TaylorMade Still Very Much For Sale
Daniel Roberts at Yahoo wonders what the signing of Tiger Woods means for TaylorMade's future as a company, and even suggests that landing Woods might make parent company Adidas reconsider its plan to have sold the company.
Roberts writes:
Instead of selling, might Adidas just hold on to TaylorMade, after a double-digit sales rise in the second quarter of 2016, and now that it boasts the most famous active golfer on the planet in its portfolio? Adidas still says no. “There are no changes to our plans for TaylorMade,” a spokesperson says.
Roberts insists the Woods signing "changes things."
It might help the company climb back market share, which would make it more attractive to a buyer. And it makes the brand more relevant and will surely give it new exposure, as all eyes are on Woods whenever he competes. The 41-year-old this week said he is “looking forward” to playing at The Masters in April.
The result could be finally finding a buyer, as Adidas hopes, or a cancellation of that effort.
Given that Woods' previous equipment maker has left the business, it's no guarantee that he or any player can sell enough clubs for today's conglomerates.
As for the specifics of Woods' new deal, Golfweek's David Dusek outlines what Woods will have in the bag.
At his press gathering here at Torrey Pines, Woods said it'll take time to get a set of irons he will play in competition. He also shed some light on the thinking behind his wedge designs.
Q. Tiger, what process was followed by switching out your clubs, the irons and the wedges and how long do you think that will take.
TIGER WOODS: With TaylorMade, they're allowing me to take my time and we're going to develop my irons and make the irons and the blades that I want and that will fit my game and what I like to look at in not only the playing position but also feel and obviously what shot window I want to hit it through. So we're in a process of building that and it's going to take a little time. And the same with the wedges, but I'm going to use my same grind. They're going to make my grind on the wedges that I've used over the years. I've used a couple different grinds over the years with Nike and we're probably going to have a couple of those different grinds available just because when I play in different sands, different parts of the world, I like to switch out my 60s every now and again. So we're going to have that availability as well.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017 at 01:36 PM
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