For the new year, we’ve seen Nike Golf introduced their new Lunar Control 4 golf shoe as well as their new line of Vapor Fly equipment. Along with new products come new athletes that will join the Nike golf roster, most notably Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau, along with 12 others from around the globe.
Brooks Koepka, who is ranked 16th in the Official World Golf Rankings, is a 25-year-old three-time All American who competed at Florida State University before joining the Challenge Tour in Europe, where he won four events. On the 2015 PGA Tour, Koepka was a top-ten finisher in driving distance, won the Waste Management Phoenix Open title and finished T-5 at the PGA Championship.
Tony Finau turned pro in 2007, upon graduation from high school, where he also exceled at basketball — at 6’4” he is among golf’s tallest players and his cousin is Jordan Brand athlete Jabari Parker. In 2014, after competing on the Web.com Tour, Finau earned his PGA Tour card for the 2014-15 seasons. The all-around athlete is currently ranked number two in average driving distance on the tour and finished T-14 and T-10 in the 2015 U.S. Open and PGA Championship, respectively. He’s definitely a rising star in the sport – expect him to make some noise in 2016.
Joining Koepka and Finau on Team Nike this year are Lucas Bjerregaard (Denmark), Pan Cheng-tsung (Taiwan), Ashley Chesters (England), Trevor Cone (US), Tim Crouch (US), Marcus Kinhult (Sweden), Tom Lewis (England), Denny McCarthy (US), So Hye Park (Korea), Hunter Stewart (US), Joshua White (US) and Rumi Yoshiba (Japan). The post-Tiger era is definitely slowly taking shape at Nike Golf and led by these young rising stars, particularly Rory McIlroy.
Source: Nike Inc.
