Breaking News: Tiger Woods Signs With Bridgestone Golf

By John Barba

When the #650 player in the Official World Golf Rankings signs an equipment deal, it usually isn’t news.

Unless, of course, #650 happens to be one Eldrick Tont “Tiger” Woods. That's news.

Most of you are aware that Tiger teed up the Bridgestone B 330S at the Hero Challenge a couple of weeks ago, and today Bridgestone has announced that Tiger has joined it's tour staff; inking him to a 5-year deal to play the company's golf balls.

The dollar value of the deal is not being disclosed.

Any way you slice it, this is a major - and badly needed - coup for Bridgestone, which has seen its ball market share slip to #3 in recent years, behind Titleist and Callaway.

So how did Bridgestone land Tiger? You could say it was a combination of timing, testing and trajectory.

Johnny On The Spot

Bridgestone didn’t waste any time reaching out to Tiger. Adam Rehberg, Bridgestone’s chief of Golf Ball Marketing, tells MyGolfy the company contacted Tiger shortly after Nike announced its golf equipment exit last August.

“Shortly as in just a few minutes after the announcement went live,” laughs Rehberg. “Went sent him the B 330 and B 330S, and then he did all the testing on his own. We didn’t do any testing with him with our R&D staff or our Tour staff. It was all just Tiger.”

There’s little doubt that virtually every ball company this side of Kirkland was wooing Tiger, but Rehberg says Tiger decided the B 330S was the best fit for his game.

“He has always traditionally played a spinny ball with a really soft cover, so he gravitated to the S because of its spin characteristics around the green. He’s a very aggressive chipper, and he told us the thing he liked most about the S is that he could be aggressive and put a large amount of spin on it.” – Adam Rehberg, Bridgestone Golf

“He also talked about how the ball was staying on the club face and coming off at a lower trajectory,” adds Rehberg. “Tiger’s always been a very low trajectory, high spin player on wedge shots, whether it’s around the green or 80, 90 yards out. He likes to keep the ball down with lots of spin, and the S really works for him”

An Equipment Stickler

When it comes to his equipment, Tiger is renowned for bringing new meaning to the term persnickety. This often created challenges for Nike, as Tiger often refused to bag Nike’s latest clubs or play its most recent Tour ball. Now free from the equipment end of his Nike deal, Tiger is free to play whatever he feels works best. While money no doubt played a role in his decision to sign with Bridgestone, it’s hard to imagine that, at this point in his career, a stickler such as Tiger would simply play the ball from the highest bidder.

“I think that’s how we landed him,” says Rehberg. “The fact that our ball is exactly what he needs and he obviously doesn’t have to search for cash. The performance of our ball is what brought to him our brand, and the performance of the B 330S is what led him to that ball specifically.”

In addition to performance around the green, Tiger is quoted as saying he’s getting about six more yards off the tee with the Bridgestone B 330S compared to other balls he tested.

A New “Tiger Effect?”

Make no mistake; this is a huge deal for Bridgestone. The company is basically off the radar in North American equipment sales, has seen its ball market share sag to #3. A year ago it pulled out of UK, the world’s 4^th largest golf market, entirely.

Bridgestone badly needed a big, bold, grab-you-by-the lapels high profile victory, and it’s safe to say landing Tiger Woods qualifies. Kuchar, Couples, Snedekar, and recent addition, Bryson DeChambeau, are fine players and solid brand ambassadors, but no one is going to blow off work in order to watch any of them play all four rounds of an off-season charity tournament in the Bahamas.

“We have a guy whose contract ended with another company and he could have gone anywhere he wanted. He could have hand-picked any brand he wanted. Heck, there was talk of him buying a company. He could have made a golf ball however he wanted and called it the Tiger Woods ball. He could've made a deal with Costco, but he decided to go with a ball he could trust and that he’d get the performance he needed around the greens and off the tee.” – Adam Rehberg

Bridgestone says the 5-year deal is for balls only (although they kept saying “as of right now”), so we still don’t know where Tiger will be going for his clubs (he gamed his Nike irons and a TaylorMade driver and fairway wood at the Hero), but Bridgestone is planning on making good use of its newest Staffer. The contract starts January 1, and you’ll be seeing Tiger in digital, social, print and broadcast marketing as a global Bridgestone Golf Ambassador.

Bridgestone is hoping that adding Woods will create a new type of Tiger Effect, one that encourages consumers to do what Tiger did and test everything, and then pick the one that performs best for them.

“It’s not just about choosing a ball because it’s the most played on Tour,” says Rehberg, “or that it has the number one count that week, or even because it won that week. We’ve never been a proponent of that. We’ve always been a proponent of playing the ball that fits your game.

“And maybe you’ll see some guys move away from certain brands and find out what other brands are really about, and base their choices on performance rather than just cashing a check.”

Even though it’s been over three years since Tiger’s last Tour victory and nearly 9 years since his last major, the man is still news. Golf is more exciting when Tiger is playing, and it can be downright riveting when the glutes are activating and he’s making birdies. But, as Nike learned, Tiger alone (or with Rory riding shotgun) doesn’t guaranty product sales. You can argue that despite having the right messengers, Nike never could quite figure out what message it wanted to send, nor could it ever develop a “must-have” ball or club.

In that respect, Bridgestone has never lacked confidence in its products or its message. By adding Tiger, Bridgestone not only has the 650^th ranked golfer in the world in its stable, it also has the highest profile messenger on the planet.