Tour News
What the OEMs have to say about Nike’s golf equipment exit
In case you missed it, Nike Golf announced on Wednesday that it will be transitioning out of golf equipment, but will continue to offer apparel and shoes. What does this mean for its staff of Tour players, and for the rest of the equipment industry going forward?
Who better to ask than Nike Golf’s one-time competitors; the equipment companies who are left to sell golf clubs, balls and bags to golfers across the world. So we did just that. We reached out to each of the major OEMs for their comments on the saddening news of Nike’s departure from hard goods.
Here’s are their responses.
Callaway
Callaway declined to comment, but here’s what Callaway’s CEO Chip Brewer told CNBC:
“Interesting that Adidas, Nike and [Under Armour], which are all great overall brands that we have a lot of respect for, appear to have moved to the same strategy. For those of us with commitment, momentum and specialist focus in the equipment space, we see it as an opportunity. We remain humble and hungry though!”
Cleveland/Srixon
“At this time, we are not going to comment, but will certainly communicate any statement relevant to this matter when appropriate.”
Cobra-Puma Golf
“While the recent news from one of our competitors is indeed surprising, at Cobra-Puma Golf we believe we have the right strategies to continue playing offense while others are clearly playing defense. We strongly believe in having a 360 product portfolio — from innovative equipment, to game-changing footwear, apparel and accessories — which allows us to provide the best service to our retail partners and ultimately to our consumers around the world. At Cobra-Puma Golf, we are poised to pounce on the many opportunities that exist in the golf category during this time of change.”
– Bob Philion, President & CEO of Cobra-Puma Golf.
Mizuno
While Mizuno did not immediately respond to our inquiries, they did send this Tweet in wake of the news, which says more than any comment could.
@TigerWoods @McIlroyRory @BKoepka @Kevin_Chappell @JhonattanVegas @russhenleygolf @themichellewie –Team Mizuno now holding open tryouts
— Mizuno Golf (@Golf_Mizuno) August 4, 2016
Ping
“It’s not our policy to comment on other manufacturer’s situations, so we’re going to politely pass on answering your question.”
PXG
Company founder Bob Parsons spoke extensively on the matter with GolfWRX. See what he said here.
TaylorMade
“We’re excited by the golf equipment category and the future opportunities it presents for performance-driven brands like ours. We’re fully committed to continuing to create industry-leading innovations across all segments; from our tour professionals to competitive amateur golfers alike who want the best performance equipment.
“We’ve just recorded a 24 percent increase in sales year-on-year for TaylorMade in Q2 and have the No. 1 selling driver in M2, the No. 1 selling fairway wood in M2 and the No. 1 selling iron in M2 (Golf Datatech June 2016). Our M technologies in M1 and M2 have enjoyed multiple wins on tour, Jason Day became the No. 1 player in the world, Dustin Johnson won his first major to become the No. 2 player in the world and we’ve just signed five of the top amateur golfers in the world, alongside our 10-year support of the AJGA announced earlier this year. So, I’m feeling very excited about the future of the equipment category and TaylorMade leading that charge.”
— David Abeles, TaylorMade CEO
Titleist
Declined comment.
Wilson
“For Wilson Golf, working with PGA Tour players has always been central to our strategy and that means we continually evaluate and talk with professional golfers. Wilson Staff Tour players are our partners both on the course and in our innovation process, and, therefore, we strive to work with players who see the intrinsic value of that type of relationship. Should Nike release players from their agreements we would look at individual players to see if there is a potential and mutual fit.”
— Tim Clarke, President of Wilson Golf
See what GolfWRX Members are saying about Nike’s decision in our forum.
GolfWRX is live this week from the final event of the PGA Tour’s regular season, the Wyndham Championship.
Photos are flowing into the forums from Sedgefield Country Club, where we already have a GolfWRX spirit animal Adam Schenk WITB and plenty of putters for your viewing pleasure.
Check out links to all our photos below, which we’ll continue to update as more arrive.
