There's A Rumor That The Friendship Between Tiger Woods And Rory McIlroy Was Just A Ploy To Recruit McIlroy To Nike

Nike has released its first commercial since Rory McIlroy became the company's highest-paid golfer, and it appears to play on the budding bromance between two of the world's best golfers.

But according to a source for Dan Patrick of "The Dan Patrick Show," Tiger's friendship may have just been an effort to recruit golf's biggest endorsement free agent...

"Tiger may like Rory, and vice versa. But I was told by a smart person, Tiger was budding up to Rory because he wants Rory to take the baton from Tiger for Nike Golf...they just seemed way to chummy. Because Tiger is just not that way. I mean, he's got a couple of friends. But he was overtly friendly with Rory and Rory is kicking his butt [on the golf course]...Then I placed a call to somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who said 'Oh yeah, Tiger [was] recruiting [Rory] to sign up with Nike."

Rory signed a deal with Nike Golf in November worth $200-250 million.

The immediate question that comes to mind is: why would Tiger want to share the mantel as the face of Nike Golf?

Maybe it was an effort to pay back one of the only companies that stood by his side after the off-the-course troubles. Or maybe Tiger recognizes that the antagonistic rivalry he had with Phil Mickelson will no longer fly as his popularity wanes.

But considering how private Tiger has always been, and the lack of relationships he has shared with his rivals, the sudden friendship between the 14-time majors champion and the 23-year-old endorsement free agent-to-be was certainly curious.