Tiger Woods will finally make his return to competitive golf this week at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas - an exclusive 18-player tournament hosted by Woods himself - but Nike's decision to pull out of the golf equipment business has left Woods with some tricky decisions about what should be in his bag.
Woods, like fellow Nike athlete Rory McIlroy, has been testing a TaylorMade driver and woods, and he plans to use them in competition. Woods will keep Nike irons in his bag, according to ESPN, and he's making a switch to a Bridgestone golf ball.
Via ESPN:
"The most important thing is the ball. Once you find a ball, then you can work around everything else. The ball is No. 1. The most important club in the bag is the ball."
Woods had been using Nike balls since the summer of 2000, when he switched from Titleist.
"I'm nervous for every tournament I play in, whether it's after a layoff, or six in a row, or a major. I care. If I care, I'm nervous. And it's good to be that way."
Woods will be a part of a loaded field in the Bahamas, which features six of the top 10 players in the world (Dustin Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Jordan Spieth, Hideki Matsuyama, Patrick Reed and Bubba Watson) - and it's impossible to know how Woods will perform. He seems to finally be healthy, but he pulled out of multiple tournaments earlier this year after admitting his game wasn't competition-ready.
It wouldn't be unreasonable at all for Tiger to finish dead last - but as long as he manages to play all four rounds without suffering another setback, it'll be a massive victory for the 14-time major champion.