General Albums
- 2025 Wyndham Championship – Tuesday #1
- 2025 Wyndham Championship – Tuesday #2
- 2025 Wyndham Championship – Tuesday #3
WITB Albums
- Chandler Phillips – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Davis Riley – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Scotty Kennon – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Austin Duncan – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Will Chandler – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Kevin Roy – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Ben Griffin – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Peter Malnati – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Ryan Gerard – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Adam Schenk – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Kurt Kitayama – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Camilo Villegas – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Matti Schmid – WITB – 2025 Wyndham Championship
Pullout Albums
- Denny McCarthy’s custom Cameron putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Swag Golf putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Karl Vilips TM MG5 wedges – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- New Bettinardi putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Matt Fitzpatrick’s custom Bettinardi putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
- Cameron putters – 2025 Wyndham Championship
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
GolfWRX is live from the 3M Open at TPC Twin Cities!
Back from our overseas journey, we have plenty for you to digest from Minnesota, including WITBs and in-hand looks at some pretty impressive putters.
Check out links to all our photos below.
General Albums
- 2025 3M Open – Tuesday #1
- 2025 3M Open – Tuesday #2
- 2025 3M Open – Tuesday #3
- 2025 3M Open – Tuesday #4
WITB Albums
- Luke List – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Isaiah Salinda – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Akshay Bhatia – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Kaito Onishi – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Chris Gotterup – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Rickie Fowler – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Seamus Power – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Chris Kirk – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Vince Whaley – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Andrew Putnam – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- David Lipsky – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Thomas Campbell – Minnesota PGA Section Champ – WITB – 2025 3M Open
- Max Herendeen – WITB – 2025 3M Open
Pullout Albums
- Rickie’s custom Joe Powell persimmon driver – 2025 3M Open
- Custom Cameron T-9.5 – 2025 3M Open
- Tom Kim’s custom prototype Cameron putter – 2025 3M Open
- New Cameron prototype putters – 2025 3M Open
- Zac Blair’s latest Scotty acquisition – 2025 3M Open
See what GolfWRXers are saying and join the discussion in the forums.
GolfWRX was live this week across the pond for The Open Championship! Check out links to all our galleries from Royal Portrush below.
General Albums
- 2025 The Open Championship – Sunday #1
- 2025 The Open Championship – Monday #1
- 2025 The Open Championship – Monday #2
- 2025 Open Championship – Monday #3
- 2025 The Open Championship – Tuesday #1
- 2025 The Open Championship – Tuesday #2
- 2025 The Open Championship – Wednesday #1
Pullout Albums
- Cobra’s 153rd Open Championship staff bag – 2025 The Open Championship
- Srixon’s Open Championship staff bag – 2025 The Open Championship
- Scotty Cameron 2025 Open Championship putter covers – 2025 The Open Championship
- TaylorMade’s 153rd Open Championship staff bag – 2025 The Open Championship
- Shane Lowry – testing a couple of Cameron putters – 2025 The Open Championship
- New Scotty Cameron Phantom Black putters(and new cover & grip) – 2025 The Open Championship
- FootJoy x Harris Tweed limited-edition shoes – 2025 The Open Championship
- Nike “Open Championship” collection shoes, bags and hoodies – 2025 The Open Championship
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‘The stupidest freaking thing I’ve ever heard’ – Billy Horschel slams Open idea suggested by Padraig Harrington
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WITB Time Machine: Matthew Wolff’s winning WITB, 2019 3M Open
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Peter Malnati what’s in the bag accurate as of the Wyndham Championship. More photos from the event here. Driver: Titleist...
Cameron Young’s winning WITB: 2025 Wyndham Championship
Driver: Titleist GT2 (9 degrees, A1 SureFit setting) Buy here. Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Pro Orange 70 TX 3-wood: Titleist...
Camilo Villegas WITB 2025 (July)
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Mad-Mex
Aug 6, 2016 at 7:27 pm
IMHO if PXG doesn’t lower their prices or has a lower priced line, they are next, I say 2 years max.
Like it has been stated before, not too many 20-30 year olds want to drop 2K for clubs when for half they can have a full set of PING’s or Titleist or Callaway,,
Moonlander
Aug 7, 2016 at 5:57 am
Exactly. Hitting your 7 iron the same proximity to the pin but paying x5 times as much!? Thats an expensive shot price..
