grip (laughter).
Q. You've said many times that you love playing links golf courses and you enjoy shaping the ball and moving the ball around. Can you ever see a time where -- I mean, the game is going to become so much a better of kind of perfect equipment, perfect mechanics, that you won't need -- obviously you do more with the golf ball, with your golf swing is what I'm trying to say, than the golf club, and that will always be the case do you think?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, definitely. The golf ball and obviously construction of the golf ball and the golf clubs allows you to hit the ball so much straighter than ever before, especially on mis-hits. I've hit some of my -- the persimmon driver that I grew up with, I bring it out every now and then, and I hit it probably only 10 or 15 yards behind my driver. But when I mis-hit it, it's like hitting 3-iron out there, and it goes absolutely nowhere. There's the biggest difference.
But shaping the golf ball now is not like how (Lee) Trevino used to shape it or Chi-Chi (Rodriguez) used to shape it, both ways. Shaping the golf ball basically means changing trajectory now because the golf ball goes so much straighter.
It used to be if you drew a ball, you drew it early, it was never late, and then it would fade and fall right. Now if you notice it draws and straightens out or fades and straightens out, so the game has changed. I think maneuvering the golf ball now is basically changing trajectory and playing that way.
Q. Could you talk a little bit about how your place in Jupiter Island is coming along and maybe when we can expect to see you in the neighborhood?
TIGER WOODS: They're slow down here (laughter). I'd like to be down here now, but it's taking a while. I'm sure construction will take longer than what they say. As soon as I can get down here, I'll be down here.
Q. Are you looking towards this being a future home for your family?
TIGER WOODS: There's no doubt. That's one of the reasons why we chose this area. It's a beautiful area. I grew up near the ocean, so did Elin, and we're basically right on it. I think it's just a great area to live. And also with the schooling system, which I never thought of before, but they're things I've got to think about now, and that's changed. Obviously the schools they have in the area are second to none.
Q. When you were a kid and your dad was fitting you, so to speak, with different clubs and that sort of thing, did he have that kind of knowledge? Did he get it? Did he go out and acquire it, or was he just one of those kind of equipment guys that wanted to know as much about it as he could?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think I got that from my dad, a little bit nerdy in that sense. He felt he was average build, 5'9", his arm length, and they did a ratio, did measurements and did a ratio between what someone would be at his height, with his length of club with all the clubs, and then at my height, my length of arms and with my length of clubs, what that would be, and did the whole ratio and came out with certain numbers and length of clubs.
As I grew we would add extensions in there, but as I told dad that would throw my weighting off, had a counterbalance effect to it. We only would do that basically every half inch I would grow, add a counter balance to it, and then we'd have to reshaft them. So that's kind of how we did it. He created this whole ratio thing that worked out, and I didn't have to make adjustments where I saw the other kids did.
The only difference between what's available now and what I grew up with was he had X shafts. Well, X shafts cut down to this length is like a quintuple X, you know? So I had to generate all my speed, all my power myself. I didn't have any help with the shaft. Nowadays kids can have lighter graphite shafts that actually will play very similar if not identical to what we play as adults. That would be the only difference between how I grew up and how the kids are growing up now.
Q. Just out of curiosity, when did you stop doing that system with your dad?
TIGER WOODS: Probably 13.
Q. This is the longest break of your career, I think. How do you feel right now, mentally and physically? And also as it relates to the clubs, I'm sure you put them in the closet after The Presidents Cup. How long before you took them out, when did you miss them, how did it feel when you started swinging again?
TIGER WOODS: I put them away right after, and I didn't basically do anything until this past week, however long that is, a month and a half, two months, whatever it is.
KELLY TILGHMAN: Is that the longest break for you?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, well, it was the longest non-forced break. 2002 I obviously had the knee surgery then and was out.
Yeah, it's been absolutely great to put them away. It's interesting when I -- this has always been the case with me when I come back. First day, I hit it like a god, okay? Next day I hit it like a 5-handicapper, third day is like an 18, and then the next week or two I try and get back to hopefully a zero-handicapper. That's kind of the progress.
I don't know why it's like that. I always start off hitting it great and then have this immediate falloff, start thinking about my game and it goes all to pieces and then I've got to build it back up again. So it's kind of fun.
Q. What do you think this will do for you going forward, next week at your tournament (the Target World Challenge)?
TIGER WOODS: I think it's the freshness. That's one of the reasons I don't play as much as a lot of the guys do. I enjoy being mentally fresh. This time I got a chance to work on my body and get it stronger than I've ever had it, which is fun, and I haven't put on any weight, which has been great. I've leaned up a little bit. I've never had an off-season. I've never taken an off-season.
You know, most guys gear up during the off-season and get their bodies ready for a season and then hopefully maintain it and have a little bit of a falloff throughout their season.
