#DARRENROVELL ON TWITTER

SPORTS BIZ SLIDESHOWS

» More

NFL's 10 Most Underpaid NFL Players
Here's our rundown of the best bang for the buck in the league.
Best Cheerleading Squads
Top cheerleading squads generate revenue for their teams even after the NFL season ends.
Best-Selling NFL Jerseys
So, which NFL jerseys are this year’s best sellers?

SPORTS BIZ VIDEO

» More

DARREN ROVELL'S SPORTS INDEX

ABOUT SPORTS BIZ

Darren Rovell brings you his unique take on the business of sports: a multi-billion dollar global industry and obsession full of personalities and products. On Sports Biz, Darren will give you his up-to-date take on everything from salaries to endorsement deals to marketing and promotions, trades and tirades – in short, everything that makes sports so exciting.

Sports Biz

Text Size

Feb.27

9:43 AM ET

Friday, 27 Feb 2009

For Nike, Tiger Never Lost

Posted By:Darren Rovell

Sectors:Retail | Food and Beverage | Media | Personal and Household Goods

Companies:Nike Inc | Under Armour Inc

Never has a sports star returned from major surgery with so few doubters. After an eight-month absence, Tiger Woods was a heavy 4-to-1 favorite to win the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship. So it was a bit of a shock when Woods lost in the second round yesterday to Tim Clark.

But it seems like the folks at Nike [NKE Loading... () ] are going to roll on as if Woods didn't lose. As of Friday morning at 9 a.m. ET, the Nike Golf Web site still showed what shirts Woods will be wearing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I'm not sure where he's wearing these shirts, but if you see him on Sunday at the supermarket, he'll be in a "TW Dri-FIT Texture Men's Mock-Neck Golf Shirt." He'll also be wearing a black version of his new hat, which we didn't see on Wednesday or Thursday.

NIKE

As of now, Nike's brilliant new "Tiger's Back" commercial will continue to run on the broadcast today on the Golf Channel and on NBC throughout the weekend. It's a great spot, but given what happened yesterday, I think it's probably a bit awkward now.