Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods were in N.Y. yesterday promoting
Nike's new Vapor iron line with a little help from NBC's Jimmy Fallon. The two golfers appeared together on NBC's "The Tonight Show," with Fallon noting, "I am here with two of the best golfers on the planet." Fallon said to Woods, "Tiger, I saw on your website, you issued a statement that due to your back injury, you will not be swinging a golf club for the rest of this year." Woods replied, "That is kind of true." Fallon said "that has got to be a bummer" and asked, "What are you doing for the back?" Woods: "Chasing after two little kids." Woods noted he needed more physical therapy and to "get stronger," with Fallon saying, "You got to get stronger? You can't get any stronger! Look at you, man." Woods then gestured to McIlroy and said, "This little guy over here hits it for miles, kicking everyone's butt." Later in the broadcast, all three were shown holding the new irons. Fallon said, "These are brand-new.
Nike knows how to do it. Oh my gosh, always inventing something new." He asked, "What's the big difference with these clubs because you guys had a hand in help making these." Woods noted the clubs have been redesigned but Fallon would use the "bigger head" club because it has a "little more forgiveness." Fallon said McIlroy had some of the prototype clubs "in your bag this summer" during the British Open and they "worked out pretty good for you." McIlroy said
Nike is "always really forward-thinking and looking for new ways just to make golf clubs better, and they've really done it with this.” Fallon and McIlroy then played a game called "Facebreakers," where they had to chip balls at windows with their face on it, trying to break the glass with the other person's image on it (
"The Tonight Show," NBC, 8/18).
PLAYING AS A THREESOME: GOLFCHANNEL.com's Jason Sobel reports McIlroy, Woods and Fallon following "The Tonight Show" taping appeared together at a "Nike launch party at Liberty National Golf Club." McIlroy and Woods wore "matching black hats imprinted with the word 'VAPOR'" and sat alongside Fallon, who emceed the event, "on a stage set with the Manhattan skyline as a backdrop." They spoke "in concert about the benefits of the clubs, from hitting them longer distances to dialing in more preferable spin rates." McIlroy and Fallon then gave the irons their "first public test drive" (GOLFCHANNEL.com, 8/19).
