Golf: Tiger Woods and Nike separate, the end of an era after 27 years of partnership

American golfer Tiger Woods announced this Monday on

Regularly injured, the 48-year-old golf icon has only won one major tournament in the last 15 years, in 2019. He is currently 883rd in the world rankings.

Tiger Woods said he was “lucky” to have been able to form this partnership in 1996, and thanked Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, and the employees of the brand with the comma.

“People will wonder if there will be another chapter,” the golfer tweeted, appearing to refer to a partnership with a sports equipment manufacturer. ” Yes. There will be a new chapter. » We should have new information for a partnership by mid-February and its participation in the Genesis Invitational, for its first tournament in 2024.

The golfer received $500 million from the equipment manufacturer

Nike has sponsored Tiger Woods since he turned professional in August 1996, at age 20. The American brand relied on Eldrick Tont Woods, its birth name, to fill golf caddies, a sport in which it had, until then, been a fixture for more than a decade. Shoes, clothing, bags, clubs and balls, Nike has become a major player in this market.

According to an AFP estimate, based on financial documents, the Nike Golf division has since generated more than $10 billion in revenue, peaking at $791 million in 2013.

For his part, the golfer with 15 major tournament victories received around $500 million from Nike, according to estimates. His last contract, signed in 2013 for ten years and $200 million, expired last year.

The end of the story between Nike and Tiger Woods is also the end of a legendary outfit, the “Sunday Red”: he always wore a red Nike polo shirt on Sunday, the last day of the tournaments, to bring him luck. It remains to be seen whether he will continue to wear red afterwards.