Tiger Woods’ press conferences over the years have ranged from boilerplate to masterclass with his 2019 pre-Masters Tournament edition trending more towards the latter.
The standard Q&A, which somehow encompassed more than 25 minutes of seemingly already-known information, was the reason Woods’ shirt was the biggest headline to emanate from his trip to the media center on Tuesday.
Woods had been practicing in a normal Nike golf shirt for most of the morning, and he switched back into it following his meeting with the media, yet while he was on the dais, he donned something different: a new Nike polo that featured prominently Frank, the name Nike gave to his patented tiger-inspired headcover in the early aughts.
It’s been more than a decade since golf fans have seen Frank in any kind of public setting — aside from on Woods’ driver, of course — so when USA Today’s Steve DiMeglio, one of the best and most ardent Tiger chroniclers on the golf beat, asked Woods what the logo on his shirt was, he didn’t even catch the reference.
“Tiger, what’s the logo on your shirt?”
“It’s Frank.”#themasters pic.twitter.com/lLNF39OdT8
— Masters Tournament (@TheMasters) April 9, 2019
The shirt was the first piece of a marketing blitz put on by Nike Golf in which they will roll out “The Nike Polo.”
Not surprisingly, the shirts were put on sale as soon as Tiger hit the press room to “Nike Members,” according to a company representative who talked to Golf.com’s Jonathan Wall. Retailing at $75, the shirts went quickly, but found their way onto the secondary market nearly as fast and at an over 500% upcharge.
Other styles were teased, including a shoebox logo and the fictional Finau1 shoe logo.
Tiger isn’t the only guy with a custom @Nike polo this week. Rory McIlroy’s has a small Nike shoe box stitched on. pic.twitter.com/HKi7ADyDGS
— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) April 10, 2019
You can view the shirts and the still-available styles on Nike’s website.
