Charlie Woods has signed his first NIL (name, image, and likeness) deal—a golf club and ball deal with equipment manufacturer TaylorMade.
Woods, 17, is a high school senior in Florida and is committed to play golf for Florida State next year. He has already been mostly using TaylorMade equipment, which his father Tiger also plays with, during junior competitions. Under the new agreement, Woods will play a TaylorMade driver, fairway woods, irons, wedges, and ball. Like his dad, the younger Woods uses a Scotty Cameron putter (Tiger uses a Bridgestone ball). The deal was announced Friday just ahead of Labor Day weekend, as Woods competed in the Junior Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass, where he finished tied for eighth.
TaylorMade has several other NIL deals with amateur golfers, including the highly-ranked Miles Russell (who will also play at FSU next year) and Kai Trump. While partnering with Woods may be immediately profitable due to his identity, many golf companies use NIL deals simply to get a head start on signing the best players once they turn pro.
This marks the first NIL deal for Woods, who signed with an agent in February—Allen Hobbs of Players Management Group. Hobbs represents PGA Tour players like Will Zalatoris, Jackson Suber, and Ben Kohles, among others.
TaylorMade is the parent company of Sun Day Red, the apparel brand Tiger Woods launched in 2024 and Charlie Woods has worn frequently as a teenager. But the younger Woods will be wearing Nike during competitions at Florida State, which has a longstanding apparel contract with The Swoosh for all of its sports programs. College golfers are not required to wear their school’s apparel in non-NCAA events.
It would seem like a no-brainer that Woods would eventually sign an apparel deal (perhaps after college) with Sun Day Red, which has just one official endorser besides its co-founder, Karl Vilips, who signed with the brand ahead of his rookie PGA Tour season in 2025. TaylorMade and Sun Day Red CEO David Abeles told Front Office Sports earlier this year that the long-term plan for Sun Day Red is to “build a wonderful unified team, much like we have at TaylorMade.”
PGA Tour star Tommy Fleetwood has worn various Sun Day Red items this year as he’s been an apparel free agent after his Nike deal ended last year (his lone new deal is wearing a hat with the logo of private equity firm Blackstone).
