Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy visit Jimmy Fallon to promote Nike and play games

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On Monday night, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy visited Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show.” Or, perhaps, that should read “Rory McIlroy visited Jimmy Fallon, and brought along Tiger Woods as a special guest.” Whichever, all three had a fine time, but it was clear McIlroy is the man of the moment.

The appearance was part of a Nike product launch, touting the new “Vapor” iron series, and included a pre-show media event at the Statue of Liberty. There and at the show, Fallon and McIlroy traded golf swings. Woods, still recovering from back surgery, indicated he won’t be swinging a club for at least another month.

Still, Woods was effusive in his praise of McIlroy, who in turn was gracious about Woods’ approval.

“We’ve seen him have runs like this before,” Woods said of McIlroy. “He made a wholesale equipment change and also at the same time made a few changes in his swing. It’s tough to make all those changes work at the same time, especially at the elite level. When he puts it together, he can get on hot streaks and runs like this. To win two major championships and a World Golf Championship, that’s tough stuff. That’s not easy to do and not many people have.”

“It’s a huge compliment for me to be compared with Tiger,” McIlroy said. “But I’ll never be able to do what he’s done for the game.”

He did one thing Woods didn’t do: defeat Fallon at his own game. Fallon famously topped Woods in a video game showdown, but McIlroy came out the winner in the FACEBREAKERS showdown. Conveniently enough, the trophy was already engraved with his name.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Facebook or on Twitter.

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