The exodus from Nike has officially begun. We saw Brooks Koepka play a TaylorMade M2 driver at the Ryder Cup. We saw Patrick Rodgers switch to a Scotty Cameron putter at the Safeway Open. And now Rory McIlroy is hitting TaylorMade M2 woods and a driver at the HSBC Champions in China.

As we have mentioned before, Nike is getting out of the club-making and ball-making business, and players are now free to go wherever they want now. McIlroy actually said he might test some different companies out for a while back during the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

"We'll see where we go from here," said McIlroy who also switched to a Scotty Cameron putter during the FedEx Cup Playoffs. "I'm not going to commit to anything. I wouldn't be surprised to see me not go with manufacturer for a year or two, just sort of play with what I want to play, play with what I'm comfortable with, and go from there."

But now it appears that TaylorMade, which also sponsors Jason Day and Dustin Johnson (the top two players in the Official World Golf Rankings) is first up. And why not with the numbers McIlroy is hitting on TrackMan, as noted by Chris Solomon of No Laying Up.

McIlroy is carrying these clubs 330 yards. Carrying!

It will be interesting to see where McIlroy ultimately lands with his equipment deal. He is the biggest fish (by far) of the non-Tiger Woods crowd, and companies will likely pay obscene amounts of money for him to be in their stables of golfers. Will he continue on down the path of a mixed bag like this week in China or will he sync up his entire bag like before with Nike?

This will probably be the most fascinating equipment subplot (that doesn't include Tiger Woods) over the next few months and possibly years.