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Meet the young guns of golf

Rickie Fowler

Rickie Fowler this year won The Players Championship, the Deutsche Bank Championship and the Scottish Open, proving that the 26-year-old is finally matching his golf game to his marketability.

Fowler was the PGA Tour’s Rookie Of The Year in 2010 and in the same year became the youngest American

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member of a Ryder Cup team at age 21. But until this year, Fowler had only two professional wins. Now, with his three wins in 2015, Fowler has a total of five professional victories and a top-five world ranking that makes his already strong brand more attractive to sponsors.

“It has been an evolution,” said Fowler’s agent, Sam MacNaughton of Wasserman Media Group. “We were fortunate to strike up a relationship with Puma when they were a young upstart brand in our sport and they took a risk almost sight unseen to align the brand with a then Southern California kid leaving college early.”

It was a deal that merged the edgy Puma brand with the floppy haired Fowler, who had a penchant for motocross, flat-billed hats and bright Dreamsicle orange outfits.

Today, Fowler still has that sartorial style and deals with nontraditional golf endorsers such as Red Bull on one end of the marketing spectrum and more blue-blood brands such as Rolex and Mercedes-Benz on the other end.

“We are protective of Rickie,” MacNaughton said. “We build partnerships that have a natural connection and are authentic for him.”

Though Fowler is one of the most marketable players, there is opportunity to add to his already strong endorsement portfolio.

“There are a few gaps,” MacNaughton said. “We don’t have a major banking or financial institution or a technology partner and those are categories you would like to fill.”

With more than 1 million Twitter followers, Fowler is active on social media, mostly because of his own efforts. But that too is changing as MacNaughton creates a specific digital media strategy. “It was something he did naturally in that generation, but in phase two of his evolution, it is increasingly important,” MacNaughton said.

But don’t look for Wasserman management to offer any suggestion that Fowler pull back on his need-for-speed personality that has made him attractive to young fans in a sport known for its older demographic.

“He is maturing at a clip that is appropriate in all phases of his life,” MacNaughton said. “When he turned pro in 2009, it was not a 20-week endeavor, it was a 20-year endeavor.”



Jordan Spieth

Winning the Masters, U.S. Open and Tour Championship, as well as three other PGA Tour events in 2015, has rocketed 22-year-old Jordan Spieth into superstardom. His runaway success includes the record $22 million he has earned this year, including the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus that he won last month.

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While Spieth’s stardom may now transcend golf, his down-to-earth style and reliance on his close-knit team of advisers make certain that “Brand Spieth” is handled with a deliberate strategy.

“Jordan is genuine and there is nothing fake,” said Spieth’s agent, Jay Danzi, who as president of Lagardère Sports keeps a careful eye on all things Spieth.

The year began with a bang for Spieth when in January the Dallas native signed a 10-year deal with Under Armour, a company that took a chance on the then unproven Spieth when he left the University of Texas to turn pro in 2013.

Then came the Masters win in April and the ensuing rounds on morning talk shows that made Spieth a household name nearly overnight. He went on to win the U.S. Open in June, three other PGA Tour events, and the Tour Championship and FedEx Cup title to close out the 2014-15 season.

Spieth will sign new deals, but not as part of some money grab. He signs deals only with companies he feels

comfortable with, despite the crush of new opportunities placed before him. His current roster of endorsements includes Under Armour, AT&T, Titleist, SuperStroke, NetJets, Rolex, Golf Digest and Perfect Sense.

Spieth is clear that his success is part of his team’s effort. His inner circle includes Danzi, caddie Michael Greller, swing coach Cameron McCormick and trainer Damon Goddard. His father, Shawn Spieth, owns MVPIndex, a company that tracks social media reach. Spieth typically ranks among the top three golfers on social media, along with Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.

All of those team members are integral as the golfer navigates his fame.