Justin
Aug 8, 2016 at 3:36 pm
PXG will be fine simply because they do not “over produce” clubs. They make a few hundred sets each year and are happy with that. They have a business model that includes a very patient owner who just wants to be part of the limelight. PXG clubs may become slightly cheaper in the future, but will still be quite a bit more expensive than the normal offering you’d find on the shelf. PXG does things a bit differently, as they’ll tell you. But, I do not think they will fail as a club maker because they have the correct vision for who they want to be. Watch them pick up about 5 more pros per year over the next 5 years. If they ever gain significant traction with the pros, don’t be surprised if their sales go up significantly, regardless of cost.
Lloyd
Aug 6, 2016 at 5:52 pm
Taylormade is one of the golfing companies are to blame produceing 4-5 drivers a year & tons of irons flooding the market there statement on Nike quitting golf is a joke let’s not forget adidas is off loading them as well they can boast about there cheep M2 products. Just make one good set of clubs that’s all not a load of crap. They all should follow Titleist the way they do it as Titleist state quality not quantity
M2G
Aug 5, 2016 at 11:00 pm
I still thing Nike was close to breaking through with vapor line then they made the new fly line blue. The masses don’t want a bright blue head.
Justin
Aug 8, 2016 at 3:41 pm
completely agree with this… they tried to appeal to the younger generation with a “bright” design and it fell flat on its face. If they would have continued with the green colorway or something similar, I think they’d still be around. The whole decision overall seems very rash to me. Seems like Phil was thinking about doing this for years and always found a way to tell him self, “well, let’s see how the next run of clubs does.” They were already well into preparation for production of the next line of clubs (which we may see drawings/protos of at some point, but maybe not) when the plug was pulled. If it really was a conscious decision, they would have stopped all R&D and slowly transitioned out. I know that it’s tough these days because people seem to find out about everything that is meant to be a secret, but in the end this seemed like the only way to do the job amidst an uncertain future.
desmond
Aug 5, 2016 at 3:36 pm
I thought Callaway did the best job in responding.
Dead Fish
Aug 5, 2016 at 12:47 pm
TM’s comments are the worst. Forget about there losses year after year that is driving the selling of the brand. Let’s just focus on the M line and how only 1% of their products are actually profitable…
Lloyd
Aug 6, 2016 at 5:45 pm
I agree funny how taylormade has made this comment about them selfs & not Nike
The Truth
Aug 4, 2016 at 11:50 pm
Tiger will be gaming an all Wilson Staff bag! You heard it here first.
Hold it, that lag
Aug 5, 2016 at 1:13 am
Seriously?
Joey5Picks
Aug 5, 2016 at 3:30 pm
Seriously.
A Boy & His Golf
Aug 5, 2016 at 3:13 am
I think you’re joking but it could happen. Wilson Staff make some super beautiful
Kent
Aug 5, 2016 at 8:06 am
What would rally be neat following your lead would be If Tiger found and won a tournament with a Wilson Golf Ball, it would be the Tiger Duo…
Mike Honcho
Aug 5, 2016 at 11:11 am
I heard he was going full bore with Nickent.
Marcel
Aug 5, 2016 at 2:15 pm
Well Roger Federer sports Nike and plays with a wilson racquet…
Mat
Aug 4, 2016 at 6:07 pm
Ping and Titleist declining to comment. It might seem silly, but I admire them for it.
Matto.
Aug 4, 2016 at 7:44 pm
Same. Ping’s reply was particularly dignified.
Mat
Aug 4, 2016 at 10:59 pm
And Cleveland. Don’t want to leave them out.
birdy
Aug 5, 2016 at 10:40 am
its actually pretty interesting to see how ceo’s reply. ping and titielist have reputation of letting the products speak for themselves. taylormade has reputation of being over the top braggidoshish we are the best ever attitude….and it comes across in their reply. some companies say no comment….while pxg decides to do a sit down question and answer. haha complete opposites. i like mizuno’s response the best.