Golfers for some reason since we play all year-round, we're always in a continual maintenance phase. You never get a chance to make big gains. Well, I finally got a chance this off-season and it's been fun. I'm looking forward to getting back out and competing. This past week I started really missing getting out there and trying to beat people. Anybody at Isleworth who wants a game, we'll go out there and play, and hopefully the cash goes my way.
Q. You talked a little bit about the shafts, but how often would you change your shafts compared to the actual clubs and how important is the shaft for your game?
TIGER WOODS: That's a very good question. I have played exactly the same setup in my irons since I was about 14, 14 and a half, X-1s tipped a quarter. I haven't changed in 17 years. Irons have been exactly the same. Driver shaft is obviously different, 43 1/2 to now 45-inch graphite, but I haven't changed a thing in my irons.
It doesn't mean I haven't tried. I've experimented with other shafts, but I've got this innate feel now built in for all these years what has been working for me.
Q. Kind of a follow-up on you moving here eventually. Certainly people in the Palm Beaches would love to see you maybe play in the Honda Classic. What conversations, if any, have you had about playing this year and if not this year maybe in the future?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I haven't planned out my schedule for next year yet. I've been enjoying this off-season. It's been nice having an off-season. After my tournament, Target, I'll start looking at my schedule and where I want to play and how I need to get ready for Augusta and see where everything falls.
Q. What are your iron specs? Are you two degrees up, and are you making any changes to your equipment this year?
TIGER WOODS: No, same irons as of right now. I just put a backup set in because towards the end of THE TOUR Championship and Presidents Cup I started hitting my 8-iron a little hot. It was almost like basically a 7 1/2-iron, so I had to get that set out. But as far as changing anything, no, I have not found anything yet.
Q. The USGA thing with the V-grooves, how much are you looking at that, how much are you working with Nike on that to adjust your game for the future?
TIGER WOODS: Well, I think it'll be a simpler adjustment for me than most guys because my golf ball spins a little bit more than most of the other players'. So going to V-grooves, I wouldn't have a problem at all. Some of the other guys who play harder golf balls I think might have to make a bigger adjustment. I think the biggest adjustment to be made obviously as everyone can see is out of the rough.
You don't really hit fliers. A lot of times out of the first cut is when you can actually spin the ball more than out of the fairway. It'll be interesting to see how guys -- if the V-grooves gets passed or when it gets passed, how guys attack par 4s or short par 4s, par 5s, how aggressive they're going to get because now that spin has changed, especially at harder venues like a U.S. Open or some of the other tournaments that have made the greens much firmer, then what are they going to do? It'll be interesting to see strategy-wise how that changes.
Q. (No microphone.)
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I've talked about it. We all have talked about it, but we're just basically waiting to see where it goes.
Q. I'm just curious how your clubs, maybe the shafts in particular, relate to some of the unique drills that you do? Or maybe they're not so unique, but in September before your match against Mike Weir at the Presidents Cup I noticed you out on the range, you were hitting these little shots with a long iron and with your arms kind of going out to the right and the ball was maybe going around 50, 60 yards. Can you tell us what you were trying to do perhaps and how the shafts can work into obviously a different kind of shot?
TIGER WOODS: Well, that was really nothing to have to do with the golf club; it was about my mechanics. Well, look at it this way: If you swing a golf club at let's say hypothetical 120 miles an hour and you slow it down to 50 miles an hour, how much easier is it to feel where each and every body part is when you drop it down over 50 percent in speed, and that's basically what I did. I tried to feel everything moving in the golf swing, where was I going wrong in the golf swing, try to pinpoint it so I could fix it and then exaggerate it a little bit.
That's one of the reasons why you saw me arcing it is because I couldn't quite draw the ball. So why try and fight a draw when you can hit a hook. I just hit big sweeping snap hooks for a little bit and get it organized, get me feeling that a little bit more, and then I can figure it out from there.
Q. Just one follow-up to that, over the years have you come up with a lot of the drills entirely on your own even away from some of the guys you've worked with? You have a whole bunch of different drills that you do that none of us ever even see?
TIGER WOODS: Yeah, I do, but a lot of that is understanding your own swing and how I need to fix it. I think that's -- you know, I really haven't changed the way I view how I should play the game of golf and how I can fix the game, fix my swing.
My depth of knowledge about my swing specifically has changed a lot, and I think that's one of the reasons why you see me doing certain drills now is because I understand how to fix it faster. If I do a certain drill I can fix my game faster and get me right back on where I just left off. That's turning those 73, 74, 75 rounds into 68s, 69s and 70s is understanding how to fix it immediately and keep you in the tournament, not to shoot yourself out of the tournament.
Q. You've talked about 120 and 50, which was kind of like the question I had because the 360 system to me seems the most important thing about today because trying to get the average golfer to understand that perhaps the Slingshot or the Sa