“Jordan talks a lot about his team and about what he wants to accomplish,” Danzi said. “There are positives and negatives that have to be understood in what he is going to have to face and how we want to build his brand.”



Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy recently dropped out of the top spot in the World Golf Rankings, and the 26-year-old hasn’t won a tournament since May. But take the long view of McIlroy’s marketing power.

He is a two-time PGA Tour Player of the Year winner and has won the British Open and U.S. Open, and the PGA

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Championship twice, to give him four majors by the age of 25. Those winning ways allowed McIlroy to launch golf’s current youth movement and demonstrate that there could be life beyond Tiger Woods.

While this year hasn’t been as successful on the course as in the past, McIlroy won the World Golf Championships event and the Wells Fargo Championship in May before injuring his ankle just before the British Open in July.

He also held on to his No. 1 world ranking for most of 2015, a ranking that has to please his blue-chip roster of sponsors that includes Nike, which in 2013 signed McIlroy to a 10-year deal reportedly worth more than $200 million. Last year, EA Sports replaced Woods with McIlroy as the cover boy for the company’s PGA Tour video game.

But those accomplishments have come with some bumpy business issues for McIlroy. When he turned pro in 2007, McIlroy signed with IMG. He then left to sign with Horizon Sports in 2011 before splitting from the company in 2013 to create Rory McIlroy Inc., with Donal Casey named as chief executive officer of the management company.

It was a messy divorce from Horizon, with both sides suing the other before reaching a settlement early this year.

Casey declined to comment for this story, but the creation of RMI, which also includes McIlroy’s father as a board member, gives McIlroy great control over his brand.

That’s a brand that continues to resonate with young consumers. For a case in point, look back to when McIlroy injured his ankle while playing soccer with friends this year. Like any true member of the millennial generation, McIlroy posted photos of the damaged ankle on Instagram.



Jason Day

Unlike Jordan Spieth’s meteoric rise on the PGA Tour, Jason Day’s journey to golf’s No. 1 world ranking was filled with many a near miss, with only two wins in eight years on the PGA Tour before 2015.

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But the 27-year-old’s season this year has brought a freight train of success with five PGA Tour wins, including the PGA Championship where he beat Spieth by two strokes to capture his first major.

Now the native Australian will likely have his pick of blue-chip sponsors to add to a portfolio that includes Concur, TaylorMade, Lexus, RBC and NetJets. Day also has a deal with a nutritional supplement called swingOil that includes an equity stake in the company.

Day is protective of his life outside the game with his wife and son, and that family dynamic plays a big role in building his brand.

“There is no small percentage of people who want to get into the Jason Day world,” said Bud Martin, Day’s agent who helps run Wasserman Media Group’s golf division. “Jason is just hitting his stride to the top of the totem pole.
For him, his family and the game come first and we are conscious of how much time these [corporate] relationships require. Having him happy at home feeds everything.”

Until his breakthrough 2015, Day, who turned pro in 2006, was perhaps better known as one of the PGA Tour’s best players to never win a major. But his remarkable run this year revealed his marketability fueled not only by his spectacular play but also his story of overcoming a tough childhood in Australia to rise to the top of the PGA Tour.

“There have been lots of opportunities presented to him,” Martin said. “But if I have said it once, I have said it one

hundred times — we like our relationships to be lifers.”

Under Martin’s guidance and through Wasserman, Day is launching his own website, but pushing Day’s presence on social media is a deliberate process.

“We understand that there is a need for it and a fan base you can touch, but I’m a little old school,” Martin said. “I realize it’s an opportunity but I’ve seen multiple guys run into problems with it. We are in a much better leverage situation than being the 105th golfer in the world with a Twitter account and a website and then you look up and you don’t have a tour card.”

For Martin, representing Day is far more about taking a long view in managing his career than grabbing the latest deal on the table.

“There is no rush,” he said. “We are looking at 10 years minimum. Jason is very good in the spotlight and on the corporate side of it. He is the captain of his ship.”



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