At this point, every time Tiger Woods tees it up and competes, it becomes appointment television for golf lovers and sports fans around the world. It has been 27 years since Woods turned pro, but few celebrities or athletes have his star power, and it is fair to say that nearly every shot he has hit since he won the 1997 Masters has been photographed or captured on television.
Golf equipment lovers have always paid close attention to the gear Woods plays, from the days when his bag was filled with Mizuno irons and Cleveland wedges with a Ping putter, to today, with 13 TaylorMade clubs and his trusty Scotty Cameron putter.
Take a look at the gear the 15-time major winner has used since 2010.
At the 2010 Players Championship, Woods used a set of Nike VR Forged TW Blade irons. The VR stood for “Victory Red” and carried through most of the Nike equipment line. Frank the headcover was already famous in 2010, but some people may have forgotten that Woods used a Kiwi cover on his 3-wood as a tip of the cap to his then-caddie, Steve Williams, who is from New Zealand.
In 2010, Woods played Nike’s Tour ONE ball, and each of his were marked “TIGER.”
By the time Woods arrived at the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, he had been using a customized Scotty Cameron for Titleist Newport 2 putter for over a decade.
At the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews, Woods said that because the greens were especially slow, he was going to use a Nike Method putter. Tiger said the ball came off the face faster. However, Woods switched back to his Scotty Cameron putter before the fourth round.
Before the 2011 Masters, Woods tinkered with a different Nike Method putter that had a more rounded back section. He used it in all four rounds of the tournament.
Perennially one of the best iron players in the game, Woods opted to go with a Nike VR_S Forged 2-iron at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral in 2012. Woods often switched between the 2-iron and his 5-wood based on course conditions.
Before the 2012 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, Nike put Tiger’s apparel for the week on display in Union Square.
Tiger enjoyed practicing in his Nike Free running shoes so much, he asked the company to make his golf shoes in the same style. Nike studied how Tiger swung his clubs, then took a sole designed for a boot made for first responders and attached it to the flexible running shoe’s upper. After a few modifications and feedback from Woods, the Nike Free TW ’13 was released in 2012.
While Tiger did not make any changes to his irons in 2013, he did start playing Nike’s VR_S Covert Tour driver and fairway woods.
Throughout much of 2013, including at the PGA Championship at Oak Hill, Tiger used this customized Nike Method 001 putter.
In 2015, Tiger tinkered with different shafts in his Nike Vapor Speed driver. While the standard Vapor and Vapor Pro drivers each had a 460-cubic-centimeter head, Tiger’s had a 420cc head.
The Nike Vapor Pro irons debuted in August 2014, and Woods added them to his bag in 2015. In a conversation at the iron’s launch in New York, Woods said that for the past few seasons, Nike had added tungsten to the toe of his irons to shift the ideal hitting area into the center of the face. The Vapor irons incorporated the same construction.
After Nike announced it no longer would make clubs and balls, Woods signed a golf ball endorsement deal with Bridgestone in December 2016 and started using the company’s Tour B XS ball.
After signing an endorsement deal in January 2017 with TaylorMade, Woods used a TaylorMade M2 driver.
Back injuries and multiple surgeries sidelined Woods for most of 2016 and 2017. He played a few events in early 2017 using old Nike VR Forged Blades but missed all four majors because of injuries. When Tiger returned to action in December 2017 at the Hero World Challenge, he arrived in the Bahamas with a set of irons that did not have a manufacturer’s name on them. They did, however, feature Tiger’s new corporate logo.
Woods switched into TaylorMade’s M3 driver at the beginning of 2018 and played it throughout the season.
In 2018, Tiger added a prototype set of irons to his bag that were made by TaylorMade. The TW Phase1 was a muscleback blade shaped and styled like his previous irons. At several events he added a TaylorMade RSi Forged 2-iron to his set.
In 2019, Tiger’s TaylorMade irons became available at retail under the name P7-TW, and he added a set to his bag. He also started using a TaylorMade M5 driver and 3-wood. His TaylorMade M3 fairway wood and Scotty Cameron putter remained.
Tiger added a new TaylorMade wedge to his bag at the 2019 British Open, a prototype of the Milled Grind 2 with a unique milled sole grind.
Tiger showed up at the 2023 Hero World Challenging with a TaylorMade Qi 10 LS driver.