Implications of Pros playing equipment not made by their sponsors

[Nico]

Most guys have a specified number of clubs from their sponsor in the bag. I believe the Tour have a rule defining a minimum number,I am sure I read it somewhere.

Mostly they are free to choose whichever putter they want tho.

It is tru tho that most Tour Pro's have their clubs built by people like Miura. I know he did the TM stuff for Goosen and I am pretty sure he was doing DC as well.

 

[HTL]

I have heard of the Miura stuff, will Google them now and see what they are up to. Have never seen any gear reviews on them?

 

[DanS]

Most of the sponsorship deals aren;t what they seem. Even when the player has the manufacturers clubs in the bag they are not the clubs we could go into a shop and buy. As meantioned in the previous reply, most pros are playing clubs forged by Miura, even those playing cavities.

 

[McCojac]

Also is it not rumoured that Tigers Nike Irons are in fact a top of the range Japanese Companies with the Nike swoosh/ logo put on to them.

 

[billyg]

There's some interesting stuff in Feinsteins book about the majors on this, there was a couple of pro's who had signed to use X club from their sponsor and couldn't get on with them so went back to using their old equipment.

A fantasic author for anyone interested in the tour side of things.

Back OT - wasn't there a bit of a hoo har similar to the VJ incident with TW a few years ago? Couldn't hit one straight with a Nike driver so went back to a trusted old Titleist? Nike didn't like it but what can they do apart from dock him a fee?

I'm sure that sponsorship deals are bespoke with more high profile players having a greater say in the terms and conditions.

Putters are probably the last true watermark of genuine tour player preference IMHO. No player interested in becomeing more than a journeyman is going to compromise on the 'dough' club are they?

I'll make a guess that the biggest bucks come from the bag and cap branding as the former is the largest surface and the latter the most filmed/photographed.

Lets not forget the role of an agent in this process either.