{"id":433270,"date":"2025-02-11T08:41:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T13:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/?p=433270"},"modified":"2025-04-23T16:39:03","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T16:39:03","slug":"speculation-arises-after-dustin-johnson-and-taylormade-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/speculation-arises-after-dustin-johnson-and-taylormade-split\/","title":{"rendered":"Speculation Arises After Dustin Johnson and TaylorMade Split"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 18 years, professional golfer Dustin Johnson has officially<\/a> ended his sponsorship with TaylorMade Golf.\u00a0 This news comes off the heels of Johnson ending his relationship with Adidas which previously owned the well-known golf brand.\u00a0 Now what does this mean for Johnson and TaylorMade, and how are fans reacting to the news?<\/span><\/p>\n

Dustin Johnson\u2019s History With TaylorMade<\/span><\/h2>\n

Johnson\u2019s story with TaylorMade goes all the way back to 2007 when he first went pro.\u00a0 This was a sponsorship that made him an ambassador for the brand. All that is to say that throughout his career he primarily used TaylorMade club balls, as well as the branded hat.\u00a0 He continued to accept the sponsorship all through his PGA winning streak.\u00a0 Johnson has won 24 titles while with PGA Tour and managed to reach the No. 1 ranking for 135 weeks.\u00a0 He even stuck with the brand as he dropped the PGA in favor of LIV Golf during the summer of 2022.\u00a0 However, because LIV is not recognized by the OWGR Johnson has lost his position in the top rankings.\u00a0 Johnson has also had his influence in the sport diminished since this decision.\u00a0 LIV Golf seems to be where this sponsorship started falling apart.<\/span><\/p>\n

How and Why Is This Happening?<\/span><\/h2>\n

The how to this question seems to be on surface that Johnson just let the contract end.\u00a0 This also seems to be telegraphed in his appearances since he signed up with LIV.\u00a0 Since Johnson signed up with LIV he has been absent from TaylorMade marketing.\u00a0 Fans may have noticed that he has been wearing and using less TaylorMade equipment, opting in favor of gear with his team’s logo on it instead.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

One may speculate that he made this move due to the deal he made with LIV Golf being worth $200 million.\u00a0 With a deal like that, a sponsorship would be seen as unnecessary.\u00a0 TaylorMade is not the first sponsorship with Johnson that ended.\u00a0 When he first signed up with LIV Golf the Royal Bank of Canada dropped him citing the deal with LIV Golf.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Associations with LIV Golf have been controversial due to their relations with Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 Fans often criticize players and influencers<\/a> who associate with LIV for that very reason. Some have speculated that the same is happening with Taylor Made, but confirmation of that is purely speculative.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dustin Johnson Going Forward<\/span><\/h2>\n

Although he is no longer sponsored by them, Dustin Johnson is still using TaylorMade clubs.\u00a0 After 18 years of using them, he most likely has a preference.\u00a0 His LIV Golf team, 4Aces, is sponsored by the apparel brand Extracurricular, a brand that Johnson is working with.\u00a0 His presence on the golf scene may have diminished since joining LIV, but he seems to be doing fine for himself and will continue on his path.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main photo credit:<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 18 years, professional golfer Dustin Johnson has officially ended his sponsorship with TaylorMade Golf.\u00a0 This news comes off the heels of Johnson ending his relationship with Adidas which previously owned the well-known golf brand.\u00a0 Now what does this mean for Johnson and TaylorMade, and how are fans reacting to the news? Dustin Johnson\u2019s History […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4860,"featured_media":433279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,200],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-433270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-liv-golf","tag-dustin-johnson"],"modified_by":"yobodev","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4860"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}