TaylorMade Golf Company, maker of the most played driver on the PGA Tour for 16 years and counting, announced today the addition of two players to join their expanding roster of athletes in 2016: Jon Rahm and Jordan Niebrugge. Their additions further bolster what is widely considered the most dominant Tour staff in the industry.
Jon Rahm
Jon Rahm joins Team TaylorMade after ending his amateur career as the #1 player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking, perhaps the most notable accomplishment for an amateur player. He was also a member of Team Europe at the 2015 Palmer Cup and was the winner of the 2015 Mark H. McCormack Medal. During his senior season at Arizona State University, he won four times, including the Pac-12 Championship and the NCAA Albuquerque Regional. In totality, Rahm’s 11 career college victories at ASU rank second in program history.
Rahm (@littleJRmaza) made his debut on the PGA Tour at the OHL Classic at Mayakoba where he finished T10 against a notably strong field. Since then, he has played in three other PGA Tour events, finishing as high as 5th (’15 WMO). As the 2016 Jack Nicklaus Award winner, he beat the Nicklaus Award winners from other collegiate divisions to earn the right to play in the PGA Tour’s 2016 Barbasol Championship, which will be his fifth career start on Tour.The long-hitting 21-year-old sensation recently made college golf history when he became first two-time winner of the Ben Hogan Award, awarded to the top player in college golf.
A few of Rahm’s most notable accomplishments at the collegiate/amateur level include:
2015 & 2016 Ben Hogan Award winner
2016 Jack Nicklaus Award winner
2015 Mark McCormack Medal winner
Low Amateur at ‘16 U.S. Open (T23)
Back-to-Back Winner of Spanish Amateur
4 PGA TOUR starts (including two top-10 finishes)
First-Team All-Pac-12 honors ’13-’14 & 14-‘15
Having played in the U.S. Open as an amateur, Rahm will officially make his professional debut this week at the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD. In addition to wearing adidas Golf apparel and footwear on Tour, a look at his current WITB*:
M2 Driver / 10.5* / Aldila Tour Green 75X
M1 Fairway / 15* / Aldila Tour Green 75X
M1 Rescue / 19* / Graphite Design DI 8X
TP MB (’14) Irons / 4-PW / Project X 6.5
TP Wedges / 52*, 56* & 60 / Project X 6.5
Tour Preferred X Golf Ball
Jordan Niebrugge
Jordan Niebrugge (NEE-brew-ghee) joins Team TaylorMade after a remarkable four-year run at Oklahoma State University where his accomplishments put him alongside the best players in program history. A finalist for the 2016 Byron Nelson Award, Niebrugge (@jniebs5) will depart OSU as one of the most decorated players in Big 12 conference history.
The 22-year-old former Oklahoma State standout is currently 13th in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. In addition to his final WAGR, Jordan culminated his amateur career ranked 5th on the Scratch Players Ranking, which along with the WAGR are the two most respected amateur rankings. Niebrugge’s rise began in the summer of 2013 when he won the Wisconsin Match Play Championship. He followed that up by stringing together a historic amateur winning streak that included victories at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, Wisconsin State Amateur, and Western Amateur.
Playing in one of the strongest fields anywhere in the world, Niebrugge finished T6 at the 2015 Open Championship at St. Andrews, taking home the silver medal for low amateur. His 277 stroke total was the lowest score by an amateur in the history of The Open Championship. Despite popular opinion that he could turn pro and immediately succeed at the next level, Niebrugge returned to OSU for his senior season to finish his degree in Entrepreneurship and Sports Management.
Additional awards and accomplishments earned by Niebrugge include:
2016 Byron Nelson Award Finalist
2015 Silver Medalist – The Open Championship
Two-time Walker Cup Selection
Made PGA Tour debut at 2014 John Deere Classic (T27)
Big 12 All-Conference 1st Team (’13, ’14, ’15 & ’16)
PING Honorable Mention All-American (’13, ’14 & ’15)
Academic All-Big 12 (’15)
Along with Rahm, Niebrugge will make his professional debut at the Quicken Loans National wearing adidas Golf apparel and footwear while playing a bag filled with TaylorMade clubs*:
M2 Driver / 9.5* / Graphite Design Tour AD GP 6X
M2 Iron (3), PSi Tour Irons (4-6) & TP MB ’14 (7-PW) / KBS Tour 130X
Spider Mallet Putter
Tour Preferred X Golf Ball
*subject to change
Niebrugge, along with Rahm, join a Tour staff that already includes four players in the top 15 in the world (OWGR): Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose, Sergio Garcia, and world number one Jason Day.
‘Following their tremendous amateur careers, we are delighted to welcome Jon and Jordan into the TaylorMade family as the newest members of our Tour staff,’ said Chuck Presto, Senior Vice President, Global Sports Marketing. ‘We look forward to watching them both shine on golf’s biggest stages while playing the best performing golf products in the world. It’s an exciting time for all as they embark on the next stages of their respective careers and we couldn’t be happier to have them on the team.’
