Golf Video of the Week: 10 Best Tigers Woods TV Commercials

This week I was looking for the best golf commercials, but I was soon overtaken by the sheer number of Tiger Woods commercials out there… Nike, Buick, Gatorade, Electronic Arts, you name the sponsor and they all take advantage of their shoot time with Tiger. Without further adieu I present to you the 10 Best Tiger Woods commercials brought to you by thegolfmap.com

1. Tiger Wood ‘Trick Shots’ – Nike – ‘Nike Golf’ // I would argue the single most impactful commercial in the history of golf. Period. This commercial launched Nike into the world of golf (which changed the entire marketing of the game; encouraging millions of kids who had wanted to ‘Be like Mike‘ to now wanting to believe that ‘I am Tiger Woods‘). This commercial created a new industry for Nike, and a new icon for the sport of golf. Tiger Woods became a household name following this commercial series (obviously his golfing has a lot to do with his ability to remain popular too!). PS. I’ve tried this on golf courses many times and still can’t come up with a sequence quite like what he does in this commercial.

2. Young Tiger Woods Wins British Open – Nike – ‘Just Do it’ // I’ve seen concepts like this before (namely by adidas when they inserted Muhammad Ali running alongside modern athletes including NBA star TMAC however seeing lil Tiger, Mom, and Dad all seamlessly integrated into this commercial made me wonder if he had actually won the British Open when he was twelve (he didn’t btw). Add the soundtrack (used flawlessly in the movie Rushmore too) and this commercial almost took top spot.

3. Tiger Woods ‘Swing Portrait’ – Nike – ‘nikegolf.com’ // Definitely the second most aired commercial (aired on TV anyways) in this line-up, I think it’s incredibly well shot, lit, scored and edited. It’s filmic and interesting. I’ve never seen it in HD but Nike should have a site dedicated to this Tiger Woods golf swing sequence footage. The same way discovery channel has HD videos or the way NASA has galleries of galaxies, those examples and this tiger footage are all worth watching a few times over.

4. Tiger Woods ‘Never’ – Nike – ‘Just do it’ // Sometimes commercial give you chills this is one of those commercials. With Tiger’s father Earl doing the voiceover talking about encouraging tiger to become the focused champion that he now is. This is like a great, mini, nike commercial version of an Errol Morris documentary. Keeps me glued to it the same was I was glued to The Fog of War. On a lighter side I have a feeling that Tiger would dominate staring contests in a similar fashion to his domination on the golf course.

5. TIger Woods ‘Walk on Water or Jesus Shot’ – Electronic Arts // I didn’t see the original Jesus Shot viral video before I saw this commercial. So, I didn’t realize that this EA commercial was actually a response to this original Tiger Jesus shot video. Good on EA for recognizing the popularity of the original video… the result is EA’s video having been watched over 4 million times (the original is still shy of 1 million views).

6. Tiger Woods ‘Moonshot’ – Gatorade // This commercial makes the list probably because the latest comment on youtube (as of this post date) was and I quote ‘Wouldn’t he be dead when he raised his visor?’. The commercial was ok, the comment was hilarious so for that we have number 6.

7. Tiger Woods ‘Trick Shot Bloopers’ – Nike – ‘Nike Golf’ // I’m pretty happy that Nike decided to release this footage as a follow up to the original ‘Trick Shot’ ad. I like seeing Tiger miss, it makes him seem a little more… well… mortal I guess. Good enough for number 7 on the list anyway.

8 (the real one). Tiger ‘Caddyshack’ Woods – American Express – ‘Make Life Rewarding’ // Caddyshack has to go in history as one of the funniest movies ever, and since it’s a golf movie it gets a much more respect around our bloggers. Tiger pales in comparison to Bill Murray but his ‘Au Revoir Gophere’ and crazy banshee eyes as he plays with those toy rats are worth a giggle or two. Certainly worthy of number 8.

8. Tiger Woods ‘Fusion Power’ – Gillette – ‘Gillette Fusion Power’ // Now before you jump down my throat for including this commercial on my list here me out: A) I’m kidding. B) I hate almost every Gillette commercial I have ever seen and yet I am crazy loyal to their line of razors C) How is it possible for them to have so many top sports stars in their ads and they always put out garbage.

9. Tiger Woods ‘Welcome Back – Nike – “just do it.’ // I don’t think I’ve ever dreamed about being a professional golfer. I’ve just never had enough talent or drive to delusion myself into thinking I could be one of the world’s best golfers. I will tell you one thing though… IF I was a professional golfer, I gaurantee I would dream about not having to play against Tiger Woods. This commercial sums up that sentiment for everyone.

10. You tell me. // I never agree completely with lists that try to be definitive on the internet so I figure I better at least leave one spot up for grabs on the top ten list. I’ll revisit this post later and based on any comments we receive we’ll stick a number 10 in here. (This might be somewhat of a lazy move on my part but I’ve been watching a non-stop stream of Tiger commercials for hours now and I’m ready for bed).