Tiger Woods teases golf equipment move

• Tiger Woods teases venture in golf equipment industry
• The 40-year-old announced TGR, a new enterprise, today
• Equipment move more likely since Nike’s exit from industry

While Tiger Woods’ return to competitive golf continues to stall, his business off it has just taken one massive step forward.

Today, the 40-year-old has announced TGR, a new enterprise that ‘unites Tiger’s businesses within a single brand’, from course design, product development to hospitality.

And, once again, talk of entering the golf equipment business has surfaced.

In an interview with Fast Company, where Woods himself is quoted, a man who helped build the TGR brand has gone on record as saying a venture into the golf equipment industry is a ‘possibility at some point’, and has become more likely since Nike’s exit.

Read more – Tiger Woods to buy… TaylorMade?!?

The article reads:

“Woods has been closely associated with Nike for the last 20 years, and that relationship will continue. But in August, Nike announced that it would no longer make golf equipment, including the clubs that Woods has used throughout his career. That vacuum is sure to prompt speculation about whether TGR will start making golf gear.

“The Nike change opened a previously unplanned-for opportunity,” says Jeff Kempler, COO of Sub Rosa, the corporate strategy and branding firm that Woods hired to help develop his new brand. While there are no specific plans for TGR to enter the equipment business, Kempler says it’s a possibility at some point.”

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Interesting, especially given the rumours shortly after Nike’s exit from the golf equipment industry that Woods was considering purchasing TaylorMade, which has been put up for sale by adidas Group alongside Adams Golf and Ashworth.

Watch – Tiger Woods ‘flushes’ balls at clinic

But before golf equipment, it looks like TGR will be expanding The Woods, the restaurant that the 14-time major winner opened last August near his home in Jupiter, Florida.

“The is already in demand in several cities,” Tiger Woods told Fast Company. “We are evaluating which ones make sense if we expand.”

It is also believed that Woods’ design company, now called TGR Design, is looking at new opportunities in and around the USA.