EXCLUSIVETiger Woods’ ‘unique’ first Nike deal ‘raised the bar’ for entire golf world, his former agent Hughes Norton tells Daily Mail, as he lifts the lid on negotiations with sportswear giant in new tell-all book, ‘Rainmaker’
EXCLUSIVETiger Woods’ ‘unique’ first Nike deal ‘raised the bar’ for entire golf world, his former agent Hughes Norton tells Daily Mail, as he lifts the lid on negotiations with sportswear giant in new tell-all book, ‘Rainmaker’
Hughes Norton was Tiger Woods’ agent when the icon inked his first Nike deal
Norton’s tell-all book, Rainmaker, is released in the United States on March 26
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Tiger Woods inked one of the most unique sponsorship deals in sports when he struck the deal that set up a 27-year, $500million partnership with Nike, his former agent Hughes Norton says.
Woods, 48, confirmed in January that his iconic partnership with the sportswear giant had come to an end after 27 years.
The 15-time major winner began wearing the Swoosh when he was just 20 with the brand providing the golf legend his famous Sunday red looks and gifted fans with legendary commercials.
And it was Norton, the super agent who represented Woods along with a number of the game’s biggest names, including Greg Norman, who was the architect of the most infamous partnership in golf.
In his new tell-all book, ‘Rainmaker: Superagent Hughes Norton and the Money-Grab Explosion of Golf from Tiger to LIV and Beyond’, co-written with former Golf magazine editor George Peper, Norton divulges the behind-the-scene details of striking the deal.
Tiger Woods started wearing Nike when he inked a $40million deal with the brand in 1996
oods, 48, confirmed in January his partnership with the sportswear giant had come to an end
He had worn the iconic Swoosh for 27 years
Hughes Norton, Woods’ agent at the time, lifts the lid on the negotiations in his book, ‘Rainmaker’, which hit shelves on March 26
Norton, who first met Woods when he was just 13 and was alongside him for his first-ever major win at The Masters in 1997, reveals in ‘Rainmaker’ that as he began to lay the foundations of the golfer’s multi-million-dollar career he decided to put all of his ‘eggs in two baskets’: Nike and Titleist.
Pitching Woods to Nike’s then-director of sports marketing Steve Miller as a generational talent, Norton hedged his bets and declared that an offer in the region of $50million over five years would be enough to get Woods walking the course with the Swoosh across his cap.
Recalling the negotiations in ‘Rainmaker’, which hit shelves in the United States on March 26, Norton explains that Miller first balked at the figure.
But it clearly wasn’t too much of a deterrent as the Nike chief came back with a compromise any agent would have dreamed of settling for: $40million – $8million a year – over five years.
And the cherry on top? It was all guaranteed before Woods had even stepped on the tee as a professional. So was the $20million deal he struck with Titleist.
Even if he missed every single cut or lost his Tour card, Woods was set for life, before he even hit the age of 21.
Norton tells Mail Sport that it was one of the biggest successes of his two-and-a-half-decade-long career with IMG.
‘It was so unique that somebody who had never hit a golf ball as a professional, before he stepped on the first tee, would be guaranteed $60 million,’ he says.
‘By that, I mean even if he had he missed every cut for the rest of his career, for at least the first five years that money was in the bank guaranteed.
