Grinding, Rory and Nike Golf

Labour Day. The unofficial death of summer even though there are still a few weeks left. With that means school. For some parents and children school is already back in class. For others (like myself) the respective parents are getting used to getting the "kidlets" back into the routine of "the grind". Grind... is there a word used more in describing golf? But what is exactly is the grind?

In this case the word grind is a verb. According to the dictionary it means "to reduce something to small particles" and when you really think about it... it really is a great adjective to sum up the game. We've all experienced the grind at one point or another because our love (see addiction) for the game is so strong. In my case, this meant going to the range/course daily to pound buckets of balls and play 18 or 36 holes afterwards to get ready for competition. Swings and changes don't really build themselves after all. For the last 5 years this was me in a nutshell. For guys and girls on Tour the grind can simply mean a dry spell in between wins or a period of playing a lot of golf week in and week out.

Photo Courtesy of TPC.com

This weeks winner on the PGA Tour and winner of the second leg of the FedEx Cup Playoffs was a guy that we really haven't heard a lot from as expected. You heard more about him for declining to play in Rio than you did for his play on the golf course. In fact, it has been 16 months since his last victory before winning this week at TPC Boston during the Deutsche Bank Championship. Yet in a quiet sort of manner there he sits in the Official World Golf Rankings at #3 in the World. Much has been said about Rory in 2016. Most notably that he's massive and that his woes are that he became too big to swing. His workout regimen almost became a thing of notoriety when Brandel Chamblee of Golf Channel heavily criticised him (not to mention the Olympics regret thing) publicly. Honestly, I thought he was bordering on "too much" and if you followed his Facebook or Twitter feeds you were lead to believe that he had become obsessed. There is no doubt that for Rory it had been a difficult time in 2016. We saw him throw or break a club more than once and The Open Championship comes quickly to mind. Something that Tiger became notorious for. The rage out of frustration was something that might make a passive observer think "'Rhoid Rage" but that's a can of worms that doesn't need to be opened. But Rory stayed with the course and played through the "struggles" (again #3 in the world). But golf fans expected so much from him. Recently, Rory addressed his putting issues by hiring Phil Kenyon to fix his woes. Kenyon's other clients include the likes of Henrik Stenson, Justin Rose  and Lee Westwood to give you the idea that the man knows what he's going. Well something clicked and it's great to see Rory and Nike Golf back in the winning column. Congratulations Rory!! But as I sit and watch I cannot help but think about the proverbial "Elephant in the Room".

Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com

So the "swoosh" that is Nike Golf. Unless you have been living under a rock you know that Nike Golf is getting out of the golf equipment game. This was a move that I predicted after the 2016 PGA Show Getting right to the point... it was downright surreal that Nike had no presence in Orlando. As a matter of fact had I not visited the Oban booth I would never have seen a Nike club there. So if you ask me the writing was clearly on the wall. So Nike Golf has elected to get out of the golf equipment game (balls too) and focus on apparel which really is undoubtedly the king of the brand. So when Rory won this week does it mean that we have seen the last of the "Swoosh" ITB in the "Winner's Circle"? One can't help but think that's a possibility so moving forward where do the likes of Rory and stablemates Kevin Chappell, Michelle Wie, Suzann Pettersen, Paul Casey, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka and Tiger Woods go as far as their next sponsor. In a case like Tiger and Rory who no doubt are getting wooed by everyone and their collective uncles it's hard not to see them playing a brand like PXG and no matter what CEO Bob Parsons says that he chases nobody... you have to know that he is actively pursuing the two players to play his wares. But you can't blame him can you? Truth be told I could almost see all of the above playing PXG with an asterisk beside the names of McIlroy, Woods, Koepka, Finau and Wie as strong likelihoods. Pettersen I initially had thoughts of TaylorMade but for some reason I see her playing PING. However, getting back to Rory I never thought he looked "right" with the swoosh and I was relatively vocal about it on Twitter when he first went there. I really felt that he should have stuck with Titleist and the two parties fit each other. Remember, before Nike Golf Tiger played Titleist too.

All in all, I think the departure of Nike Golf is going to make an otherwise mundane (Ryder Cup notwithstanding) wraparound season exciting. Let the rumour mills churn.

Until The Next Tee!