The amazing story behind Tiger Woods' iconic Nike juggling commercial

pulse

December 27, 2017 7:50 PM

Tiger Woods' most iconic commercial was an accident and only happened when the director accused him of choking

It wasn't that long ago that Tiger Woods was the world's most marketable athlete, annually ranking at or near the top of the list of the world's highest-paid athletes.

But for all of Woods' endorsement deals and commercials, there is one commercial that stands above them all — The famous juggling-golf-ball commercial for Nike, which first aired in 1999.

The commercial is simply Woods juggling a golf ball with a wedge for 28 seconds, fast, slow, between his legs, behind his back, and he finishes by hitting the ball out of mid-air down the range.

But the iconic commercial almost never happened, and even after the idea was born, it might have still failed if not for Tiger's fierce competitive fire.

On the day the commercial was shot, Woods was actually at a driving range filming a different commercial for Nike, Chris Zimmerman of Nike told NBC's "Dateline" in 2000. In that commercial, a bunch of hack golfers suddenly become awesome on the driving range just by being in the presence of Woods. Once he leaves, they suddenly revert back to their lack of golf ability.

Zimmerman goes on to explain that it was during a lunch break while filming that commercial that Woods was killing time by juggling a golf ball.

It was actually

There was no trick videography or computer animation used to make the commercial. In fact, Woods actually failed on his first three attempts, according to Zimmerman. Here are the outtakes for the first three attempts, aired on "Dateline."

That was when Liman started to get frustrated and actually accused Woods of choking.

tiger woods golf ball juggle

This post first appeared on BI in 2015.

pulse