This Rock star doesn’t enjoy the limelight
His name is Rock Ishii. His world is all about rubber compounds, trajectories and dimple patterns.
It’s in this insulated space where he feels most comfortable. But recently, thanks to a Nike ad campaign with Tiger Woods, Ishii became more than a behind-the-scenes engineer who makes golf balls. He turned into a Rock star of the golf world, someone recognized at courses, unable to keep the low profile he once had.
This world, one he had previously seen only from a distance, is one he’s not so comfortable with.
“It’s kind of a funny feeling. I’m just an engineer,” Ishii said in a phone interview as he drove toward Magnolia Lane at the Masters this week. “I’m kind of a hands-on guy and I’m getting more people on my team, but I like being by myself, measuring numbers, cutting the golf ball out or measuring materials. That’s what I like and I want to keep it that way.”
That’s not going to happen anytime soon with the success Nike’s had with the magazine ad campaign.
The idea was to include engineers in ads for the company’s new Slingshot irons and ONE golf balls, give the public an idea of the technology that goes into it, put a face on the once-faceless engineers who create these technological wonders.
Nike went with club designer Tom Stites for the irons. Ishii was the obvious choice for the ball campaign.
As Nike’s lead golf ball designer, the Rock is the one who creates Tiger’s rocks, so to speak, making sure the spin, flight and even sound are just to the 10-time major winner’s specifications. Ishii travels to Woods’ Florida home several times a year during golf’s off-season to test out new balls, get feedback, then head back to Nike’s Oregon headquarters to work his magic.
Their latest collaboration resulted in the redesigned Nike ONE Platinum and Nike ONE Black balls.
Ishii started off designing clubs and balls for a Japanese golf company after getting his master’s degree in engineering in 1989, then moved to the United States in 1993 and worked with PGA Tour players such as Nick Faldo, Nick Price and Lee Janzen.
Ishii joined Nike in 1998 and not long after that started working on Project Tiger, creating the balls Woods used when he switched from Titleist in 2000. Woods didn’t know a whole lot about golf ball design when he started working with Ishii, but was a quick learner.
“That was a pretty good challenge for me because when I talked to him about the project he was more like a feel player, not a database player,” Ishii said. “But now he is and that’s a great part for me. He’s a smart guy and he remembers every single data we take.”
The collaboration has worked out for Ishii and Nike Golf as well.
Woods knows his swing and his equipment so well that he can tell Ishii if a ball spins too much or doesn’t hold its line in the wind. Ishii takes Woods’ feedback to the lab, tinkers with the design, then creates a ball that Tiger and golfers around the world can use.