Justin
Aug 8, 2016 at 3:46 pm
Classic Titleist move….they decline to post prices for nearly all of their equipment in the Golf Smith and Worldwide Golf Shops catalogs I receive in the mail. It’s funny to me because their drivers are consistently the shortest when compared to most other brands. It certainly helps to have Vokey and Scotty on board and I wonder where they’d be without them.
On a similar note…. it’s funny to me how Scotty’s putters never rank high in testing done by another website (rhymes with fly golf high). I’ve always thought his putters rolled the ball very well and wonder if their is a subconscious anti-bias
ooffa
Aug 4, 2016 at 4:40 pm
Nike = Vapor
Max
Aug 4, 2016 at 4:12 pm
Would love to see one of those players switch to Mizuno irons!
Tim
Aug 4, 2016 at 4:44 pm
Bingo, Mizuno makes amazing irons and even with them updating about every two years the older irons hold up in play-ability very well (like Ping Eye-2’s) if you have never hit Mizunos out on the course you would be in for a treat…
Judge mental
Aug 4, 2016 at 4:10 pm
Victims of their own success by production of new models ,upgrades every few months .
Joe public will spend hard earned money on the latest products ,thinking they got something special…..
Then a new model arrives soon after …very frustrating!!!!
Dave
Aug 4, 2016 at 8:02 pm
Anyone that spends their “hard earned” money on new clubs as soon as they come out needs to have their head examined. Wait six months save 60%
john
Aug 5, 2016 at 1:56 am
this attitude (albeit realistic and brought on by the manufacturers themselves) is killing the golf equipment sector.
birdy
Aug 5, 2016 at 10:41 am
its called the free market….and i love it
Jack
Aug 5, 2016 at 4:16 am
Yup. Whose fault is it that you’re (2 levels up) constantly fooled? Fool me once…
Dead Fish
Aug 5, 2016 at 12:30 pm
If that was the case TM would be packing their bags and not Nike. Its more accurate to say “victim of riding Tiger’s glory”. Really Nike was never relevant until Tiger, never popular or in the conversation until Tiger. Since Tiger has been gone, the sales have shown, Nike sank, and really fast. However; it isn’t all bad. Nike is still probably the undisputed leader in sports apparel and shoes. I’d say Nike is easily the #1 shoe in the world much like FJ is the #1 shoe in golf…
cwt
Aug 4, 2016 at 4:08 pm
Interesting to see how aggressive Puma’s response is, given that their demographic most closely resembles that of Nike.
Marty Moose
Aug 4, 2016 at 5:03 pm
Was thinking the same thing. Once Rickie leaves, Cobra/Puma will be in the same boat.
COGolfer
Aug 4, 2016 at 11:37 pm
It’s been quite a long time since Cobra has made a club worth gaming.
Jack
Aug 5, 2016 at 4:22 am
Yeah they are kinda like Nike. Can’t seem to quite get the look right. But their latest drivers are pretty good. I don’t think any of the cobra irons look great. You can say good or decent, but that doesn’t sell. Nike clubs are very avant garde on their players irons. Their MB played by Tiger is just flat out ugly (placement of the logo etc). I hope they didn’t let him design it (which is what I think happened). I like their forward looking designs, but never really bothered trying them, as there doesn’t really seem to be an improvement over other designs.
birdy
Aug 5, 2016 at 10:42 am
you couldn’t be more wrong….cobra has caught and beginning to surpass other brands in technology and performance…something nike failed to do.
M-Herd4
Aug 8, 2016 at 2:35 pm
I gotta chime in on Cobra Golf equipment. I played Ping for years (woods & irons) and noticed over the last few that I wasn’t hitting the ball as far as I thought I should even on center strikes. So I tested other brands and decided on Cobra FLY-Z’s (again, woods & irons). After taking a few rounds early in the season to get used to them I couldn’t be happier. I’m hitting the ball much further. They feel, sound & look great. I was able to order them with my custom specs right off of the Cobra site and was also able to upgrade to premium shafts at no extra charge. I’m hitting the ball better at 46 than I have over the last 10 to 15 years and enjoying the game much more too.
Dj
Aug 4, 2016 at 3:57 pm
Callaway- gross.