Rory McIlroy Delivered Twice As Much For Sponsors In 2011 As Tiger Woods

Even though prize winnings at big-time golf tournaments continue to rise, the vast majority of money in the sport is still made off the course. Golf Digest released its list of the highest-earning golfers of 2012 today.

Thanks to the performances of wunderkinds the likes of Rory McIlroy, the game of golf is no longer relegated to wheeling and dealing executives or retirees.

Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational yesterday to reclaim the No. 1 spot in the world golf rankings.

When Rory McIlroy recently replaced Tiger Woods as Nike Golf's highest-paid endorser, it felt like Nike was prepping golf's torch to be passed from one generation to the next. And Nike's newest commercial shows that they believe McIlroy can indeed replace Tiger.

Well, that didn't last very long! After one shaky round of golf, Rory McIlroy dumped his Nike putter for his old Titleist-made Scotty Cameron putter.

Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy about to kick off their season in Abu Dhabi. Yesterday, we brought you their new Nike ad together. Today, we bring you another example of them being very close. They were both paid fat appearance fees to show up in Abu Dhabi. As such, they have to do some goofy stuff to appease the sponsors.

It's officially official. Rory McIlroy has dropped Titleist, Oakley, et al for Nike. He's going to be using Nike gear across the board — Driver, irons, putter, ball, hat, sneakers, etc. Below is the first ad for McIlroy. It's him and Tiger Woods on a range going shot for shot. It's a good ad, and it's a lot like the old Michael Jordan-Larry Bird ads from back in the day.