Tiger Woods is one of the richest and most successful athletes in the world. The man has won 15 major championships in his career and is sponsored by the biggest brands; Nike being one of them. Woods has a lot of fans and supporters in the community. However, some of Woods’ golfer friends haven’t been friendly with him at times.

Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson once took at Woods and his sponsor Nike calling out their equipment as “inferior”. Mickelson has made a lot of controversial statements about many influential athletes as well as organizations in the past. He also recently made a few unexpected comments about the PGA Tour recently before he joined the rival LIV Tour.

But what made Mickelson speak so about Nike and the equipment that Tiger Woods uses? Was it a personal attack on Nike or was it just Mickelson being the sadistic speaker he usually is?

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Mickelson takes a shot at Tiger Woods and his Nike equipment

During an interview with Golf Magazine, Lefty mentioned getting along with Woods pretty well and said they don’t have issues with each other.

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But as soon as he confirmed having no issues, he said, “Well, maybe one. He hates that I can fly it past him now. He has a faster swing speed than I do, but he has inferior equipment. Tiger is the only player who is good enough to overcome the equipment he’s stuck with.’

Mickelson recently got a new driver from Titleist and is hitting balls longer than ever before. Notably, his comments made Nike furious as the golfer said that the only thing holding Woods back is his “inferior” equipment. In the words of an official, it gave Nike some “locker-room bulletin-board material”.

Nike’s response to Mickelson’s comments on Woods’ Equipment

Infuriated, Nike responded to Mickelson regarding his comments on their equipment. The president of Nike golf Bob Wood said, “I really question the wisdom of Phil Mickelson calling Tiger Woods out. This is a guy who has never beaten Tiger in any significant tournament, and this is what he believes, what he says? That’s a laughable assertion.”

Later, Mickelson clarified his statements about Nike and his ‘dear friend’ Tiger Woods. Lefty said, “As I’ve said many times, I have great respect for Tiger, I also have respect for any manufacturer,… my remark was absolutely not intended as a knock on any other manufacturer.”

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