TIGER WOODS IS WEARING HIS “SUN DAY RED” INSTEAD OF FIXING A LOST SPORT
The rancor remains between PGA Tour traditionalists and LIV traitors, while the Phoenix Open turned into a war zone, yet Woods showed up at Riviera hawking his new apparel brand — detached from Nike
How much time has passed since his comeback at Augusta National? Five years. We’re approaching 28 since he turned pro in the sport he transformed like no other, before scandalizing it with bimbos and nearly dying in an SUV crash. The PGA Tour continues to be rocked by the Saudis, who want to keep caviar-feeding Jon Rahm even as baseball owners invest billions into something still run by Jay Monahan.
It’s an odd moment for Tiger Woods to be modeling new clothes. We want him to fix the game, recalling how his father always pointed to his leadership. But instead, he is escaping his Nike relationship and starting his own premium lifestyle brand. It’s called “Sun Day Red” because, back when he won his 15 major championships, he wore the famous fire frontal as encouraged by his mother. He lives by the “Rule of Three” phrase, such as “work hard, think hard, play hard,” which is why he separates the Sun and the Day. The logo on his wear includes an extended tiger with 15 stripes.
“What are we going to do when I win my 16th major?” Woods asked.
“We’ll add a stripe to the tiger,” said David Abeles, CEO of TaylorMade Golf.
He cut a deal with the equipment company, including his own business unit near his boyhood home in Orange County, while his apparel line includes golf shirts, caps, hoodies and outerwear beginning May 1. This week, Woods will wear the active garb at Riviera Country Club, in the Pacific Palisades niche of Los Angeles for the Genesis Invitational, though we’ll be looking at his feet and wondering if the right ankle is OK after he severely injured it in the 2021 accident. So far, he is trying early shoes, and Sun Day Red will include footwear next year that will cost $200-plus. Because Tiger fans always have loved his wardrobe — though it no longer includes the swooshed ball — some will buy the fresh stuff and pretend they’re him in the day. Tuesday at practice, he wore a black pullover, a black shirt, a black hat and white pants, while swinging a new TaylorMade 3-wood.
A polo shirt? Spend $135.
“Sun Day Red — it’s me,” Woods said. “It’s just become synonymous with me.”
“This is a day you’ll look back on 20 years from now,” said Fox’s Erin Andrews, who hosted the event and spoke to the crowd.
Will we? What happened to Nike? Will we ever know when some golfers, such as Scottie Scheffler, have been wearing it this season? Did Nike, which once treated Woods like a god, grow tired of his problems off the course? No one has said, so far. “It’s the right time in my life,” he said. “It’s transitional. I’m no longer a kid any more. Life changes, I have kids now, and this is an important part of transitioning into this part of my life, to have a product and brand that I’m proud of going forward.”
The question isn’t whether the brand will work — but how long Woods will keep playing competitive golf. How sorry that Phil Mickelson, since revealed as an LIV Golf traitor, was the oldest player to win a major at 50 years and 11 months — and Woods is too unhealthy to contend. At present, he hopes to play once a month, which would allow the Genesis in February, the Players Championship in March, the Masters in April, the PGA Championship in May, the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July. At 48, his days of playing anything near a full schedule are long over. If you wish to see his attire, including the cashmere hoodie he wore in introducing the brand, you’d better see him play the pro-am Wednesday and the first two rounds Thursday and Friday.
Otherwise, these days, Tiger Woods probably won’t make the cut. He will sell the threads. “There are things that I could tell you that no one knew I was doing over the years,” he said. “I’m ready to share those secrets with the world.”
What we’d prefer is his attempted takeover of a ravaged tour. The baseball people are only trying. Strategic Sports Group — including controlling owners of the Boston Red Sox, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers, with help from the Atlanta Falcons and Boston Celtics — won’t chase away the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia with $3 billion in help. A Senate subcommittee is looking into the contract between Monahan, the PGA Tour commissioner, and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan. That could take months. Meanwhile, a torn golf public awaits the majors knowing PGA traditionalists are sick of Monahan and tired of Rory McIlroy, who has reversed and thinks LIV defectors should be invited onto the PGA Tour.
“They have to show the players change is coming for the better, and not this sort of stale sandwich we’ve been eating for quite some time,” Xander Schauffele said.
“You had some guys that left our tour and then sued our tour. That wasn’t really in good taste,” Scheffler said.
To date, Woods only jumped on a phone call and told players he was fine with the $3 billion, including $1.5 billion to players as equity owners. “As the tour grows, we grow,” Woods said per Golf.com. “So the more we invest into the tour, the more we get the benefits of it, which has never been — it’s never happened in sports history. So we’re the first. Exciting for me to be able to be part of that.”
Meanwhile, players are arriving at peaceful Riviera after surviving the brute force of the WM Phoenix Open. Long known as the party hub of the Tour, the drunkenness went berserk last weekend with episodes involving players and fans. You can have some fun but not invite more than 200,000 to party.
There was Zach Johnson, the Ryder Cup captain, telling a heckler, “Don't 'sir' me. Somebody said it. I'm just sick of it. Just shut up!”
And there was Jordan Spieth, pointing into the stands after dropping his club. “What the f—?” he said.
And there was Billy Horschel, upset at fans bothering competitor Nicolo Galletti: “Buddy, when he's over the shot, shut the hell up, man. Come on, he's trying to hit a damn golf shot here. It's our f—ing job.”
A lot of F-bombs were hurled as a woman fell out of the stands at No. 16 and was rushed to the hospital. This is golf, with booze and boos? Unless the tournament wants golfers to stay home, massive changes must happen with alcohol and the number of admissions. “I don’t know what the line is, but you have people falling out of the rafters, you have fights in the stands,” Johnson told the Arizona Republic. “It’s to the point where now, how do you reel it in? Because it’s taken on a life of its own. I’m assuming they’re ashamed. Because at some point, somebody’s either gonna really, really get hurt — or worse.”
The creators claim to be listening. “We have 365 days to fix this. I think that you will see a complete operational change of how we manage, really, our Friday and Saturday, but the entire week,” executive director Chance Cozby said. “We're very proud of what we've built. I think, we've been tournament of the year on the PGA Tour five of the last seven years. But we don't like what happened on Saturday.”
Yo, Phoenix. You never were a tournament of the year. You’re a psycho bin. Again, here comes Tiger Woods to honor us with his presence. Might he slay some demons in Scottsdale? Inside LIV Golf? For now, he’s interested in Sun Day Red. “For the first time in 27 years, wearing something different …” Andrews said.
The game has devolved. So has he.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.