Sponsorship and Golf

Can you imagine Woody Austin, missing a putt, bashing himself over the head with his putter, and then taking a pull on bottle of Pepto that his caddy hands him. Then the announcer says, “Pepto Bismol, it soothes over the rough patches.”

Watching the players at this past weekend’s Memorial, it suddenly hit me how many players are sponsored by fairly surprising companies. When I think of golf sponsors, I tend to picture equipment manufacturers (TaylorMade, Titleist, and Ping, among others) and investment companies (because golfers all have money, right?). But there are plenty of others that don’t at first seem as well suited to golf.

We don’t see sponsors like Roy McAvoy’s in Tin Cup – “Look at me. I’m playing for… Rio Grande Short-Haul Trucking, Brink and Brown Sanitation, First State Bank of Salome, Wally’s Smokehouse… You think a guy like me bothers to think about the percentages?” – but I kind of wish we did. Still, there are some surprising sponsors out there.

Sponsoring a PGA player can be a pretty good move for a company that wants to reach a targeted market (i.e. golf fans), provided the golfer gets television time (i.e. contends) and the logo is prominent enough that we notice it during the few seconds that it’s on. Why would a company chose a golfer over, say, a NASCAR racer? Golfers tend to be business oriented. Without sponsorship from businesses, the PGA Tour would be a pale imitation of its current self. From the corporate hospitality tents to the logos on the players shirts, business has a large footprint at any PGA Tour stop.

The logic of a driver manufacturer sponsoring a long driving tour star is obvious. If Joe Public sees said player bust a 350-yard drive with the manufacturer’s driver, that club will likely experience a slight jump in sales that week at golf shops around the world, and a slight jump can mean a lot of money. But what of some of the odder sponsors… why would they choose to sponsor a golfer.

Player sponsorships and commercials during a golf tournament reflect the needs of business (and the age of typical fans, hence the Viagra ads). There are lots of b2b (business to business) ads in golf, while most other sports tend to have more consumer-oriented sponsorship. That’s why there are so many technology and banking sponsors on during golf.

While some sponsors seem appropriate to their players others are sometimes hard to fathom. Here’s a few that piqued my interest at the Memorial.

Hole Five: Briny Baird and P.F. Changs
Love the Lettuce Wraps, but P.F. Changs seems an odd sponsor for a PGA Tour player, at least at first. In reality it all goes back to the link between golf and business. What do business people do when the want to entertain a client? Right. They take them golfing. And then they take them to dinner, maybe a little Mongolian Beef will help to close the sale.

You’d think a restaurant would want to go for someone with more of an outward appearance of a good eater… say, maybe Tim “Lumpy” Herron or Kevin Stadler. At least Briny wears that big straw hat to call attention to the logo.

Hole Four: Mike Weir and Thomson Reuters
Case in point of the b2b angle of golf: Mike Weir’s sponsorship by Thomson Reuters, “the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals.” Good thing they chose to advertise in golf because it would be hard to read all that on a race car going 200 mph.

Of course, if Weir ever needed a sponsor, I’m sure the Canadian tourism board would step in. Weir has become a national hero of Canada, especially after beating Tiger last fall in the Presidents Cup.

Hole Three: Justin Rose and Tradition
Justin Rose has a whole series of interesting sponsors once you get past the ubiquitous TaylorMade and Adidas logos (Rose, by the way, pronounces it AH-dee-doss). The first one that caught my eye was Tradition. At first I thought it might have been a golf resort, but it turns oth that Tradition is the Interdealer Brokering arm of Compagnie Financiere Tradition and the world’s third largest Interdealer Broker in over-the-counter financial and commodity-related products. Whew, that just got really boring.

Rose has several other sponsors including the Golfers Club (“the UK’s largest golf membership scheme”) and 4Sports & Entertainment (“the leading Swiss sports management agency” which handles all of Justin’s commercial affairs).

Wouldn’t it be apropos if FTD sponsored Rose?

Hole Two: Boo Weekley and Mossy Oak
Perhaps the best match between sponsor and player is Boo Weekley and Mossy Oak, the camouflage company. Weekley has stated that he only wants to stay on tour long enough to make sufficient money that he can hunt and fish for the rest of his life. I can understand, though in my case I’d like to earn enough to golf the rest of my life. Frankly, Boo is much closer to his goal than I.

I half expect Weekley to turn up with a Skoal patch one of these weeks. It would seem like a natural. En route to Carnoustie last year, Weekley and his caddie packed 50 tins of dip. That’s a bit much for a week if you ask me.

Perhaps the PGA Tour forbids such sponsorship… though Retief Goosen is sponsored by an alcohol company (Grey Goose, the world’s most over-hyped vodka).

Hole One: Jerry Kelly and Wolf
That “Wolf” logo on Jerry Kelly’s chest is not a lifestyle statement, it’s an advertisement for an upscale appliance brand. The Wolf brand includes cook tops, ovens, microwaves, warming drawers, grills, and more. Last year, Kelly wore Wolf’s sister brand, Sub-Zero, which makes refrigerators, wine storage units, and freezers.

Grills and wine coolers are not a bad match for Jerry Kelly. A cheesehead who seems to enjoy himself pretty much all the time. Do brats taste better when cooked on a $2,000 gas grill? Maybe not, but you sure look good grilling.

All Photos © 2008 The Sand Trap .com.